Prime Minister Chris Hipkins during his visit to China meeting with Zhao Leji, the chairman of the National People’s Congress. Photo / Nathan Mckinnon, Pool
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins during his visit to China meeting with Zhao Leji, the chairman of the National People’s Congress. Photo / Nathan Mckinnon, Pool
EDITORIAL
New Zealand has successfully traded itself into a diplomatic position requiring the Chinese art of zaji - or acrobatics.
This week, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins met with Chinese President Xi Jinping where Hipkins said “the economic relationship between New Zealand and China was by far the biggest topic thatwe discussed... but we also discussed a broad range of international issues including international relationships”.
This has led to queries about how much time was spent talking about dictatorships, Indo-Pacific security, the mistreatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, and other allegations against China.
Some critics appear to have overlooked that this visit was a trade mission. Yes, the opportunity to raise human rights and regional security should be taken but the raison d’etre was strengthening business relationships.
In this, Hipkins’ time in Beijing was a successful one. The handshake with President Xi is more than a symbolic photo opportunity. The act tells 1.4 billion Chinese that New Zealand can be trusted to do business with.
28 June 2023
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins during his visit to China, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo / Nathan Mckinnon, Pool
China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of this country’s total exports of goods and services. It would be economic insanity to attempt to sermonise a country that terminated imports of Australian barley, lobsters and coal due to one quip about the origins of Covid-19.
Despite our glowing perception of ourselves, New Zealand is not without fault on human rights or in keeping to long-held security agreements. Diplomacy does not sit down to talk about shared business trust while trying to remove straws from each other’s eyes.
Accounts vary on how a meeting between our Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and her Chinese counterpart went in Beijing in March. The Australian reports that Mahuta copped an “epic haranguing”, a summary of which Mahuta denies, saying it was simply a “robust discussion”. Whatever description is more accurate, counter-views are inevitable between foreign ministers who concur on trade but are divergent on international alliances and domestic values.
We are now in the reality of being reliant on trade with an outlier of our closest friends, a result of the business nous of Sir John Key, who made seven state visits to China. Business delegations will remain a crucial element in maintaining our precarious position.
Prior to the visit, Hipkins did well to defuse a potential incendiary when asked whether he agreed with US President Joe Biden’s description of Xi Jinping as a “dictator”. “No, and the form of government that China has is a matter for the Chinese people,” Hipkins told reporters.
It is for foreign ministers to have forceful debates about differences, and for leaders to talk about mutual goals.
Trickier then is Hipkins’ next leg to the Nato meeting in Lithuania to talk about New Zealand’s relationship with Europe and the United States.
Somehow, contortions are required to convince our traditional friends that an “independent” New Zealand can be relied on for security while trading the lion’s share of our products for the yuan.
