Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urges China's president to use influential powers to de-escalate North Korea and Russia tensions. Video / Claire Trevett / Ella Wilks
The vast gap between the facing tables at the meeting between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and China’s President Xi Jinping may have been a Covid-19 distancing measure - or Xi’s version of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s extraordinarily long table.
It risked being seen as symbolic.
The pair met at Xi’shotel in Bangkok, the Mandarin Oriental.
China set the venue and the rules of engagement. When Ardern arrived, Xi greeted her and waved her into position for a photo.
China’s tight Covid-19 protections at home were replicated as much as possible.
Media and officials had to have PCR tests ahead of time – the Apec Summit itself required just a RAT. Anyone entering the hotel was doused with hand sanitiser. N95 masks had to be worn.
PM Jacinda Ardern meets China's President Xi Jinping while in Bangkok for Apec 2022. Photo / Thomas Manch
Xi’s opening remarks ran while the media were in the room, but the media were ushered out while Ardern was still delivering hers.
It happened right at the point she started to talk about differences of opinions, international law and “tensions” in the region.
It was not clear whether that timing was simply a coincidence, but it was an uncanny one.
Xi was warm about the New Zealand and China relationship, but there was one little edge of notice that China was watching things carefully.
Xi’s remarks – and a lengthy written statement issued after the meeting – included his “appreciation” for Ardern’s statements about New Zealand’s independent position on foreign policy.
The meaning of that position is New Zealand decides for itself what side of the fence it sits on any given issue.
In theory that can cut both ways but it is a phrase China brandishes whenever it considers New Zealand has been exercising its independence too much in favour of the United States.
The other rule Xi had put in place - less formally, but far more dramatically - was ‘don’t blab afterwards’.
That rule was spelled out when Xi confronted Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau and accused him of leaking details of their talks. It was an intriguing peek at “diplomacy” in a visceral form, and a stark contrast to the words Xi had for Ardern.
It was also a rule Ardern was punctilious about not breaking.
Asked about the meeting afterward, Ardern refused to say if they had talked about some issues at all. Nor would she say anything about how Xi responded to the points she had made, including how he replied to her request that China use its influence in North Korea and Russia.
That, she said, was up to the leader on the other side to do.
In material terms, Ardern got an invitation to start looking at dates for her to visit Beijing again. It is a trip she has only made once in her time as PM, largely thanks to Covid-19. There was also some focus on co-operating over climate change.
At the end, Ardern was asked if she thought she’d come away with a win.
She didn’t really need a win – the main aim was to be able to say what she wanted to say without it being a loss.
Ardern certainly had an easier meeting than others Xi met, including Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Marcos also got an invitation to Beijing, possibly in January. But the statement from China appeared to make bilateral relations contingent on the Philippines’ handling of disputes over the South China Sea – and mentioned China’s aid contributions for good measure.
The statement after Kishida’s meeting included a blunt “China does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, nor does it accept any excuse by anyone to interfere in its internal affairs”.
China’s statement after Ardern’s meeting said China recognised it was “natural for China and New Zealand to have differences on some issues, but these differences should not be allowed to define or affect the bilateral relations”.
It also stated China would “work closely” with New Zealand to try to ensure peace in the Pacific region.
For New Zealand at the moment, such meetings are about maintaining the relationship rather than the repair job or blunt confrontations other countries face. That may of course change if those “differences” change.
Ardern said she didn’t like to tally up such meetings in terms of being a win or a loss.
Maybe not – but meetings with China will very rarely be draws.
