NZ says "sorry" on virus
By TANYA KATTERN, MARTIN KAY and GORDON JON THOMPSON
The Government has made a top-level apology to Chinese visitors to avoid a diplomatic incident after they were banned from a sister city convention.
At a hastily convened dinner last night, Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said organisers of the Masterton conference were wrong to ban the 43 delegates after more than 60 calls from residents worried about catching the severe acute respiratory syndrome.
He said they should not have bowed to public concerns that the delegates may spread the virus, which has killed more than 70 people worldwide.
"Can I . . . express my regret that you were not able to participate. It's not redneck or racist. It was an over-reaction in terms of the actual level of risk."
Mr Goff made his comments to the delegation last night at a dinner in a Wellington Chinese restaurant that aimed to ease tensions after the snub.
The ban had been greeted with fury by Chinese ambassador Chen Mingming – who learned of it while waiting to meet delegates on Wednesday night – and almost led to a diplomatic row.
He warned that the ban could have damaging effects for New Zealand's relationship with China.
"I don't think it's going to do any damage to our government-to-government relations . . . but I suspect it will have an adverse impact on the booming tourist flow between our two countries. People will feel that somehow the Chinese will be picked out for discrimination."
Mr Chen was still welcome to attend the conference, where he was to have been a guest speaker. But he boycotted it along with New Zealand's ambassador to China, John McKinnon, who was also welcome despite living in Beijing and travelling home through Hong Kong, an area most at risk from the virus.
Both men attended the dinner last night. It emerged yesterday that the ban was because of community alarm that some of the Chinese could be carrying Sars, a pneumonia-like illness that originated in Guangdong in November. More than 60 calls were made to Masterton District Council and conference organisers on Wednesday expressing alarm about the risk.
Sister Cities NZ president and former Hastings mayor Jeremy Dwyer said the ban came after some Masterton people indicated they would not provide catering, transport or accommodation for fear of infection, threatening the whole conference.
"I realise it is very embarrassing for the Chinese, and I'm sorry for that but we had to make the call. The level of anxiety within Masterton was very high."
Li Xiaolin, vice-president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said the ban was "unfair and unreasonable".
"We feel it's awful . . . How could you make this kind of decision – everyone has the possibility of carrying a disease. We have a population of 1.3 billion people, and very, very few, only about 1000, have this disease."
Madam Li said none of the 19 Chinese travelling with her came from Guandong, and only a handful came from areas where there was infection.
But Masterton Mayor Bob Francis said it was unfair to criticise the ban because the council was left to "make the hard call" on its own, despite asking for guidance.
Mr Chen said his embassy received calls yesterday from New Zealanders appalled by the ban, and several mayors had invited the groups to visit. Madam Li said her group would visit Rotorua and Auckland.
~ A Fiji rugby player who took part in last week's Hong Kong sevens competition is in hospital amid fears he has Sars, according to Fiji Television.
~ New Zealand Rugby Union deputy chief executive Steve Tew said the union was monitoring players who had returned from Hong Kong.