April 2019 Issue: Jacinda in China

How many Heads of States do you think have visited China this year? The answer: just two and one of them was our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. After much background, the Prime Minister finally visited Beijing at the start of the month. It was a whirlwind 24 hour visit, with Jacinda heading straight into talks with Premier Li Keqiang to discuss economic relations and the how to move towards the FTA upgrade as soon as possible. She then met with President Xi Jinping, holding high-level talks with him on a number of topics. Finally, she had enough time to open our new $50 million embassy in Beijing. The visit happened in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack, which was why it was cut to just one day. However, that the Prime Minister still visited despite the tragic events at home showed just how important the government is taking our relationship with China. This was reiterated by the Prime Minister herself, who hoped that the NZ-China relationship could be taken “to a new height". All in all, a positive trip.

Xi Jinping expressed sympathy to Jacinda for the attack against the Muslim community in Christchurch. However, Muslims in China are having their own problems with the government. In Xinjiang, the Uighurs minority (many of which are Muslim) are subject to punitive mass surveillance from the state. Even worse, more than a million Muslims have been detained in “re-education camps”. Our government’s position on this can be inferred as “concern” at what is happening. The Prime Minister’s visit offered an interesting case study on us acting on this concern while balancing the relationship we have with China, who we need a lot more than they need us. Jacinda raised the issue directly with the Premier and President, but refused to give any details saying “You can’t do much more than that”. And in a sense, that's true, we can't. It’s hard to imagine that anything we say would make China change its actions. All we can do is make our position on the issue clear, as inadequate as that may feel. China is our biggest trading partner, and as is often the case with money, pragmatism wins the day.

Regular readers of our newsletter may notice that we've added a new section to it this month. That's right, the YA is getting into original content baby! No spoilers though - check it out below.