Prime Minister Chris Hipkins meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Video / NZ Herald
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins heads to Shanghai this morning for the final leg of his weeklong trade mission to China.
While there, he’ll meet business leaders and members of the municipal government.
Hipkins’ final day in Beijing also had an economic bent, ending with the signing of seven trade-focused agreements and the news that China Southern Airlines would significantly increase capacity to New Zealand adding 1000 seats on their planes per month.
This will be comprised of the reinstatement of the pre-Covid route between Christchurch and the South China city of Guangzhou. The airline will add three additional flights to Auckland.
“China remains an important tourist market to New Zealand, with borders open, tourists returning to our shores, and today’s announcement will make visiting from China even easier, and help drive our economic recovery,” Hipkins said.
This meeting absorbed most of the morning and included Hipkins inspecting Chinese soldiers in a grand entry room at the Great Hall.
Li said, through a translator, that he was “inspired” by some of the remarks made by Hipkins at the World Economic Forum’s Summer Davos event on Tuesday.
He also praised Hipkins’ work as Covid-19 minister during the pandemic and thanked him for visiting China so soon after becoming Prime Minister.
PM Chris Hipkins meets Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Photo / Nathan McKinnon, RNZ POOL
He stayed for lunch which was had over the sounds of the People’s Liberation Army band playing a list of traditional Chinese songs and waiata, including “Poi E” and “Tutira mai nga iwi”.
Hipkins’ meeting with Xi was mainly economic in focus, with things like human rights concerns mainly “referenced”.
Hipkins proactively said that these concerns were raised and discussed in more detail in his meeting with Li.
Hipkins said he had “a more extensive conversation on human rights where I was specifically able to raise New Zealand’s concerns about the situation in Xinjiang and in Hong Kong”.
Hipkins did not discuss the Maori economy with Xi. He appeared eager to correct this, highlighting it in his open remarks to Li and following the meeting.
“Generally, I won’t go into comments that they [the Chinese side] made, but I’m certainly happy to elaborate on the comments that I made, which is really stress the importance and the growth in the Maori economy in New Zealand,” Hipkins said.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo / Nathan McKinnon
The meeting ended with the signing of seven economically-focused agreements to ease trade in areas like Kiwifruit and cosmetics.
A joint statement issued afterwards included the joint statement that said, among other things that New Zealand “welcomes China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)”
It added that New Zealand “noted the requirement for aspirant economies to demonstrate that they can meet the high standards of this agreement”.
Many observers believe China is unlikely to meet these standards soon, and if it does, it would need the backing of other CPTPP countries before it was allowed to enter the trade pact.
The statement also said that “both sides agreed to maintain communication on Belt and Road Initiative cooperation”.
New Zealand appears to have cooled on participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, meaning there is some doubt as to whether this “communication” will lead to anything.
Trade and agriculture minister Damien O’Connor, who accompanied Hipkins said China was “an important market for our exporters, especially our primary industries, and reaffirming our significant economic relationship with China is vital to our economic growth and recovery”.
Forestry Minister Peeni Henare, who is also on the trip, met his Chinese counterpart Guan Zhi’ou, Administrator of China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration in Beijing.
Henare said the pair discussed “further cooperation through technical exchanges, for example on the role of forests in achieving improved environmental outcomes and the transition to a low-carbon bioeconomy”.
“We also discussed deepening our bilateral trade, including in value-added products,” he said.
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
