Chris Hipkins on his trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping this week

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins jets off to China today. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins doesn’t think Chinese President Xi Jinping is a dictator - but you knew that already.

This week Hipkins was forced to wade into the war of words, sparked by the decision of US President Joe Biden to label Xi a “dictator”.

“I generally don’t think those labels are useful,” he said.

Hipkins deftly sidestepped the question multiple times. Asked to describe Xi, Hipkins said simply “I haven’t met him yet”.

Asked about China’s political system, Hipkins said if China wanted to change its political system it would be a matter for the Chinese people. Just how they would change their political system, short of a bloody revolution, was not a question Hipkins would get into.

He spoke to media before his trip to China this week. Hipkins jets off to China this morning on his most consequential foreign trip of his time as Prime Minister.

While his predecessor Jacinda Ardern secured some post-pandemic facetime with Xi last year at Apec, this is the first prime ministerial visit to China since the pandemic.

Hipkins is also the first leader of a Five Eyes country to visit China post-pandemic. This might be because New Zealand’s election has seen the visit pushed forwards, it might also be because other Five Eyes countries have seen relations deteriorate to the extent a China visit has fallen well down the priority list.

Hipkins appears keen to avoid being trapped in one camp or the other. Asked about balancing China with his impending trip to the Nato summit in Lithuania later in July, Hipkins said only that New Zealand values its relationship with China.

“It’s a very big trading partner for New Zealand. We’ll continue to aim to strengthen that relationship, continue to aim to build on that relationship, but it is one of many relationships that we have internationally,” he said.

China is not a fan of Nato, and its potential enlargement. The feeling is mutual; China was written into Nato’s naughty list (its “strategic concept”) at the Madrid summit last year, when Ardern was present.

China is sitting on the fence in the Ukraine war, offering what has been described as pro-Russian neutrality.

Hipkins doesn’t appear keen to urge China to get off the fence and put a stop to the conflict, beyond a general urging for all countries to do their best to stop the war.

He said the war was “unjust and illegal”.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visiting new state houses this week ahead of his trip to China this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“Certainly we will encourage any international partners, including China, who may have any influence over that situation to be seeking to find a diplomatic end to that conflict,” he said.

“I think China has an ability to potentially have some sway over Russia. If they do, we would certainly encourage them to use that to bring that war to a conclusion,” Hipkins said.

The Prime Minister has more immediate concerns. He’s taking the Defence Force plane to China, loading the extra seats with a 30-strong business delegation, and Te Matatini champions Te Whānau-a-Apanui.

The short range of the plane requires stops in Cairns and Manila en route to Beijing and as usual, there is the concern the breakdown-prone plane, upon landing, may not be able to take off again.

“You better not jinx it,” Hipkins said when asked whether he’s worried about this scenario.

“If it doesn’t [take off], I’m gonna blame you,” he said.

Foreign policy does not appear to be one of Hipkins’ passions. This is quite unlike his predecessor, Ardern, who appeared to enjoy it, and who has taken up an MFAT role as Christchurch Call envoy after leaving office.

“Foreign policy is not the area which I have been most immersed in in the time that I’ve been a minister, but I like to think I’m a quick learner,” he said.

He never strays from the standard MFAT line. On Taiwan, he reiterates New Zealand “has a one China policy - we recognise China’s claim to Taiwan. That’s a longstanding policy”.

“We are concerned about the escalating tensions in the Taiwan strait and we believe that a diplomatic resolution of those is the best way forward for the entire world,” he said.

What Hipkins does appear to be signalling is a return to a John Key-style trade-led foreign policy under the umbrella of his broader “bread-and-butter” agenda.

“There’s not much more bread and butter than trade for a country like New Zealand; we are a trading nation,” Hipkins said.

“Trade is a centrepiece of the trip,” Hipkins said, listing it as the key outcome.

The challenge though, is increased calls to diversify to other markets with fears New Zealand has bet too heavily on a lucrative but potentially volatile market.

One of New Zealand's Defence Force planes. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Hipkins has a dollar each way on this, saying he backs the push for diversification into other markets, while at the same time taking one of the biggest business delegations assembled in recent years with him to China.

But there’s no escaping foreign policy and the fact that Hipkins travels to China after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip and Biden’s “dictator” swipe at Xi.

“That’s obviously a matter for the US rather than for us,” Hipkins said, on the latter point.

Biden’s remarks surprised observers, coming after the US and China took steps to halt deteriorating relations between the two countries. Blinken travelled to China and managed to get a meeting with Xi.

The trip appeared to ease relations, which were at something of a nadir following the “spy balloon” saga earlier this year. The Americans said China received Blinken “with a great deal of dignity” and that XI was “very courteous in the meeting”.

The Americans secured some wins, but did not achieve the opening up of what is known as “Mil-to-Mil” relations - that is direct communications from military to military. The Americans want this to avoid incidents where the two militaries come across each other’s path - during freedom of navigation exercises in the South China sea for example - from spiralling into something more serious.

The Chinese side are believed to prefer the ambiguity that not having Mil-to-Mil relations gives them - with the Americans having to take precautions, or back off entirely, to avoid accidentally triggering something serious.

Hipkins would not be drawn on the specifics of what he wanted to see, when asked earlier last week, but said overall, any increased contact between the two powers was a good thing.

“We welcome the fact that there’s high-level dialogue going on between the US and China. New Zealand stands for diplomacy in the world. We believe the ongoing engagement, ongoing discussion is far preferable to conflict,” Hipkins said.