China tells NZ: Don’t interfere
Differences between New Zealand and China are becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, as China’s ambassador warned the country to stay out of its domestic politics.
The two speeches, at the China business summit in Auckland yesterday, illustrate the challenges New Zealand faces.
The country has raised concerns about China’s policies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and towards the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang but is dependent on exporting to China. But China does not like to be criticised and has shown it is prepared to cut off imports if it feels it has been slighted.
‘‘Managing the relationship is not always going to be easy and there can be no guarantees,’’ Ardern said in the speech.
‘‘It will not have escaped the attention of anyone here that as China’s role in the world grows and changes, the differences between our systems – and the interests and values that shape those systems – are becoming harder to reconcile.’’
Ardern noted New Zealand and other countries were grappling with this challenge.
The speech comes as New Zealand faces pressure in foreign quarters over its reluctance to use the Five Eyes intelligence grouping to directly criticise China as a bloc and is seen by some as kowtowing to China due to concerns the country could stop buying New Zealand’s agricultural goods. New Zealand has at times opted out of signing statements with other partners in the group and in late April Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she was uncomfortable with the group expanding its remit.
Last year, when New Zealand signed a statement alongside Five Eye nations raising concerns about Beijing breaching international obligations, Beijing responded by threatening that those who interfered in China’s domestic policy would be ‘‘poked and blinded’’.
China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, accounting for 29 per cent of the country’s exports last year. However, the relationship has become more fraught in the past few years as New Zealand has sought to balance its trade relationship with the need to take a harder line on China’s anti-democratic crackdowns in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
‘‘We hope the New Zealand side can hold an objective and just position,’’ Chinese ambassador Wu Xi said in a speech that followed those of the prime minister and Damien O’Connor, the Minister for Trade and Export Growth. Wu said the country should not interfere in China’s internal affairs if it wanted to maintain ‘‘the sound development of our bilateral relations’’.
‘‘Stay on the right side of history and join hands to deepen bilateral co-operation and strive for a better future,’’ said Wu.
Allegations of forced labour or genocide in Xinjiang were ‘‘total lies’’ and rumours fabricated by some anti-China forces without any evidence which aimed to disrupt the development of Xinjiang and China as a whole, she said.
New Zealand, among many countries, has said Beijing has committed grave human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
There are reports of forced sterilisation and re-education camps operating in the region.
However, New Zealand’s seemingly softer approach to issues with China has been further complicated by countries that it has historically aligned with, such as Australia, taking a tougher line in their relations with the economic powerhouse.
China placed tariffs and restrictions on Australian exports of barley, wine, meat, cotton, wood, coal and lobsters, after it called for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.
‘‘We will continue to promote the things that we believe in and support the rules-based system that underpins our collective well-being,’’ Ardern said. She added there were some things on which China and New Zealand do not, cannot and will not agree.
Richard Maude, executive director of policy at Asia Society Australia, said there was now a ‘‘gaping chasm’’ between the Chinese Communist Party and Western liberalism.
‘‘It is no longer possible for democratic countries to isolate their concerns about China’s hardening authoritarianism and human rights abuses, from other aspects of their engagement with China,’’ he said.
But even as government officials call for New Zealand exporters to diversify and find new markets, others continue to see a good relationship between