The Great Red Dragon pushes back – how does NZ handle an angry China?
After years of push and shove between America and China in the South China Sea, the last week has seen a sharp and steep rise in China taking offence against their deplorable crack down in Hong Kong…
The Foreign Affairs Minister is not sure if New Zealand has offended China, but admits a statement made by a government official about removing the eyes of those who interfere with the country’s business is “strongly worded”.
The Five Eyes intelligence network, which includes New Zealand, Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada, made a joint statement which said Beijing was trying to silence political opposition in the Chinese territory.
The countries called for China to immediately reinstate recently fired members of Hong Kong’s legislature and said new rule changes appeared to be a concerted campaign to silence critical voices.
China has issued a stark warning to the Five Eyes countries, an intelligence alliance including New Zealand, that it risks “having their eyes poked out” for calling on China to obey international obligations in Hong Kong.
There are warnings this is only the beginning of tensions between China and the Five Eyes countries.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used the virtual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to hammer home the importance of sticking to the rules.
“We must continue to ensure a level playing field and predictable rules for our exporters in the region.”
China leaks dossier of 14 disputes with Australia as tensions increase
In August, China’s Deputy Head of Mission Wang Xining made an extraordinary speech at Canberra’s National Press Club outlining how Australia had wronged his country.
It was a pointed attack at Australia over its decision to back an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic – a decision the diplomat compared with the treacherous assassination of Roman emperor Julius Caesar.
The rift over where coronavirus originated has dominated the relationship between the two previously strong allies. But it is far from the only reason China is “angry” at Australia.
A deliberately leaked document delivered by the Chinese embassy in Canberra to The Age newspaper reveals 14 disputes that are “poisoning bilateral relations”
…China is our Economic Overlord, Australia is our loud mouthed rude neighbour and America is our 5 Eyes Political Master, so to think we will be immune from such volatility between China, Australia and America is delusional.
To date NZ has managed to keep out of any direct confrontation with China because China bought the National Party and the National Party did everything in their decade of power to bend over backwards to China.
Key put all our cows in one Beijing paddock off the back of Helen’s free trade deal, and we’ve been trapped ever since.
The fact there was an alleged Chinese spy inside the National Party caucus highlights how compromised National had become.
With their investment in National wasted, soft power turns to hard force very quickly.
Trump’s erratic and increasingly desperate thrashing around while there are two carrier task forces in the South China Sea is an enormous uncertainty and recipe for miscalculation.
China could ‘poke out our eyes’ in 3 ways.
Economically – They could strangle off exports and hurt the economy.
Militarily – They could shoot down an American satellite launched by RocketLabs from a submarine off the East Coast.
Domestically – We know Chinese newspaper editors in NZ all take their editorial stance directly from the Chinese Government and calling for mass demonstrations against the Government for whatever perceived insult would cause enormous upheaval that could easily spill into something ugly.
NZ-Asians face the most overt racism in NZ, there is a huge tension beneath the mild surface of NZ society, and we aren’t prepared for if it ruptures from geopolitical tensions.
We must be a voice for peace and the champion for International co-operation and respect for the rule of law because conflict will create social reverberations we are not ready for.
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Our new foreign minister seems unsure and looks terrified. Well out of her depth.
Not a great start.
On the contrary, the minister responded to colourful Chinese rhetoric in a reasonably measured sort of way – better than many would – her moko confers a certain class and dignity upon her too. I doubt anyone ever mistakes traditional Chinese inscrutability for terror …
Moko – clown, dribble. You just sound like a childish racist.And what SE Asian ponzi scheme (you are aware SE Asia is not East or South Asia)?
Good diplomacy is all about soft power and influence, if we can’t play that game they’ve just got to plainly explain our own principles on the matter without making threats, ultimatums and insults, which only entrench brinkmanship..
Agree 100%
Mere projection and contemptuous bias.
Why the fuck west countries want to interfere issues of other countries? Who do you think you are?
Piss off back to China then.
human rights don’t stop at the border – people like you would listen to the screams and watch the bludgeoning of your neighbour then scurry off to your rat hole and rock yourself to sleep with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed
NZ imports from China are not that different to our exports to them.
Chinese gain from NZ exports which tend to be high quality, NZ gets all the plastic crap that goes to land fill (lucky China, that NZ wastemanagement is majority Chinese owned) and costs NZ to dispose of it.
2019 11 b exported to China from NZ
2019 8.5 billion imported to NZ from China
Weirdly we also import a lot of knitted apparel from China, I guess that is where NZ’s wool industry and manufacturing went down the toilet. (Plus Jenny Shipley).
Meanwhile our exports to Japan and US are falling compared to our imports from them.
Shouldn’t the government strategy be to diversify, and move to export to reliable countries that don’t hold exports to ransom and don’t send messages to ‘poke our eyes out over Hong Kong human rights and abuses’?
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/exports-by-country
Also our trade & enterprise was last updated in 2018 on the piece I was looking at, WTF do they do all day?
Also more rubbish like NZ-Asians face the most overt racism in NZ, I mean true if you count some hapless cafe assistant, putting the word “Asian” on coffee receipts which is described as “We were truly shocked at the restaurant for their incredibly racist service.” Bad labelling for table service coffee orders in NZ (via Indian owned restaurant) is a truely heinous crime in NZ apparently. Makes local and international news!
But if you look at real racism, it is the opposite, Asians are less likely to be victims of crime in NZ which was shown in the latest crime statistics, and my guess is less likely to be caught and punished if they do do a crime in NZ. For example many in NZ are surprised at the ‘light’ sentences handed out to Chinese criminals here.
Only 4 months home detention in palatial mansion for this money launderer.
William Yan AKA Bill Liu to keep NZ citizenship despite money laundering conviction
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11905478
No conviction for this money laundering Chinese woman.
Queen St money remitter discharged after laundering Polish and Russian crime syndicate’s cash
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/queen-st-money-remitter-discharged-after-laundering-polish-and-russian-crime-syndicates-cash/WSPHGXQUK4UC2UUOAUC7LGR36Y/
Compare being a Chinese money launderer to what happens if you are a local and live with a partner and claim under $100k of benefit.
$93k fraud: beneficiary jailed for six months
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10806187
This Chinese business man received $33,000 worth of stolen honey and was repackaging it, aka receiving stolen goods, but only fined $17,500 – sounds like he was still $15,500 better off after being caught.
Compare endangering our food reputation for quality export honey to this local businessman hoaxer, Jeremy Kerr who got nearly 9 years jail in jail.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12077932
Our OIA fines leave plenty of profit in the mix, even when caught, by my calculation this couple made more than a million in profit but only fined $847k when caught. Again better off!
Chinese buyers fined $847k after failing to get consent to buy $5m cliff-top Auckland mansion
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12011961
Come to NZ from Hong Kong, no need to even file a tax return when you get residency here. Keep offending and bringing in 40m of Meth, nobody cares what foreign drug dealers under the guise of untaxed ‘currency traders’ are up to here!
“According to Inland Revenue records neither Yim nor Wu, who arrived in New Zealand in 1991 and 1994, have ever declared their income nor paid any tax.”
“As part of the raids on Yim, police also seized 12 luxury sports cars valued at more than $1.3m, including a Ferrari worth more than $500,000 and a Lamborghini Gallardo. More than $1.8m in cash was seized and a further 1kg of methamphetamine found.
Watches, jewellery, electronics, and 48 bottles of vintage French wine valued at about $42,000 were also seized.”
“Yim was sentenced this month in the High Court at Auckland to 11 and a half years in prison for possession of a class A drug for supply.
During sentencing he was described by Justice Geoffrey Venning as being vital to the drug scheme which imported the equivalent of 30kg of pure methamphetamine with a street value of $40m.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11842563
Yim, who came to New Zealand from Hong Kong on a resident visa before gaining citizenship in 1995, has previously been convicted on three unrelated charges.
In July 2006 he was convicted at the Auckland District Court for drink-driving and on a dangerous driving charge, while in April 1997 he was convicted of shoplifting.”
But hey, the echo chambers of paid for media go a long way to not bother to look at statistics before the next fake news of discrimination to China, is echoed far and wide. There is discrimination but it often seems to appears the advantage in our system is to the Chinese and they are statistically less likely to be a victim of crime than any other ethnic group in NZ.
great post – highlighting the hypocrisy rampant in modern society
My wife is Chinese and has lived here for fifteen years now. Before that we lived in China for ten years.
She tells me she has only once encountred racism here, and that was from an Australian!
In China, by contrast, we were attacked for walking along a street together(in Tianjin) and she often had vile obscenties shouted at her for associating with a foreign barbarian.
As a foreigner I can only stay in hotels designated to take foreigners. there are areas I may not live in and I may not travel in Tibet or Xinjiang unless I am part of a designated tour group that can be monitored.
Watching Chinese television I can enjoy remarks like ‘foreigners and other bad people’. ‘Chinese women who marry foreigners betray their country.’
All right so two wrongs do not make one right but I think Chinese, in particular, ought to take a look at themselves before they call New Zealanders racist.
“With their investment in National wasted, soft power turns to hard force very quickly.”
The above statement is hardly applicable to the rebuke the Five Eyes Spy network received after attempted interference with China’s running of their sovereign territory in Hong Kong.
Firstly Britain Gave the East India Company ( who robbed India of 43 trillion dollars in todays money) the nod to trade opium in China. This led to wars that were a part of “The Century Of Humuliation” for China at the hands of eventually 7 European countries and Japan being at war with China which forbade the trading of opium.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-war-made-asia-how-the-opium-war-crushed-china-19476
Mao threw them out but Britain had already forced a concession to hold Hong Kong for 100 years.
During that 100 years Britain ruled Hong Kong from London and employed Indian Administrators leaving Hong Kong Chinese as third class citizens.
There was no democracy nor voted representation for the people native to Hong Kong.
When China took back Hong Kong they instituted elections to choose who would represent them in the One China two systems administrations.
That was the first democracy experienced in Hong Kong for a century.
But the USA had in place their infamous NGO the NED ( National Endowment for Democracy) an organisation funded by US congress and administered by the CIA to disrupt governments, create unrest and regime change.
After months of so called “Pro Democracy” disruption, regulations were put in place to protect Hong Kong from the organised attacks funded by the US and Britain and led by anti Chinese dissidents living out of China. Even US flags were flown during the attacks on Hong Kong Police.
China passed laws to make foreign interference in Hong Kong affairs illegal.
The Politicians sacked were deemed guilty of breaking those laws. That is a matter for the Chinese to attend to and not a five eyes concern.
But the USA has attempted to grossly interfere with Chinese affairs running a propaganda campaign globally, against China after their Hong Kong disruption failed. Now the USA and Britain have dragged New Zealand into the role of backing US interference in Chinese affairs.
Just remember that the CIA has interfered in NZ political affairs multiple times. During the 1951 strikes the CIA sent a small fleet of planes to transport freight thus prolonging the strike and bringing down the Workers Union. Another notable occasion is when the CIA designed and funded the National Party’s election campaign with an aim of getting rid of Kirk’s fine superannuation scheme for working Kiwis.
We should not put up with US interference and nor should China.
Evidence of Covid19 in European sewerage samples go back to just after mid 2019, many months before the Wuhan outbreak. International data is being shared through the WHO but the USA wont share theirs in spite of a covid19 like out break in the second half of 2019.
Many of the Covid19 outbreaks globally are not related to the out break in China when virologists look at the genome.
Yet the US backed by Australia are pushing for an investigation of the “Chinese virus” as Trump calls it.
China and most of the world deal with data and investigations through the WHO which is a world body best equipped to investigate in a non partisan scientific manner.
What evidence re COVID in Europe in mid 2019?
Excellent post John W ,,,,
Regarding the CIA doing operations in NZ ,,, I had never heard of the strike breaking air lift / transport they did, until a old declassified document was superficially reported on…. Up until then this part of our history seemed to have been censored out of existence. At the time ‘air-america’ were here fighting socialism,,,thousands of people must have known what was going on ,,, the lack of reporting on it,,, or teaching it in our history ,,, shows how long and deep our society has fed right wing propaganda.
The CIA backed dancing Cossack’s communist accusation against Norman Kirks Govt and pension fund ,,, was based on the amount of money this fund would invest into our business sector and society ,,,, because if the Govt ends up the main shareholder in our big companys ,, then that’s Communism and thus evil…..
Although truth be known it was probably the immediate bribe Muldoon was offering in the switch to his unsustainable scheme ( as witnessed by the later rise 5 year raise in the age for eligibility), that swayed voters.
“Muldoon’s 1975 election campaign, which convinced the voting public that our superannuation pool would become too big, was a dreadful example of fear-mongering in an election.
His subsequent decision to abolish Labour’s compulsory scheme was the country’s worst economic decision.”
Brian Gaynor: NZ badly behind times with age pensions – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/brian-gaynor-nz-badly-behind-times-with-age-pensions/PVTZOFOWXETKLEZTUAYNXDUM3Y/
We are still getting large dollops of 5 eyes propaganda over china,,,
… And the censorship of silence regarding the right wing nationalism / fascism they are being persecuted and killed with in India.
“Dead Bodies Everywhere”: Hindu Nationalist Violence Rocks Delhi as Trump Visits Modi in India https://youtu.be/17QfIJfXm4M
I would not be at all surprised if they are being starved to death en mass at the present https://youtu.be/jwUKh3QsS8s
My post above was missing reference of China’s Muslim population ,,,,
It should have been ….We are still getting large dollops of 5 eyes propaganda over china,,, especially regarding their Muslim citizens.
India seems to be doing its best to starve theirs, despite having HUGE reserves of grain / food.
“Reports of hunger and starvation have emerged from both cities and countryside. And the predictable minority-blaming is in full swing—after it emerged that several attendees at an Islamic gathering in Delhi in March contracted the infection, a new narrative blaming the pandemic on Muslims has become widespread.”
https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii122/articles/india-s-starvation-measures
https://theconversation.com/indias-treatment-of-muslims-and-migrants-puts-lives-at-risk-during-covid-19-136940
Unless there is political and propaganda advantage to be gained for the 5 eyes club from the mistreatment and suffering of Muslims ,,, then they can get fucked, and our ‘News’ will be as quiet as their coverage on the man made genocide / disaster in Yemen ,,, as quiet they were in the early days of the genocide in east Timor ,,, etc etc etc.
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Regarding the corruption problem China has ,,, NZ and the 5 eyes club help the criminals ,,, as long as they are rich and have a cut for us.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111714405/china-construction-bank-names-replacement-for-shipley ,,, and its John Creative Shewan
The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire – https://youtu.be/np_ylvc8Zj8
https://www.cityam.com/leaked-document-trove-reveals-banking-giants-enabled-money-laundering/
The top 10 banks represented in the FinCEN ( usa )Files include:
Institution Amount flagged
Deutsche Bank $1.3 trillion
BNY Mellon $64bn
Standard Chartered $166bn
JP Morgan $514bn
Barclays $21bn
HSBC $4.4bn
Bank of China $1.3bn
Bank of America $384m
Wells Fargo $57m
Citibank $25m
It seems to me that Pakeha for the most part would rather be shot than be called racist which is certainly not a trait shared by the Chinese or really any other ethnic group for that matter.
All ethnic groups are racist to some degree and always will be.
I’m sure my parents and grandparents might have been a little disappointed about the future they were leaving for their kids, but they never felt as negative as I do about what the next 30 or 40 years will bring.
And we did it to ourselves
Thanks