NZ Trade Minister says Australia should show ‘respect’ and ‘a little more diplomacy’ towards China

NZ Trade Minister calls on Australia to show ‘a little more diplomacy’ towards China to improve economic relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Beijing in April 2019. Picture: AFP

New Zealand’s Trade Minister has called on Australia to show respect and a “little more” diplomacy towards China, in an extraordinary intervention in the year-long Beijing-Canberra dispute from a fellow Five Eyes security and intelligence partner.

China has moved in recent days to update its free-trade agreement with New Zealand and Communist Party-controlled media has called on Australia to follow the lead of Jacinda Ardern’s government and its strategic approach to China.

In an interview on Thursday, Trade Minister Damien O’Connor said he was willing to mediate a trade settlement between Australia and China, and said Canberra would be in a better position if Scott Morrison’s government was “more careful with wording” and showed more respect.

“We have a mature and honest relationship with China, and we’ve always been able to raise ­issues of concern,” he told US business network CNBC. “But we have always respected the healthy trade relationship we have. I can’t speak for Australia … clearly if they (Australia) were to follow us and show respect, and I guess show a little more diplomacy from time to time, and be cautious with wording then they too, hopefully, would be in a similar situation.”

Mr O’Connor later said in a statement that he called Trade Minister Dan Tehan later on Thursday and did not mean to speak for Australia.

“The Australia-China relationship will always be a matter for China and Australia,” he said.

“I’ve spoken with my Australian counterpart earlier today to reiterate, as I said in the interview, that we do not speak for Australia on this or any other matter.” Mr Tehan on Thursday did not criticise Mr O’Connor, but said relations with China would be dictated by Australia’s national interest. “Our approach to trade policy will be guided by three Ps: proactivity, principle and ­patience. We pursue engagement with China on the basis of mutual benefit, and the complementarity of our economies makes us natural trading partners,” he said.

“We are always open to dialogue as the best way to resolve differences.”

China has repeatedly attacked Scott Morrison’s government in recent months over calls for an ­independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, Australia’s tough foreign interference laws, co-operation with the US in the Pacific, and the Prime Minister’s condemnation of the security crackdown in Hong Kong.

Beijing’s trade attacks on Australian products — including beef, barley, coal, lobsters, wheat and wine — have cost Australia’s biggest trading relationship up to $6bn, according to Chinese government data.

Government MPs and foreign policy analysts were perplexed by New Zealand’s intervention. Liberal MP and former ambassador Dave Sharma said Mr O’Connor’s comments were not “helpful or insightful”. “It betrays a lack of acquaintance with basic facts that I would not expect from a close friend and partner like New Zealand,” he said.

New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes intelligence network with Australia, the US, Britain and Canada. Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said New Zealand could be forced to consider its place in the Five Eyes — and choose between Canberra and Beijing — if it continues to placate China.