Several countries have been invited to attend this year’s Boao Forum for Asia conference by video, including New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes Alliance, an intelligence-sharing network. New Zealand, which sees China as an important trading partner, has earlier stated that it seeks a respectful and predictable relationship with China. Some commentators have condemned New Zealand for turning its back on democratic principles for the sake of economic and trade interests.
Those invited to this year’s Boao Forum for Asia annual meeting include South Korea, Singapore and a number of developing countries. New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern was the only leader of the “Five Eyes Alliance” member countries to attend.
Zheng Yushuo, a retired political science professor at the City University of Hong Kong, said that Asia-Pacific countries are the key target of the Boao Forum. Beijing hopes to increase the influence of this informal diplomatic forum at a time when China’s diplomacy is under sanctions and boycotts from the Western camp led by the United States.
Zheng Yushuo: “China is strongly mobilizing neighboring countries, especially those that do not want to follow the U.S. diplomatic line, and New Zealand just fits (this condition), and their participation in this way is mainly to show respect for China, willing to be friendly with China, willing to maintain good economic and trade relations with China, but never to show support for China’s foreign policy, to express satisfaction with China’s human rights situation expressing satisfaction with the human rights situation in China. They don’t mean that either.”
New Zealand Refuses to Respond Forcefully to China’s Human Rights Issues
As a member of the Five Eyes Coalition, an intelligence-sharing network, New Zealand has emphasized that its relationship with China is based on mutual respect. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta, speaking at an event of the New Zealand-China Relations Promotion Committee on Monday, repeatedly compared the two countries to New Zealand’s Maori legend of the water spirit and the Chinese dragon, saying it was inevitable that the two countries would sometimes disagree on issues such as developments in Hong Kong and the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and that New Zealand would publicly express concern but call for mutual respect.
Members of the Five Eyes Coalition, which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have concluded intelligence-sharing agreements, and the coalition has recently issued statements on different Chinese issues, but New Zealand sometimes chooses not to join and takes independent action. For example, in January this year, the foreign ministers of the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning the Hong Kong government’s arrest of several opposition figures, but New Zealand did not respond. Subsequently, China and New Zealand signed a protocol to upgrade the FTA.
Mahuta explained that New Zealand will make independent decisions according to its own values and interests, and does not like to use the Five Eyes Alliance to express a series of issues that actually do not fall within the competence of the Alliance.
Mahuta: “The Five Eyes Alliance has its own specific functions. We are uncomfortable with the expansion of Five Eyes Alliance matters and have expressed that to our Five Eyes Alliance partners.”
Feng Chongyi, associate professor of Chinese studies at the University of Technology Sydney, was unimpressed with New Zealand’s take.
Feng Chongyi: “Profit-oriented, sneaky kind of a very dishonorable deal. The whole world is now exposing many of the tactics and conspiracies of the Chinese Communist Party. The media has also revealed a lot about the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party in New Zealand. It’s not that it (New Zealand) doesn’t know about it. It knows, but it does it for short-term economic interests. The policy of using economic interests to push the CCP for good has been a complete failure, and that economic interest has long been used by the CCP as a political tool to undermine the coalition of democratic nations.”
China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner
Feng Chongyi condemned New Zealand for being a member of the Five Eyes Alliance and for abandoning its values as a democratic country.
Feng Chongyi: “The name is to maintain its independent diplomacy. In the end, it is using such a pretext to make a very dirty deal by singing a moral high note. Some time ago, when Australia was under severe economic sanctions by China, New Zealand signed a comprehensive economic and trade agreement with China behind the scenes, that is, China sanctions Australia, not in Australia to buy products, can go to New Zealand to buy, this is a kind of perfidy.”
Hong Kong scholar Zheng Yushuo said that in the past, New Zealand was very pro-Western countries, as a small country with a population of only a few million people, New Zealand hopes that through participation in the “Five Eyes Alliance”, sharing the intelligence of Western countries, but in the last two decades, New Zealand’s position has significantly changed.
Zheng Yusuo: “It means that it does not want to give the international community the impression that it is very pro-Western, letting the United States and the United Kingdom dominate everything, it wants to take a more independent and neutral diplomatic route.”
China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with exports to the country totaling about $12 billion last year, mainly in agricultural products. Zheng Yusuo said it is understandable that New Zealand wants to maintain good relations with Beijing.
Zheng Yushuo: “It (New Zealand) understands its trade structure. It is a small country and not rich in resources, unlike Australia, which has iron ore and other minerals. So it attaches great importance to the Chinese market. It also does not want to spend too many resources on defense, so it is now basically taking a more neutral and friendly path with its trading partners.”
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