Ardern says issues with China now harder to reconcile
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called on China to act in a way that is consistent with its responsibilities as a growing power.
In a speech to the China Business Summit in Auckland yesterday, Ardern emphasised the tensions in the relationship, saying the differences between the two countries were ‘‘becoming harder to reconcile’’ and there were ‘‘no guarantees’’ inside the relationship.
New Zealand has come under some pressure in foreign quarters over its reluctance to use the Five Eyes intelligence grouping to directly criticise China.
China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, accounting for 29 per cent of our exports last year. The relationship has become more fraught in the past few years as New Zealand has tried 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.
This has been further complicated by countries New Zealand tends to align itself with, such as Australia, taking a tougher line in their relations with China. As a result, China has placed tariffs and restrictions on Australian imports of barley, wine, meat, cotton, wood, coal and lobsters.
‘‘Managing the relationship is not always going to be easy and there can be no guarantees,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘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 said New Zealand and other countries were grappling with this challenge. ‘‘We hope that China too sees it in its own core interests to act in the world in ways that are consistent with its responsibilities as a growing power, including as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.’’
Ardern said New Zealand’s
relationship with China remained ‘‘strong’’. She said given the countries’ different histories, world views and political and legal systems, New Zealand and China were going to take different perspectives on some issues.
New Zealand was an open, pluralistic, democracy, with a focus on transparency and the rule of law, she said. ‘‘There are some things on which China and New Zealand do not, cannot, and will not agree. This need not derail our relationship, it is simply a reality.’’
However she said the future of the relationship would be defined by how the countries navigated issues of concern, and she hoped they could speak ‘‘freely and frankly’’ together.
‘‘As a significant power, the way that China treats its partners is important for us,’’ she said.
Chinese Ambassador Wu Xi called for the principles of equality, mutual respect, and mutual trust in state-to-state relations.
‘‘We hope that the New Zealand side can hold an objective and just position, abide by international law, and not interfere in China’s internal affairs, so as to maintain the sound development of our bilateral relations,’’ she said.
Attempts to impose ideology on others and engage in group politics would only poison international co-operation and push the world into division or even confrontation, Wu said.
‘‘We cannot tackle common challenges in a divided world and confrontation will lead us to nowhere,’’ she said.
Xinjiang and Hong Kong related issues were China’s internal affairs, involving China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, she said.
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.