Xi’s Political Theories Receive Red Carpet Treatment at New Zealand Airport

Premium place of the airport bookstore in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. (Supplied)

A book written by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping is being sold in a prominent location at an airport bookstore in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital.

Multiple copies of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume Four” can be seen displayed in a highly visible location, according to a photo circulating on social media.

Mark H. Leo, the Twitter user who posted the picture, told The Epoch Times that he saw the photo and another image from a group chat on WeChat from a user named Ma Xiaojun.

A translation of the Wechat post states that: “Someone was travelling in a tiny city in New Zealand. After entering the airport bookstore, [he/she] was greeted head-on with an aura of leading the world. [They] asked the staff in the bookstore, who said it is a prime location that the [Chinese] embassy paid to occupy. It’s truly worthy of [the title of a] great nation,” reads the explanation in Chinese.

The Epoch Times notes that in recent years, the Chinese term “great nation (强国)” to describe communist China, has been featured regularly in CCP propaganda, including the “Study the Great Nation” app which is designed to indoctrinate young Chinese with Xi Jinping thought.

Studying the “thoughts” and writings of CCP leaders has become convention in China with leaders from Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping each documenting their ideas, adding them to Chinese communist doctrine, and pushing Chinese people to study them daily.

“Xi Jinping Thought” was first added in 2017.

Bookstore Denies Involvement from Chinese Embassy

A supervisor of the Relay bookstore at Wellington airport, who declined to give his name, confirmed that the bookstore is selling Xi’s books.

“There is a standard set up for the books, specifically for those books, I believe,” he told The Epoch Times in a call on Jan. 23.

However, the supervisor said it was unlikely there was any involvement from the Chinese Embassy.

“Because it seems unusual for a foreign government to be able to be involved in, when I just run a retail business, where we placed the books,” he said. “It seems unlikely to me.”

He did say the position of the books was to try encourage customers to buy them faster.

“In terms of the placement as to why it’s near the top 50, I think it’s just because it has been a slow seller for us for quite a long time, so we’ve just got some titles that are leftover that we’re trying to get rid of.”

The Volume Four of Xi’s books and the preceding ones, which were published in 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2022, respectively, have been in the bookstore for a while and have not been popular, he added.

“The book is definitely a few years old,” he said. “I remember seeing it on the shelf for a while.”

He said the books had only been in its current location for a few weeks.

“It’s relatively recent. It hasn’t been there for too long … probably a couple of weeks.”

The supervisor repeatedly emphasised that he was not clear about why the decision was made.

“You have to speak to a manager or someone above that,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the site manager and was notified that the inquiry had been passed to the company’s communications manager.

The Epoch Times also reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Wellington but has not received a reply at the time of publication.

CCP Presence Still Strong in New Zealand

The incident comes as CCP activities in New Zealand continue to come to light.

In late 2022, it was revealed that Beijing not only had an “overseas police station” in New Zealand, but it was linked to a Chinese businessman active in the country’s political circles and connected to the CCP’s United Front.

Chinese businessman Zhou Jiexiang was pictured with former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. (Wenhua Weekly)

The police “service stations” are one among 102 found to be operating across 53 countries.

The Spanish human rights NGO, Safeguard Defenders, says the communist regime uses the stations to monitor overseas Chinese community, and to “harass, threaten, intimidate, and force targets to return to China for persecution.“

The location of the police station in Auckland, New Zealand was found to be linked to Zhou Jiexiang, according to New Zealand’s Companies Register records. Zhou has been prominently featured in Chinese state media lauding the communist regime.