NZ wary of China's emergence - WikiLeaks

The People's Liberation Army provided more aid to Tongan and Fijian defence forces than NZ. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Click here to read all the diplomatic cables about NZ held by WikiLeaks.

Links by China's armed forces to Pacific countries were a growing concern for New Zealand on top of concerns about Beijing's chequebook diplomacy, leaked diplomatic cables from the United States Embassy in Wellington show.

A cable in February 2006 describes how the People's Liberation Army gave substantially more aid to defence forces in Fiji and in Tonga than New Zealand did, according to Ministry of Defence international policy division director Paul Sinclair.

"Equally troublesome are reported PLA links to paramilitary forces in Vanuatu," the cable said.

Senior Defence official Chris Seed "said PLA activities in the Pacific Islands pose real security problems for New Zealand".

"He added that New Zealand forces have no direct dialogue with the PLA on this issue because the PRC [People's Republic of China] tightly controls military visits to New Zealand. These have declined from five or six to three visits a year."

Plenty of cables - leaked by WikiLeaks - show the embassy thought poorly of former Prime Minister Helen Clark during the anti-nuclear rift but on the China issue, both its role in the Pacific and its military expansion, concerns were shared.

A February 2006 cable said Helen Clark told United States Admiral William Fallon she was increasingly concerned about "unofficial" Chinese activity in the region, such as rising Chinese criminal activity in Papua New Guinea.

The cable said she worried that the perpetrators might have links with some in the Chinese Government.

And a former ambassador, William McCormick, complained to her in 2008 that although the US Peace Corps worked in Samoa for 40 years, it did not get the recognition for its work there that China had for building a "lavish but impractical" swimming pool complex.

Another cable, about a discussion between former Defence Minister Phil Goff and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence James Clad, touched on issues around China and East Timor, notably the fact that the presidential palace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building and defence headquarters had all been built by the Chinese.

"Goff stated that the Chinese have also provided money for patrol vessels but they had made no provision for follow-on maintenance or training."

During a visit to New Zealand in April 2008 by a deputy assistant secretary of state, Thomas Christensen, he said US objectives "are to shape China's choices - both regionally and around the world".

The cable continued: "The United States Government is not, he emphasised, trying to contain China."

In responding to questions from New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) deputy secretary John McArthur, the cable says: "Christensen confirmed that the US Government views with seriousness China's military build-up.

"China is developing forces that could pose challenges to other forward deployed forces, he said. We would like to know much more than we do about these deployments.

"McArthur said that China has been courting New Zealand in its military relations, offering language training for New Zealand defence attaches, contacts at the ministerial level, and exchange of ship visits.

"Such contacts date to the late 1980s but New Zealand is approaching China in a 'clear-eyed' sort of way, explained McArthur, recognising China's size but also for the potential for Chinese behaviour to 'become ugly.'

"Christensen observed that New Zealand has some genuine Chinese warfighters visit New Zealand and not just the respectable faces Beijing deploys to Western countries. McArthur responded that China uses Australia and New Zealand as a 'testing ground' for such visits."

In a July 2006 cable, the acting deputy chief of mission in the US Embassy, Katherine Hadda, was briefed by MFAT on a visit to New Zealand by China's Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs He Yafei, in the first round of consultations on the Pacific.

He told New Zealand Chinese aid focused on projects that positively affected people's daily lives, such as infrastructure and public facilities.

"[China] also announced 3 billion yuan [$507 million] in soft loans for Pacific Island countries over the next three years and committed to train 2000 people, including Government officials and those involved in economic sectors such as energy, telecommunications, fisheries and health."

The cable said Mr He said China was willing to co-ordinate aid efforts on a policy level with New Zealand but that co-operation at a project level would be too difficult.