Fascinating machinations in China as Chippy manages a diplomatic win at a time of increasing geopolitical tensions and it has immense ramifications.
There has been criticism that NZ didn’t push the human rights abuses issue hard enough, but that criticism doesn’t appreciate the current state of affairs in the Pacific between China and America.
Friend to all, enemy to none is the philosophical backbone of NZs independent foreign affairs policy and it should be the soul of any move to neutrality (more on that later).
After the extraordinarily aggressive tone taken in private by the Chinese towards NZ, there was a fear that our largest trading partner was about to use all that trade as a negative leverage against us, however by all private accounts, Nanaia Mahuta responded in that meeting with true grit and fearlessness and stood for the mana of our country and forcefully responded that NZ will voice the issues that matter to us without fear or favour.
Maybe the Chinese were testing us or probing us, but Nanaia’s response made it clear that attempting to bully us would not work on any level. The friendship shown Hipkins by Xi demands attention because what matters most is a deescalation between China and the Pacific.
Our diplomatic strength is in friendship, with tensions so high, lecturing China on human rights abuses is not the smart position to take. The Chinese value respect and face saving, there’s no reason to provoke a response with criticism right now.
Don’t get me wrong, NZ urgently needs to diversify and decouple our economy away from China and pivot towards India because China is still the largest communist regime on the planet and has a brutal view of humans rights and we don’t want to be economically dependent on an authoritarian regime, BUT give China the respect it’s earned by lifting 100 million out of extreme poverty!
China’s threat to us is not direct military conflict, it’s the constant pushing in the Grey Zone: Economic dependence, vast diaspora, industry espionage, societal influence – you name it, China’s interests are being pushed. You counter that with better culture and freedoms that allow Chinese/NZers to live a fuller deeper life than a communist regime allows for.
You don’t counter it by skipping off with the US and Australia into another American war!
Chris Hipkins has navigated these tricky waters and stabilised our relationship with China and for that he should celebrated because this was quite a feat.
He spun the lines that NZ dairy is clean and green despite that being bullshit, but a grifter’s gotta hustle and the grift aside, he managed to avoid NZ getting smashed in any tug of war between China and America.
We don’t want to be controlled by Beijing, or Washington and moving forward we need to have a serious conversation about neutrality and how we must spend more of our GDP on a new military that can protect the Independent Realm of NZ.
3 cheers for the Prime Minister.
China clearly wants a relationship with NZ, it matters to them that a Western Nation has a friendship with them and we should focus on building friendship with China while acknowledging that taking that path means we have obligations to remain vocal about human rights WHILE decoupling our economy so that it can’t be used as leverage.
We want to be friends, but not too close eh?
They are still an enormous authoritarian regime and we are very very very tiny in comparison.
It’s poignant that 50 years ago, NZs independence was tested and we stood with courage…
…the geopolitical shockwaves coming our way, the climate crisis and the manner in which America wants to cause conflict will all demand NZ stands independent again.
Fuck getting sucked into another pointless war for America!
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Great for our milk-powder exports – and what of the Uighur Muslims?
The Urghur crisis is American bullcrap, just like they said Gaddafi had Rape Soldiers, Iraqi’s were throwing babies out of incubators & Syrians using Chemical weapons & the Taliban stopping women going to school! What happened to all that hot air? Once exposed as lies, the US conveniently forgets about it, it served its purpose to deceive & misdirect their misdeeds!
Jason, the Uighur Muslims were in Syria now only in the province of Idlib a terrorist haven for now. The Uighurs are fighting alongside Al Qaeda, ISIS.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-china-idUKKCN1L508A
And what about the Muslims that Modi (Indian President) are persecuting? You do not have the right to make things so unbearable no one poor can survive.
Until we fix our own record on human rights I don’t think we have the moral right to criticize any country on their internal affairs.Stop filling our jails with young maori and our run down motels with poor people
The problem we face, with regard to having an independent, or fully neutral, foreign policy is that when push comes to shove would our 5 eyes allies allow us to stay on the sidelines
Maori in NZ prisons are there because they broke the law – Uyghurs in concentration camps in China are there because they are Uyghurs.
Another contrast for you to chew over Peter is Maori are to have ‘enhanced’ access to surgery in NZ hospitals vs Uyghurs being taken to a local hospital for forced organ harvesting . . this may escape you but that constitutes quite a big difference between the two and their approach to human rights.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/06/china-un-human-rights-experts-alarmed-organ-harvesting-allegations
James, Organ harvesting??? You sure you have gathered a credible source? On the 4th paragraph its says,”“According to the allegations received,” that all they are allegations?
Here are real journalist that dig into this organ harvesting and the propaganda machine that uncovers christian fundamentalist and a concerted effort to attack communism.
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/17/uyghur-tribunal-us-government-china/
Totally agree with you Peter, let’s get our house in order before lecturing others.
Hmmmm did you think that way in 1981?
However I actually agree with you. No country is perfect, including us.
A mouse talking with a shark.
A budgie talking to an eagle.
Mostly agree but i suspect Xi jerked the chain and Chipkins took his licks. However we will be glad of our positive but neutral stance with China when the US dollar is jettisoned by OPEC+. It will be a a landslide into depression for the US who has done little to nothing for the South Pacific region.
Pooh Bear and Chippy bond over controlling freedom of speech.
@ save Nu Zillind
You really need to read this.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex
“The military–industrial complex (MIC) is a geopolitical term in relation to finance capitalism that describes the relationship between a country’s military, the defense industry that supplies it, and the capitalists that benefit from it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy.”
NATO used Ukraine to needle Russia into action to make $billions perhaps even more.
Russell Brand has some excellent reporters as guests on his show on that subject. You should probably check him out also.
Oh dear when he goes away shit happens.
Another gone burger coming I recks.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/hipkins-predecessor-problems?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=8f5187e291-Daily_Briefing+29.06.2023&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-8f5187e291-97971941&mc_cid=8f5187e291&mc_eid=c00c6d0bb9
Yes Tane wheels aren’t falling off they’ve already gone.
You still using trainer wheels Bob.
No not since I was a small boy.
Drive cars,fly aircraft now.
buhahahaha Bob the last, still pushing your BS oneliners
Nanaia Mahuta has been very supportive of America’s race war against the Chinese people and their government. Good thing Hipkins went instead.
Can’t believe that I am in agreeance with the resident bomb-chuker on here but the treatment of the Uyghurs appears to be no different to the Jews (and many others) during WW2 and most of the world turning a blind-eye to this for monetary gain is simply reprehensible.
Nanaia is being kept out of sight if you hadn’t noticed.
Mohammed Khan, got proof?
C’mon Martyn, if this was a National PM doing the exact same thing you would be blasting that PM for kowtowing to China and ignoring HR abuses blah blah blah
But it’s a Labour PM so let’s just make it a ‘good outcome’ post! Lol
So next time Martyn attacks Labour( and he does often) I expect to see your typical right wing attack saying Martyn is wrong! Lol
Nope Mr silly name, Martyn bangs the drums on China’s HR record and it’s takeover of the Pacific region (he is no fan of USA either), but for him to pen a ‘well done PM’ post when all Chippy has done is keep his mouth shut and be Xi’s lapdog with nothing controversial spoken about seems rather hypocritical don’t you think….wait what am I saying, you don’t think!
Well, there you have it, the height of Im( fucking right wing pathetic)right’s intellect, wait you haven’t any, you are a midget.
Well Mrs silly name, thank fuck Seymour or Luxon weren’t in charge, we’d be at war with China now.
Spot on Im right.
Oh dear.
…eh… meaning???? Sorry Mr.B. Once more I have not the faintest idea what it is you’re referring to. This usually seems to happen with your replies. It may be because you’re riding coat-tails rather than sticking out your own neck. Weak man… or woman???
Here’s something which is never discussed: Was independence even a good idea in the first place?
Does anyone really believe that separation from New South Wales actually resulted in a better outcome? Or how about refusing to join the Federation as the seventh state in 1901, particularly since Dunedin was being seriously proposed as an alternative to Canberra as the capital?
And was becoming a Dominion at all even a good idea, particularly since all British Subjects were later stripped of their rights? What if the country had remained a British Overseas Territory or a U.K. Dependency?
Mohammed Khan – Fully support your statement
China. ( Or Chaeena if you can listen trumpf. )
The American Pyrotechnics Association. ( Try saying aloud that while keeping a straight face.)
https://www.americanpyro.com/history-of-fireworks
“Many historians believe that fireworks originally were developed in the second century B.C. in ancient Liuyang, China.”
Chinese people were some of the first non-Maori to land on Aotearoa / New Zealand at Waikouaiti in Otago.
I’m trying to write that you can never, ever fuck with Russia which can equally be written about China.
The real and actual reason behind the building tensions between Russia/ China and we poor schmucks is because there’s huge coin to be made. Aye Boys?
Good on bloody Hipkins for doing us proud. He deserves better than he’s getting here, and I thought ‘here’ was a progressive and enlightened place to be.
We need export revenue and the national party and its greedy hangers on have fucked that up for us between the UK, Europe and the U$A, our once-were traditional trading partners and so now we have Chaeeena.
Did anyone else see gormless old Damien O’Conner blathering about an EU free trade agreement on the neo-liberal lap dog media that’s rnz? Why now, suddenly? Where was he for the last 40 years?
O’Conner’s like a flat tyre. He’s on the rim but he never seems to go anywhere. Until The Boys let him. Pump him up then spin him out there.
Good heavens.
China a democratic dictatorship and has lifted more than 400 million out of poverty. China is also an ancient civilizational society like Russia, Iran and India to some extent.
India practices a caste system that should be frown upon in a modern liberal democracy also it relationship with apartheid Israel has never been so strong under Modi that treasures it illegal settlement project and now is illegal applying those strategy in Kashmir.
Remember, when the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region imprisons a few terrorists sponsored by the CIA, that’s genocide. But when Modi follows American orders and organizes mass rapes and murders of Muslims in Gujurat and steals the self-determination that was guaranteed by the Indian constitution to Kashmir (and the only reason that the state of Jammu and Kashmir aceded to India in the first place) that’s the Rules Based International Order.
Nazi Germany also actively managed lifting the German economy out of the Great Depression but good luck finding many people using that as a justification for the concentration camps Steven.
https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/nazi-economic-recovery/
Great work Prime Minister Hipkins. You beauty!
Yes, relations seemed very friendly.
Then, as they say.
The crocodile always appears to smile before it eats you.
Melamine milk exports, anyone?
Good little boy is our Chippy.
So OK to ignore human rights abuses and to crack on with our GHG generating agricultural exports to China.
That seems to be the message here. Along with the usual “Chippie the wonderboy from the Hutt” schtick.
I bet Xi knows what a woman is!
Yes! And he can probably use concise words to define a ‘woman’ to his citizenry too! .. Unlike our own piss-weak pm who is totally delusional to think that pissing off kiwi chicks has ever worked out well in the polling booth.. (or is even a good idea generally)..
Well done, great post, lol
“Choyna” as Winston Peters famously lampooned ex Natzo leader Soymun Bridges lumpen accent.
What’s the problem with China all you tory fuckers? The Brits, USA, and Japan all tried to do China over and ultimately failed.
Xi a smart man, the Chipster?
Smarter.
It helps that Chippy said that Xi wasnt a dictator, and something to the effect that even if he was, its wasnt any of our business.
Fear not, we will never be under China’s control while we choose to be under Washington’s control. Yep, we are as independent as a ten day old baby, this is why despite being our most important trading partner, we love to shout sweet nothings in China’s direction, and we do this with pride and utter fearlessness. Trading partner and fearlessness, yeah this makes sense! Unfortunately for us, we have a penchant for swallowing Washington’s perennially unverifiable kool-aid, hook, line and sinker.
Happy to trade with India but no mention of their cast system which locks people out of society no matter how rich or educated they become . No country is free of racism some just hide it better than others. Racism is alive and well in NZ so we ate not in a position to point the finger.
I had to firm up my opinion responding to Golrhiz’s twitter criticism. Our ‘independent foreign policy’ they like is lessening our solidarity with other countries against their really rather serious crimes, if genocide interests you. I don’t like our stance at all.
Excellent job Chippy, we are just mice caught between two aggressive Elephant’s fighting for dominance & need to avoid getting stomped on! Friendly to all, Enemy to none, I like that description of our Foreign Policy stance, well done Martyn, great article!
Comments are closed.