Chinese President Hu Jintao will not be shielded from protesters when he visits New Zealand in a fortnight.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said China’s most senior politician would be treated with dignity, but New Zealand was a free country and people had a right to express their views and have them heard.
Police had learnt a lesson from their handling of protesters during the visit of former president Jiang Zemin, Miss Clark said.
In 1999, police were widely accused of shielding the protest-shy president from having to see or hear protesters calling for China to leave Tibet.
During the visit police moved buses to block some protesters and moved others away from the roads travelled by Mr Jiang.
Police eventually apologised and paid compensation for wrongfully arresting a number of protesters.
Miss Clark doubted there would be a repeat of such behaviour from police.
“Everyone learnt from the Jiang Zemin issue and I hope the lessons will be applied,” Miss Clark said.
“We live in a democratic society. There will be protest where there are controversial issues and a way has to be found to accommodate that.”
Miss Clark felt police had properly handled the visit of Australian Prime Minister John Howard during the height of controversy about the Iraq war.
The Chinese would expect their president to be treated with respect and dignity and this would happen.
“But that doesn’t mean that no one will hear a protest,” Miss Clark said.
The programme for the visit is still being finalised.
Official talks and a state dinner will be held in Wellington over Labour weekend, with further talks in Auckland the following Monday.
There have been reports that the visit will pave the way for trade talks between the two countries.
Mr Howard recently announced that Australia and China will start talks on a trade agreement that could lead to a free trade deal between the two nations.
The Australian/Chinese talks are expected to take a very long time to bear fruit.
Officials in New Zealand said the possibility of trade talks was real, but a similar lengthy time frame was expected.
Mr Hu visits New Zealand after first travelling to Australia. The trip follows an Asian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) organisation leaders meeting in Thailand.
The Australians will be hosting United States President George W Bush and Mr Hu on successive days.
Mr Bush will not be making the hop across the Tasman, but Miss Clark said she hoped for an informal meeting at the earlier gathering of Apec leaders.
Mr Bush knew that he was “very welcome” in New Zealand, but Miss Clark said he was on a tight timetable.
New Zealand’s sometime rocky relationship with the United States was currently in “pretty good shape,” Miss Clark said.
