AUCKLAND – China’s foreign minister showed anger over the presence of protesters near a New Zealand museum President Hu Jintao was visiting prior to his tour of a laboratory that is working on treatments for HIV, SARS and other diseases.
Hu and his party, which includes Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, have been here since Saturday to sign a raft of technical agreements and to hold out promises to Wellington of a free trade agreement sometime down the track.
Although New Zealand officials voiced delight over the trouble-free nature of the trip so far, it appeared to hit a snag Monday when Hu headed off to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Foreign Minister Li, who arrived ahead of Hu, appeared to be angry with a pro-Taiwan protest group near the venue.
Just before the president was due to arrive at the museum Li was upset at the protesters being so close to the steps.
Li approached media waiting on the steps, demanding to know who was in charge and said he was due to meet Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Chinese reporters said Li was angry that the protesters, who were about 40 metres (yards) away, were so close.
Minutes later Clark arrived and was greeted by Li who carefully pointed her in the direction of about 400 pro-Chinese supporters.
Both Clark and Li waved at the supporters, many carrying large Chinese flags, but they ignored about 30 protesters calling for China to end its occupation of Tibet and about 100 Taiwanese saying Taiwan did not need nuclear missiles pointed at it.
Clark and Li chatted for a few minutes in front of the museum before Hu arrived and the wave to the crowd of Chinese supporters was repeated, with the Taiwanese and Tibetans again being ignored.
Hu later visited the Virionyx Corporation to discuss infectious diseases and anthrax.
In a statement, Virionyx said its scientists briefed Hu on current work on potential passive immunotherapeutic treatments for HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and West Nile Virus (news – web sites) and will shortly begin work on dengue fever and anthrax.
Virionyx chairman Peter Sullivan told the visitors the world needed to be prepared for the next SARS outbreak.
“There are real concerns SARS will re-emerge with the onset of the northern hemisphere winter cold and flu season.”
They could also fight West Nile Virus and dengue fever.
“Added to this, in these times of threats to personal safety and national security, we must also be in a state of preparedness against possible future bio-terrorism agents such as anthrax.”
Virionyx senior scientist Shangxiao Li told Hu that their success with an HIV drug had spurred them to look at other diseases for which there are no treatments.
“For example SARS, which behaves in a similar way to HIV and lends itself to emergency treatment with a passive immunotherapy to help sick patients get over the early stages of the disease,” he said in speech notes.
“What makes this so exciting is that these therapies could be available within 12 to 18 months.”
Clark and Hu held formal talks Sunday. The premier later told reporters that if the preliminary round of talks agreed on were successful, a free trade deal was possible later.
“We have expressed hope that the outcomes of the bilateral consultations and the establishment of a trade and economic cooperation framework could in due course see us exploring the possibility of a closer economic partnership between us,” she said.
An official with Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton said the hint of later talks was promising.
“It means we really are talking business,” she said.
