Speech to the New Zealand China Council

Foreign Affairs

It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon and thank you to John McKinnon and the New Zealand-China Council for the invitation.

New Zealand greatly values its long-standing relationship with China. The connections between our two countries are strong, although recovering after being deeply affected by the impacts of COVID-19.

Some things are starting to improve again. For example, with 53 regular flights a week, tourists, students, and businesspeople are travelling in both directions in large numbers again. In the year to August 2024, New Zealand welcomed 244,000 Chinese visitors, an increase of over 175 percent on the previous year. While this is well below pre-COVID levels, things are moving in the right direction.

China remains our largest trading partner, with two-way trade between us totalling around NZ$38 billion in the year ending September 2024. This makes the Chinese market hugely important to the broad range of New Zealand businesses who export to and invest in China - and thus to our country's broader prosperity.

There is also the people-to-people dimension. According to the 2023 Census, there are now almost 280,000 New Zealanders of Chinese heritage - or over five percent of our country's total population. We deeply value our diverse Chinese community, for the energy it brings, for the positive contribution it makes to New Zealand society, and for deepening the connections between New Zealand and China.

The Coalition Government took office just over a year ago, in late November 2024. A strong theme of our foreign policy has been that diplomacy matters now more than any other time in living memory.

Our strategic challenges are so complex, and conflict is so prevalent, that New Zealand needs to make a huge effort to engage with all our international partners - both those who agree with us and those who do not. It's through dialogue that comes better understanding.

We inherited a lethargic foreign policy from our predecessors. An insular government that was preoccupied with COVID, struggling with the non-delivery of its domestic agenda, and had a Foreign Minister who didn't like to travel.

Labour left our country disconnected and adrift. That was very bad for New Zealand, which is why we, Prime Minister Luxon and other senior Ministers, have used so much time and energy this year successfully reconnecting our country with the world.

As is appropriate for our largest trading partner and one of New Zealand's most important diplomatic partnerships, China has been a big part of these efforts at re-connection. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between our two countries.

China is one of the only countries outside our near Pacific Island neighbours to be welcomed to New Zealand at both leader and foreign minister level during our government's first year in office.

Trade Minister McClay has also visited China twice this year, and last month Prime Minister Luxon and President Xi met at APEC in Peru. In addition, we are hoping to reciprocate the visits by Premier Li and Foreign Minister Wang to New Zealand this year with trips of our own to Beijing in the first half of 2025.

This intensive pattern of high-level engagement is fitting for the importance that New Zealand attaches to our bilateral relationship with China, for the many strategic challenges we face as a country, and for the significant role China plays in our region and the world.

The engagement we have had to date has highlighted important areas of cooperation between New Zealand and China in areas from trade to climate change to people-to-people links. We look forward to taking these areas of cooperation forward in the year ahead.

We last met with the New Zealand-China Council in May in Auckland, where we gave a detailed speech on the New Zealand-China bilateral relationship - which we won't repeat here today. But much has happened since then.

The global strategic outlook has continued to deteriorate - from Ukraine to the Middle East as well as closer to home in the Indo-Pacific. Major changes are occurring in the global distribution of power, economic heft and influence. The world is becoming less stable and less secure.

During the Coalition Government's first-year engagements with all our most important diplomatic partners - in the Pacific, Indo-Pacific and beyond - we have been clear about what New Zealand stands for: open markets, the rule of law, democracy, human dignity, and universal human rights. This guides our engagement with all countries and in all fora.

Beyond our long-standing areas of cooperation with China, there continue to be points of disagreement that require frank and comprehensive discussion in our private settings. That is natural in the context of our long-standing, mature and mutually respectful partnership - where our differences are aired in a predictable and consistent manner.

Now, there has been a lot of public debate in New Zealand over the state of our foreign policy over the past year, including on how New Zealand should approach the current state of great power relations - and particularly the China/US relationship.

Much of this debate has been fuelled by reckless politicking, but we are comforted by the fact that the New Zealand people understand better than those attempting to manipulate them that we face the most challenging strategic environment in living memory.

They see that on issues as diverse as Gaza, Ukraine, Pillar 2 of AUKUS, the Pacific and great power relations, the Coalition Government forms its foreign policy based on dispassionate advice and information supplied by loyal public servants who represent our country in our diplomatic, military and security services.

We, as Ministers, then form a view on what is in the national interest of New Zealand and our people - and then implement policy accordingly. Our foreign policy is written in the Beehive by New Zealand politicians elected by the New Zealand people to represent them.

This is the very definition of an independent foreign policy. We assess information about the world as it is today - much of which is not available to our critics, who have been out of office for a long time, or whose private interests undermine their advocacy - and make decisions about what we think is right for our country.

While certain others view New Zealand's independent foreign policy as shorthand for reflexively disagreeing with the United States all of the time and reflexively agreeing with China most of the time, we have a much more important and grave responsibility: to approach every issue on its merits and make a hard-headed assessment of what is in New Zealand's national interest. We take this responsibility seriously and we do what we think is right for New Zealand, not what any other country - no matter how important - might prefer that we do.

We are not driven by threats or mindless, knee-jerk ideologies, nor by decades-old prejudice, but by a careful, nuanced assessment of national interest. And we certainly won't take lectures on foreign policy independence from former leaders who opine and criticise their current successors in high office while never disclosing to the New Zealand public their own historical prejudices or their own sources of foreign income. We work for the New Zealand people. Who do they work for?

When it comes to China, we expect - as has always been the case - that China will sometimes do things that we disagree with, and we will sometimes do things that it disagrees with.

But across the long sweep of our bilateral relationship - from the days we were one of the first Western countries to recognise the People's Republic of China; to the days when we were the first Western country to sign an FTA with them; to the current environment - the glue that has held our partnership together has been reciprocity, openness and mutual respect.

For example, New Zealand has made very clear our concerns about the trajectory of civil and political rights in China. We will continue to raise these concerns publicly and in private with China in a predictable and consistent manner.

We are clear that all countries, including China, must support the rules, norms, and institutions that have underpinned the Indo-Pacific's stability and success over many decades. And we also continue to stress that it is in everyone's interest that the US-China relationship is managed in a way that reduces friction and enables cooperation on issues of global concern.

And we know and expect that, in return, China will raise issues with New Zealand where it has concerns. This is the sign of a healthy, mutually respectful, reciprocal partnership - in which both sides are seeking to pursue opportunities and manage risks on behalf of their peoples and in defence of their core national interests.

This has been a busy year of engagement with one of our most complex and significant relationships. Going into 2025, this Government remains committed to a dynamic and energetic approach to the world and will remain nimble and resilient in our relationships - including with China.

As we noted earlier, we have prioritised travel to China in the first half of next year. The Prime Minister and we look forward to meeting our counterparts in Beijing again soon. We also look forward to seeing the New Zealand China Council building further on its important work in 2025.

Thank you.