Percival, pioneer of NZ-China trade, dies in Auckland

Victor Percival, a New Zealander officially listed as one of China's 500 special friends of the 20th century, has died in Auckland at the age of 81.

In April 1997, the Chinese government published the Friends of China Directory. It contained the names of the 500 people the People's Republic of China considered to be its best friends in the 20th century. Mr. Percival was the only living New Zealander on the list.

Rewi Alley, who founded the Gung Ho movement in China, and Kathleen Hall, a nurse who worked with the Chinese military during the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930s, were also named.

The publication said Percival had been the pioneer trader in two-way reciprocal trade between China and New Zealand since 1956.

"He has established a useful and valuable reputation both socially and commercially with the people of China and on behalf of the New Zealand people and business."

Percival began trading with China in 1956 and made his first visit to the China Commodity Export Fair (in Canton, now known as Guangzhou) in 1957.

He was still putting deals together with China at the time of his death.

In 2008, when New Zealand signed the world's first country-to- country free trade agreement with China, the prime minister, Helen Clark, referred to Percival as "the man who started it all".

In November 2006, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao presented him with an award for his "magnificent contribution" to the Canton Trade Fair.

In the 2008 New Year honors list, he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to trade between New Zealand and China.

Percival's funeral will be held in Auckland on Saturday.

Source: Xinhua