China warns New Zealand about joining ‘dangerous’ AUKUS

Beijing’s warning came after Defence Minister Richard Marles said an Australian delegation would ‘very shortly’ travel to Wellington to brief officials.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has urged New Zealand to avoid the ‘Cold War mentality’ of the AUKUS partners. Picture: AFP

Beijing has warned New Zealand against going down the “dangerous path” of joining AUKUS after Defence Minister Richard Marles said an Australian delegation would “very shortly” travel to Wellington to brief officials on the defence technology pact.

The episode marks the first public criticisms made by Beijing about New Zealand since Christopher Luxon’s National Party formed a coalition government in November. It comes after a joint meeting in Melbourne on Thursday of Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Mr Marles with their New Zealand counterparts Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins, which was focused on co-ordinating approaches to foreign policy, security and defence.

Hours after the meeting, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged New Zealand to avoid the “Cold War mentality” of the AUKUS partners, Australia, the US and the UK, which he said were engaged in an “arms race”.

“The three countries, for their own geopolitical interests, have totally disregarded the concerns of the international community and gone further down the wrong and dangerous path,” Mr Wang said.

China’s diplomats in Wellington joined in on Friday morning, bristling at “irresponsible remarks” in the joint New Zealand-Australian statement about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the erosion of religious freedom in Tibet, the snuffing of democratic processes in Hong Kong and threats to Taiwan.

“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this. Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other affairs are China’s internal affairs, involve China’s core interests, and do not allow any external force to interfere,” a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Wellington said.

Beijing’s party state media also joined the chorus of warnings, with the China Daily noting Wellington’s stand on AUKUS had changed since “a coalition of right-wing parties” replaced Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government.

The China Daily warned that joining AUKUS “would no doubt cast a shadow on bilateral ties”.

David Capie, the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Wellington’s Victoria University, said the language used in the Thursday joint statement to ­describe AUKUS and the Quad – two groups that Beijing has long denounced as efforts to contain China – was “warmer” than that used by New Zealand’s previous Labour government.

Professor Capie said language about China’s challenging behaviour in the Indo-Pacific was also more direct, making it harder for Beijing to try to “wedge the transTasman relationship”, a strategy it has employed for years.

Speaking after Thursday’s ­inaugural “2+2” Australia and New Zealand foreign and defence ministers’ meeting, Mr Marles said a delegation would travel to New Zealand “very shortly” to brief officials on pillar two of AUKUS, which covers the sharing of advanced military technologies.

But he said the three AUKUS partners wanted to see “runs on the board” before other members joined. “In the longer term, we’re open to the idea of pillar two being open to other countries who may be interested,” he said.