Former New Zealand PM Jenny Shipley distances herself from controversial op-ed in Chinese state media
- Jenny Shipley, premier from 1997 to 1999, said she did not write a commentary suggesting Wellington should ‘learn to listen to China’
- The article, which ran in the People’s Daily, was constructed from an interview she did last December
The piece, which came amid heightened bilateral tensions over New Zealand’s move to block Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from a nationwide 5G roll-out over “significant national security concerns”, was criticised by current Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
He said Shipley – who was premier from 1997 to 1999, and fired Peters as treasurer and deputy prime minister in 1998 – was “selling out New Zealand’s interests”.
The South China Morning Post attempted to contact Shipley on Wednesday through the New Zealand China Council, where she is an executive board member, but council executive director Stephen Jacobi said she was not presently responding to media queries.
CNN quoted Shipley on Tuesday as saying she had not written the op-ed, and it was based on an interview she had given to another Chinese state-run newspaper when she visited the country last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up.