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Diplomacy
OpinionComment
Nicholas Ross Smith
Bonnie Holster
Nicholas Ross SmithandBonnie Holster

Opinion | New Zealand has a great relationship with China. But for how much longer as US pressure grows?

  • New Zealand’s independent and indigenous foreign policy means it has a mature relationship with China unique in the Anglosphere
  • But as great power rivalry grows in the Indo-Pacific, New Zealand is under intensifying pressure to join the resistance against China

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to the press outside of the West Wing after a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on May 31. Photo: AFP
Nicholas Ross SmithandBonnie Holster

This is the 50th year of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the People’s Republic of China. What began as a modest relationship has, particularly in the last decade, become one of New Zealand’s most important, especially as China is by far its largest trading partner.

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But this anniversary comes as relations are shrouded in uncertainty and questions, particularly with the destabilisation of the Indo-Pacific amid the fracturing Sino-American relationship.

Australia, one of New Zealand’s oldest and closest friends, chose to side with the United States, joining security initiatives such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and Aukus alliance (with Britain). New Zealand has resisted this, preferring to chart a middle-ground path of good relationships with all.
Leaders and officials from New Zealand and China speak of mature ties, where disagreements or differences of opinion do not detract from the robustness of the relationship. No other Anglosphere country can be said to have such a relationship with China, making New Zealand unique.

This has been amplified by the increasing influence of tikanga Māori (Māori customary practices and behaviours) on New Zealand’s foreign policy in recent years. In outlining the approach, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta identified four key tikanga: manaaki – kindness or the reciprocity of goodwill; whanaunga – our connectedness or shared sense of humanity; mahi tahi and kotahitanga – collective benefits and shared aspiration; and, kaitiaki – protectors and stewards of our intergenerational well-being.

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Mahuta argues that an indigenous foreign policy means New Zealand would “stand for what we believe is in our interest, unafraid to hold our course when the tide turns to navigate towards our destination”. In many ways, this continues the independent spirit of New Zealand’s foreign policy that has been in place since the 1980s.
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