Diplomatic disorder

One of Jacinda Ardern’s responses to the deteriorating relationship with China was to pledge that she would continue to exercise an independent foreign policy — implying it is somehow under threat. That is a rather heroic and fanciful interpretation of events that are becoming a serious worry in NZ’s relationship with China.

This is a diplomatic mess arising not from some David and Goliath contest but through a change in attitude to China, one which was never foreshadowed before the last election.

And Ardern has overseen the deterioration even it if has been the result of some cavalier actions of Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

Both Ardern and Peters have downplayed the cancellation by the Chinese Government of a delegation to celebrate China-NZ tourism year — it was just a dinner, she said, it had been organised by John Key, he said.

Peters described the relationship with China as excellent but he has been an irritant. A year ago Peters framed his Pacific Reset in terms of a response to counter China’s growing influence in the region. He ended the year with a speech in Washington practically begging the US to get more involved in the Pacific to counter China’s influence.

The ultimate test of exercising NZ’s independent foreign policy is not throwing ourselves into the arms of one or the other but in being able to manage relationships with both superpowers.