New Zealand to stay true to values even amid growing differences with China, Ardern says
- New Zealand’s differences with its top trading partner are becoming ‘harder to reconcile’, including on Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the PM says
- Her remarks follow recent pressure by allies to embrace the Five Eyes’ expanding remit from an intelligence alliance to a forum for publicly challenging Beijing
“It will not have escaped the attention of anyone here that as China’s role in the world grows and changes, the differences between our systems – and the interests and values that shape those systems – are becoming harder to reconcile,” Ardern said at the event for political leaders, academics and industry players.
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Differences with China ‘becoming harder to reconcile’, says New Zealand prime minister
“This is a challenge that we, and many other countries across the Indo-Pacific region, but also in Europe and other regions, are grappling with,” she said.
“This need not derail our relationship, it is simply a reality,” she said.
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New Zealand would stick to an independent, “principles-based approach” to foreign policy informed by the country’s interests and values, Ardern said.
The New Zealand leader’s remarks follow recent pressure from some of its allies to embrace the “Five Eyes” partnership’s expanding remit from an intelligence-sharing alliance to a forum for publicly challenging China.
Beijing has lashed out at the alliance for its comments, saying it is meddling in China’s internal affairs.
“We have shown this quite clearly over the past year by deliberately choosing when we make public statements on issues of concern, and with whom,” she said.
New Zealand’s parliament on Tuesday is set to look at a motion put forward by a minor party to declare the situation in Xinjiang as a genocide.
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In later remarks on Monday, Ardern said New Zealand had used the term on three occasions, on Nazi Germany, Rwanda and Cambodia, adding that the country had repeatedly called for “unfettered access” to Xinjiang to assess if the situation there met the same legal definitions.
“That is not to say there isn’t credible evidence of human rights abuses already, there is,” she said.
“Maintaining contact, and promoting understanding, between our two countries and peoples remains a crucial foundation of our relationship,” she said.
David Capie, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Victoria in Wellington, said Ardern’s speech was the clearest indication yet that Wellington expected “more bumps in the road” in its ties with Beijing.
“If you had to distil one message to the business community, it might be: ‘buckle up’,” Capie said.
“This was a business summit, so you’d expect a speech heavy with references to economic opportunity, but it was notable how much of the PM’s remarks were the differences New Zealand has with China and how as China’s role in the world grows, those differences are getting harder to reconcile.
“And she made clear that New Zealand sees itself facing the same challenges as other countries in our region and Europe,” he added.
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Capie said New Zealand wished to maintain a good relationship with China and hoped that “being clear and predictable will let it express differences without facing blowback”.
“But the reality is, no one knows what might be the issue or decision that finally tips things over the edge and sees New Zealand in the freezer,” he said.
Robert Patman, a professor of international relations at the University of Otago in Dunedin, said Ardern wished to stress Wellington’s independence from both Beijing and its Western allies.
“By reiterating New Zealand’s support for the international rules-based system, Prime Minister Ardern is making it clear that New Zealand and China could agree to disagree on some issues, but China cannot expect to use its growing role in the world to pressurise states like New Zealand into agreement on Beijing’s terms,” he said.
Wellington also had no intention of “watering down its independent foreign policy and becoming an echo of the views of the other members of the Five Eyes alliance”, he said.
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Also addressing the China Business Summit on Monday, Chinese ambassador to New Zealand Wu Xi praised Beijing and Wellington for ensuring the “healthy and stable development” of their relations. Their recent agreement to upgrade and expand a free-trade agreement would create new opportunities for cooperation, she said.
“China and New Zealand can actively explore and foster new growth drivers in health, aged care, education, e-commerce, climate change, science and technology and other fields,” she said.
But Wu also reiterated that Hong Kong and Xinjiang-related issues were China’s internal affairs.
“We hope that the New Zealand side could hold an objective and a just position, abide by international law and not interfere in China’s internal affairs so as to maintain the sound development of our bilateral relations,” she said.
Additional reporting by Reuters