Some questions

As widely predicted Shane Jones has said he made the decision he did, to stop Liu being executed in China. 3 News reports:

As a minister, Mr Jones signed off on Yong Ming Yan's application to become a New Zealand citizen, despite officials telling him not to.

“I was told the execution of this man…that he would be executed…which is the reason the officials gave for him not wanting to go back to China.”

Mr Jones said declining it would have been like signing a death warrant.

Mr Jones says he was told that Mr Yan would be “jailed, executed and his organs harvested” if he was sent back to China.

Some questions on this claim:

  1. Who was this official who told him this? It wasn't by some chance was it, the brother of Shane Te Pou – the fundraiser who got paid $5,000 to help get Liu citizenship
  2. Does having citizenship in any way impact whether or not one can be extradited to China over the fraud charges laid against him?
  3. If one truly believes you face execution and persecution in your home country, don't you apply for asylum not citizenship?
  4. But if one applied for asylum, wouldn't that actually require some substantiation of the claims that he was and fearing for his life, with adjudication by an independent tribunal, rather than Ministerial discretion as with citizenship?
  5. Has Jones or Liu or anyone at all ever produced a shred of evidence that he actually faced anything in China except a fraud trial?

    Some other questions:

  6. Does anyone seriously think Liu would have been granted citizenship if he had not donated to various Labour MPs, who advocated so strongly on his behalf?
  7. Is anyone else curious about why Liu paid Labour Party fundraiser Shane Te Pou $5,000 to fill in a citizenship form for him? That's a lot of money for filling in a form.
  8. Is the more likely explanation that he paid Te Pou the $5,000, so Te Pou could use his political influence to get him citizenship.
  9. Is it a coincidence that Te Pou immediately introduced him to then Minister
  10. Is it also a coincidence that a donation to Dover Samuels election campaign was made from an unknown Chinese entity using the address of Daniel Philips, who is Shane Te Pou's brother and worked for Shane Jones

Mr Jones says he would be happy for any investigation to take place into his role in this matter.

Excellent. I repeat the call for a full independent inquiry into the Liu affair.  This should be an inquiry that has the ability to compel testimony from all parties involved, and obtain all relevant documents.

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