China threatens to put NZ in freezer with Australia

Beijing warns NZ over trade access, as it denounces Jacinda Ardern for joining a US ‘disinformation’ campaign to ‘discredit China’.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian speaks to reporters. Picture: AFP.

Beijing has threatened New Zealand’s trade access to its huge market and denounced Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for joining an American “disinformation” campaign to “discredit China.”

China’s ambassador in Wellington, Wang Xiaolong, said New Zealand should be a “friendly country” and not take its biggest trade partner “for granted”.

In a speech published by China’s embassy in Wellington hours after Ms Adern shared concerns about Beijing with President Joe Biden at the White House, Ambassador Wang said the perception of NZ as a “green, clean, open and friendly country” in the world’s second biggest economy should not be “squandered”.

“This asset of ours did not come out of nowhere or as a matter of course, but has been slowly built up with hard work over the years from both sides,” he said in an address to the New Zealand China Council.

“Nor can it be taken for granted. It is thus incumbent upon us … to protect it carefully, use it wisely, and make sure it will not be squandered.”

The trade threat was followed by an eruption by China’s Foreign Ministry after New Zealand and America released a joint statement after the Oval Office meeting that said security and defence would become an “ever-more-­important” focus of Wellington’s relationship with Washington.

Their statement also warned a Chinese military base in the Pacific would “fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region” and noted shared concerns over China’s menacing of Taiwan, human rights abuses in Xinjiang and political repression in Hong Kong.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the statement “distorts and smears” Beijing’s Pacific outreach, “deliberately hypes up the South China Sea issue” and made “irresponsible remarks on and grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs including issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong”.

Joe Biden (R) meets Jacinda Ardern in the Oval Office. Picture: AFP.

“The hype-up of relevant issues in the joint statement by the US and New Zealand is out of ulterior motives to create disinformation and attack and discredit China,” Mr Zhao said in Beijing on Wednesday evening.

“We hope New Zealand will adhere to its independent foreign policy and do more to enhance security and mutual trust among regional countries and safeguard regional peace and stability,” Mr Zhao said.

Geoffrey Miller, international analyst at Victoria University’s Democracy Project, said the Chinese Ambassador’s comments were reminiscent of the threats made by Beijing’s envoy in Canberra in 2020 before China launched sweeping trade strikes on Australia.

“This is a very dangerous moment for NZ,” Mr Miller told The Australian. “It might just be a warning signal to back off, but it could be the beginning of something stronger. The reference to ‘clean and green’ NZ, I took as a reference to agricultural products, which dominate the country’s exports. If NZ was punished by China over, for example, its milk powder, it would be a calamity.”

Mr Miller said the joint statement was a signal that NZ had allied itself with the US over the Pacific.

“That is significant because it put NZ on the same page with the US,” he said. “China doesn’t like joint statements. They’re a pet hate. They see it as countries ganging up on them.”

Last year, Beijing said New Zealand had demonstrated the importance of “mutual respect” in contrast to the “insane” approach of the Australian government.

Xi Jinping shakes hands with Jacinda Ardern before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2019. Picture: AFP.

NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Thursday said Wellington stuck by its independent foreign policy and would not be pulled “betwixt and between by the increasing interest here in the Pacific.”.

Speaking to TVNZ, Ms Mahuta said: “China has been active in the Pacific for a very long time, and it’s really important that New Zealand retains its approach which is to be consistent, predictable, and respectful in the way that we work with China because our relationship has matured,” she said.

“We want to make sure in the way we work with China, that the things we say in private are of no surprise when we say it publicly.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong is currently visiting Samoa and Tonga, her second Pacific trip in the first fortnight of the Albanese government.

Ms Mahuta said she welcomed Penny Wong’s visits to Pacific nations, but suggested if she did the same, it would “make us look desperate”.

Prime Minister Ardern has spoken frankly for more than a year about the difficulty of dealing with Xi Jinping’s China.

In a keynote speech to New Zealand’s China Business Summit in 2021, she said: “There are some things on which China and New Zealand do not, cannot, and will not agree … This need not derail our relationship, it is simply a reality.”

New Zealand’s agricultural exporters have watched on nervously as their counterparts in Australia — in the lobster, beef, timber, barley and wine industries — have been targeted by China.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week failed to get support for a sweeping security and trade agreement at a meeting of Pacific Island leaders in Fiji, a setback on a trip Beijing has billed as “unusual and historic”.

Beijing’s push into the Pacific dominated the agenda of the meeting on Wednesday morning (AEST) between Ms Ardern and Mr Biden, the first visit to the White House by a New Zealand prime minister since 2014.

Ms Ardern told the President they were meeting at a “critical moment”, as the two leaders spoke of their families’ Pacific service in World War II.

Beijing has dismissed concerns made by Wellington, Canberra and other Pacific Island countries about China’s new security agreement with Solomon Islands, which was signed last month.

New Zealand again made those concerns explicit in its joint statement with America after the leaders’ meeting.

“We note with concern the ­security agreement between the People’s Republic of China and the Solomon Islands,” the New Zealand-US statement read.

“In particular, the US and New Zealand share a concern that the establishment of a persistent military presence in the Pacific by a state that does not share our values or security interests would fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region and pose national security concerns to both our countries.”

The statement also said that “security and defence will become an ever-more-important focus of our strategic partnership”.

NZ Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta. Picture: Getty Images.

Ms Mahuta said New Zealand was closely aligned with Australia’s new government.

“I welcome Penny Wong’s engagement with the Pacific,” Ms Mahuta said.

“She has to establish new relationships across the globe. But in particular she has signalled three things: She wants to focus on the Pacific, she wants to focus on climate change, she wants to ensure that the way in which indigenous issues are brought into Australia’s foreign policy is a part of her legacy contribution.

“On those three points, we align very closely together. It is a shift in the way that Australia is reaching out to the Pacific, and I certainly welcome her engagement.

“But we don’t have to rush into these things because the foundation of our relationship with the Pacific is very strong. We have a very different approach, and we are not defined by China and the way that they are conducting their relationship.”