PM: NZ must be able to raise issues without ‘retaliatory acts’

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand needs to be able to raise issues with China without ‘‘retaliatory acts’’.

Ardern was to meet China’s ruler, Xi Jinping, late yesterday (NZ time) on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in Bangkok, Thailand. After arriving in Bangkok on Thursday evening, Ardern said the face-toface meeting would be an opportunity to talk about both New Zealand’s strong economic relationship with China and issues on which there is disagreement.

‘‘Let’s not define the relationship on the parts where we part ways but we do have to create an environment where we can raise those [concerns] . . . We will always raise the areas that we have concerns about.

‘‘We need to make sure we have an environment where we can do that without us seeing retaliatory acts, because in my mind that doesn’t further the relationship.’’ The Government has this year taken issue with Beijing’s efforts to build influence in the Pacific and called on China to take action after a United Nations investigation found it had committed possible crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims. But New Zealand – which depends economically on China, its largest trading partner – has not suffered the same backlash as Australia, which was targeted with wine and barley tariffs in 2020 in retaliation for calling for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

Xi has held reportedly productive meetings with many Western leaders this week on the side of the G20 summit in Bali, after nearly three years away from the world stage due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But an informal exchange with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared tense. In a filmed exchange, Xi challenged Trudeau at a G20 venue after details of the pair’s bilateral meeting were leaked to the Canadian press.

Ardern would not comment on whether it was wrong that details of the meeting were leaked and said it had not changed her approach. ‘‘I will be totally consistent ... I have said many times that what we share privately we share publicly.’’