Whom should we count as our friends?
EMEMBER who your friends are.’’ Most often this is said in a reassuring way: a reminder that in tough times your friends will always be there for you. Sometimes, however, it is said as a warning, with the word ‘‘friends’’ placed between inverted commas. It would seem New Zealand is rapidly moving into one of those times. With ‘‘friends’’ like our socalled “Five Eyes Partners” New Zealand doesn’t really need enemies.
Consider the view of Majorgeneral Adam Findlay, described as one of Australia’s top military commanders, who warned an audience of Australian Special Forces personnel in April 2020 that Beijing was already engaged in “grey zone” warfare against their country, and that they should proceed on the strong assumption that this will escalate into actual conflict at some point in the [near?] future.
Now, just in case you were thinking of dismissing these daunting observations as the rantings of a bellicose Aussie boofhead, it might pay to consider the comments of “influential public servant”, Michael Pezzullo, who recently warned Australians that “the drums of war are beating”.
Seriously? Yes, seriously. When the person saying such things is the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, it would be unwise to ignore them. Especially when Australia’s very own Minister of Defence, Peter Dutton, is telling anyone who will listen that “a war over Taiwan cannot be discounted” and that Australia was “already under attack” from Chinese cyberwarriors.
Remember, these are our ‘‘friends’’— the people who accused our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of suckingup to the Chinese and betraying the Five Eyes ‘‘alliance’’.
Frankly, Beijing scares me a whole lot less than these loudmouthed, Aussie sabrerattlers.
Because, behind all the Washingtonsanctioned bombast, one detects the reckless militaristic mindset that allows wars to happen by accident. Because people very like these warhawks delivered very similar diatribes in London, Paris and St Petersburg; Berlin and Vienna; in the early months of 1914. (And that ended well!)
Thank God our own political, diplomatic and military leadership show no signs of the antiBeijing distemper currently afflicting Canberra. It is reassuring to know that New
Zealand’s ability to discern its own national interest is not degraded by this mania for a new cold war.
Before we pat ourselves too enthusiastically on the back, however, we should turn our eyes from our leaders and focus, instead, on the political campaign to undermine this country’s relationship with China by asking Parliament to condemn Beijing’s alleged “genocide” of the Uighurs of Xinjiang.
Genocide is one of those words that should be used with extreme care.
Attempts to define it are fraught with difficulty. Tragically, it is much easier to recognise its effects. When we gaze in horror at the Holocaust’s death camps, or see the swollen corpses of Rwanda, we know that we are looking at genocide. But, when we consider the fact that the
Uighur population of Xinjiang has grown from around five million in the 1980s, to more than 12 million today, we can be sure that whatever it is we are looking at, it isn’t genocide.
It is also advisable to look very closely at those who are making these claims. Earlier this week a representative of the Uighurs living in New Zealand, interviewed on RNZ, cited the research of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy as compelling evidence for their charge of genocide. But who stands behind New Lines? According to the Chinese newspaper, Global
New Lines has links to the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks the IIIT was raided by the FBI for suspected terrorist associations.
Given that the ongoing confrontation between Beijing and Xinjiang was originally sparked by the terrorist activities of Uighur Islamists and nationalists, the ultimate identity of those accusing the Chinese Government of genocide is, surely, an important detail? So, too, I would have thought, is the fact that Beijing’s aggressive programme of deradicalisation was inspired by the practices of Western powers engaged in the global war on terror.
Before our parliament votes on an Act Party motion, supported by the Greens, to condemn China’s “genocide”, it would, perhaps, be wise to ask itself two questions.
In this exercise, are the Uighurs the end, or the means?
And: Is this being done at the behest of our friends, or our enemies?
TODAY is Friday, May 7, the 127th day of 2021. There are 238 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1846 — The village of Te Rapa, on the shores of Lake Taupo, is buried in a landslip, with the loss of 61 lives; the first copies of Poems, by Emily, Charlotte and Anne
Bronte, are printed, published under the pseudonyms of Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell. Only two copies are sold.
1856 — Henry Sewell assumes office as New Zealand’s first premier. However,
Sewell quickly becomes unpopular and is replaced by William Fox two weeks later.
1862 — The horsedrawn ‘‘Dun
Mountain Railway’’, New Zealand’s first public tram service, begins operation, running on rails between the township of Nelson and its port.
1870 — The reading room of the Athenaeum, in Dunedin’s Octagon, is formally opened by Prime Minister William Fox.
1888 — Led by Dunedin mayor William Dawson, a mass meeting is held in the Princess Theatre protesting the influx of Chinese into the colony; George Eastman introduces his Kodak camera with the slogan: ‘‘You push the button, we do the rest’’.
1912 — Columbia University approves plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize (established by Joseph Pulitzer) in several categories.
1915 — A German Uboat sinks the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast. More than 1100 people perish.
1937 — The first recorded coasttocoast radio broadcast takes place in the US, with Herbert Morrison’s emotional broadcast of the destruction of the airship Hindenburg the day before. His commentary was not recorded live, but made while he watched a film clip of the tragedy.
1942 — Five people are killed when an aircraft crashes on a flight from Wellington to Nelson. They are the first civilian casualties on a regular passenger flying service in New Zealand.
1945 — In World War 2 the unconditional German surrender to the Allies is signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims. The Third
Reich ceases to exist.
1948 — Sir Apirana Ngata, the first Maori awarded a bachelor’s degree, receives an honorary DLitt at Victoria University College and his son, Henare, receives his BA, marking the first time a father and son have been capped together.
1952 — The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.
1965 — The Otokia Bridge, on the new floodfree highway between Otokia and Henley, is opened.
2001 — Ronnie Biggs, who took part in Britain’s Great Train Robbery in 1963, voluntarily ends 35 years on the run by returning to Britain from Brazil, to complete the 28 remaining years of his sentence. He was released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009 and died in 2013.
2009 — Napier becomes a city under siege after gunman Jan Molenaar kills one arresting policeman, and wounds two others and a civilian, before firing at random from his Napier Hill home in Chaucer Rd. The siege comes to an end 32 hours later, when Molenaar turns one of his many weapons on himself.
2013 — Jock Paget (on his Middlemarchbred horse Clifton Promise) becomes the second New Zealander to win the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials. Fellow New Zealander and world No 1 Andrew Nicholson finished third. Mark Todd was the first New Zealander to win the Badminton title (in 1980), and went on to win the event four times.
Today’s birthdays
Ernest Corbett, New Zealand politician (18981968); Colin Tapley NZborn actor (190795); Eva Peron (Evita), Argentine first lady (191952); Grahame Bilby, NZ double international in cricket and football (1941); Janis Ian, US singer/songwriter (1951); Steve Hansen, All Black coach (1959); Stacey Jones, NZ rugby league player (1976); Jeetan Patel, NZ cricketer (1980); Alexander Ludwig, Canadian actor/singer (1992).
Quote of the day:
❛ Genocide is one of those words that should
be used with extreme care. Attempts to define it are fraught with
difficulty.
‘‘I spent 18 months as a graduate student in physics at Columbia University, waiting unhappily for an opportunity to work in a laboratory and wondering if I should continue in physics.’’ — Sidney Altman, Canadian molecular biologist, who was born on this day in 1939.
ODT