Pre Election Debate: China & NZ

Foreign affairs, trade, NZ’s relationship with China, and the future for Pacific aid were on the agenda at the very first multi-party debate of the election campaign, held in Wellington on Thursday night, just hours after Parliament was dissolved ahead of next month’s election.

Fronting up before a packed house at the Intercontinental Hotel in Wellington were MP’s David Parker (L), Fletcher Tabateu (NZF) ,Simon Bridges(N) and David Seymour(A), joined by Greens co-leader James Shaw, a last-minute replacement for the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman.

The conversation was wide-ranging, dealing with some enduring issues around NZ’s aid to the Pacific Islands, as well as more domestic problems like immigration, the RSE seasonal worker scheme, and the debate around COVID isolation management.

Also looming large in the discussion was the issue of this country’s relationship with China, and possible turbulence in the immediate future.

Newshub political editor Tova O’Brien was asking the questions, and began by pressing all parties for a view on the China issue , and how New Zealand should be handling the situation and the rise in tensions. 

Emphasising an independent foreign policy, Labour’s David Parker said this country has always had an open relationship with China.  “Things are uncomfortable, but things have to be said, in respect to the Uyghurs, or most recently Hong Kong  .. we deal with those on an issue-by-issue basis” he said.

National’s Simon Bridges, awarded the Foreign Affairs portfolio following his resignation as party leader, told the audience his party sees the relationship with China as at a crucial point. “The world’s become more interesting, it’s become more dangerous, and I think at the top of the list right now in the lead-up to the US election, is the China-US relationship”.

“I think perhaps it's not said so much in diplomatic circles, but China has become more aggressive, whether its around Hong Kong, the Uyghurs, the India border, it’s a range of issues” he said.

“As for New Zealand, I don’t disagree with David Parker, we’ve got an independent policy, we clearly have a strong relationship in trade, but we also, on the other side of it, condemn things we can see that are wrong, and the Hong Kong National Security Law is one of things."

L-R : James Shaw, David Parker, Fletcher Tabuteu,Tova O'Brien,Simon Bridges, David Seymour

Asked for his opinions on the future relationship with China and Hong Kong, the Greens co-leader James Shaw said he saw the current US “retreat” from  Asia as a temporary thing, likely to be rectified by the likely departure of Donald Trump from the White House.

“China’s definitely pushing the boundaries at the moment, both in terms of its own territory, but also outside” he said.

“I think you might see a return to the kind of relationship (the US and China) had before … most notably the kind of co-operation between the two on the Paris Climate Agreement .. I think China’s stance depends to an enormous extent on the US stance”.

“How we navigate through that is to be extremely careful, but I don’t think we should ever lose our values in that.”

NZ First’s Fletcher Tabutue echoed that view in reply to a question about the involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in New Zealand’s tech sector.

“We have to set our own independent course, be seen as independent, and making decisions that are transparent”

ACT’s David Seymour made clear that despite the on-going concerns over human rights issues inside China, he had increasing worries over what was happening inside New Zealand in relation to Chinese influence. “I think that what’s happening with China is a smaller version of what’s happening globally” he said.

“Fifteen years ago as a liberal I could say look, we won, the Commies lost, its all free markets, free trade and civilisation.. but over the past 15 years you look at the erosion of freedom and civil rights .. its all going backwards and China is just the biggest example of it”.

“You have some very illiberal people, who manage to run very prosperous free market economies, and I think we need to start asserting our own liberal values a lot more aggressively”.

Asked for his view on “picking sides” in the current and future stand-off between the US and China, Labour’s David Parker chose to defer.

“Well, I’m not going to pick sides, someone else here might want to .. but that’s our position, we’re not going to”.

“There’s plenty to criticise out there in the world, in respect to a lot of countries, and I think we’ll approach those issues one by one – we also can never do these things alone which is why we place so much weight on our membership of multi-lateral institutions”.

“It’s true those institutions are not nearly as effective as they used to be, with this breakdown of civility in discussions, caused in no small part by social media - and their irresponsibility and lack of consequence for their behaviour.” 

 The debate was hosted by the Council for International Development in association with the NZ Institute of International Affairs, and with sponsorship from the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Pacific Co-operation Foundation.

-Asia Media Centre