REVEALED: Beijing’s Wolf Warrior attack on NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta 

Before NZ Prime Minister Chris Hipkins flies to China to meet Xi Jinping, The Weekend Australian can reveal the epic dressing down given to his foreign minister in Beijing only months ago.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta in Beijing in March, where she was given an all-mighty dressing down by China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

Only three months after the New Zealand Foreign Minister was given an epic “haranguing” by her Chinese counterpart, Kiwi Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will fly to Beijing on Sunday to meet Xi Jinping.

Sources familiar with the previously unreported incident have told The Weekend Australian that NZ’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta was given an almighty dressing down in a meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing in late March.

“She was harangued for a whole hour,” said a person familiar with the ferocious exchange, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity.

The Weekend Australian understands the NZ Foreign Minister pushed back after State Councillor Qin turned the dial to Wolf Warrior.

“It was robust,” said another person familiar with the exchange.

Their fiery encounter was the first in-person meeting between senior NZ and Chinese figures since then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern enraged Beijing when she told US President Joe Biden in 2022 that a Chinese military base in the Pacific would “fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region”. Days after that exchange in the White House, China’s ambassador in Wellington, Wang Xiaolong, warned that NZ should act as a “friendly country” and not take its giant trade partner “for granted”.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang and their two delegations face off in Beijing in March.

Wellington has been extremely sensitive ahead of Mr Hipkins’ trip, the first by a NZ prime minister since Ms Ardern’s curtailed one-day trip in 2019.

Mr Hipkins – called “Chippy” by his Labour colleagues – hopes his 29-strong business delegation will keep the six-day trip to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai on happier terrain.

Beijing has also switched to positive this week, calling China and NZ “each other’s important co-operation partners” as it confirmed a trip that is being closely watched in Canberra. Anthony Albanese is expected to visit China in October.

Some nice words from China’s Foreign Ministry ahead of New Zealand Prime Minister @chrishipkins’ trip — these sandwiched between kinds words about Barbados, Mongolia and Vietnam:

“China and New Zealand are each other’s important cooperation partners…” https://t.co/rX94yMpjAJpic.twitter.com/JRhKANOPjb

— Will Glasgow (@wmdglasgow) June 21, 2023

The tense geopolitical environment will test the fledgling Kiwi Prime Minister, as he was reminded on Thursday when he was asked if he agreed with Joe Biden’s recent characterisation of President Xi as a “dictator”.

“No, and the form of government that China has is a matter for the Chinese people,” Mr Hipkins told reporters in NZ.

“If they wanted to change their system of government, that would be a matter for them,” he added.

Throughout the Turnbull and Morrison governments, Wellington studied the implosion of Australia’s relationship with China with a mixture of fear and disbelief. NZ agricultural exporters worried they could be next to experience Beijing’s trade wrath. For now, Kiwi lobster farmers continue to benefit from China’s ongoing black-listing of their Australian rivals.

Some in Wellington, including senior figures in New Zealand’s government, said Canberra’s problems could have been avoided.

“I can’t speak for Australia and the way it runs its diplomatic relationships, but clearly if they were to follow us and show respect, I guess a little more diplomacy from time to time and be cautious with wording, then they too, hopefully, could be in a similar situation,” the NZ Trade Minister Damien O’Connor said in an interview in 2021, which infuriated the Morrison government.

Beijing has been less appreciative of Wellington’s candour since Australia’s relationship with China has modestly improved.

There are fears in Wellington that NZ could become the “New Australia”, although for now that title – not a compliment when said in Beijing – has been given to South Korea by the Global Times’ most influential columnist, Hu Xijin, who has a reputation for transmitting the foreign policy views of the Communist Party’s leaders.

Foreign Minister Mahuta’s office declined to comment on her meeting in Beijing with China’s Foreign Minister, who has been repeatedly promoted by Mr Xi and has a well-known aggressive streak.