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.
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.
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.
CCP Presence Still Strong in New Zealand
The incident comes as CCP activities in New Zealand continue to come to light.
The police “service stations” are one among 102 found to be operating across 53 countries.
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.
