Transcript of 1News’s Interview with HE Amb Wang Xiaolong on HE Wang Yi’s Visit to New Zealand and the Bilateral Relations
Q: Why is Wang’s trip taken place?
Ambassador Wang: This trip is taking place at an important and opportune moment for both New Zealand and China, and the relationship because, as you may know, this year marks the 10th anniversary of our comprehensive strategic partnership and the visit by our president back in 2014. And it also takes place at a time when both of us are facing some common challenges in a complex and sometimes even challenging environment. And it also takes place at a time when both New Zealand and China are engaged in high quality growth and development in the post COVID era. We are mutually important economic partners. China has been in the past 10 years by far the biggest trading partner of New Zealand. So there’s a role to be played for both sides by the further development of the bilateral relationship in pursuit of our respective domestic goals.
Q: I mean, trade has really rocketed since the free trade agreement came in, you know, the trade between our two countries. How do you see the trade relationship going forward? Do you think we can continue to grow given you know, there are these economic challenges we’re seeing in China and around the world?
Ambassador Wang: I think both of us faced some headwinds last year, but our bilateral trade held up quite strongly and there’s common recognition on both sides that there is huge potential for the trade between us to grow further, generating further benefits for both sides, particularly both peoples
Q: Are you hoping your president might come down again to New Zealand this year? Mark the tenth year.
Ambassador Wang: We are in the process of discussing the series of high level contacts or visits. And we’ll make the announcement in due course and hopefully, this current visit by my foreign minister will be a curtain raiser for these high level contacts throughout the year.
Q: There was also some tension between New Zealand and China at the moment particularly around AUKUS and possibly New Zealand kind of joining up to the to the second level of the AUKUS relationship. What is the Chinese government’s view on that?
Ambassador Wang: I don’t think that “tension” might be the right word to describe the state of the discussions on this, although we do have our concerns on AUKUS because of its implications for the Non- Proliferation regime, and because of its potential negative impact on peace and stability in this part of the world. AUKUS has been slated as a setup targeted at other countries including China. Contrary to contributing to greater peace and stability in the region, for that reason, it will go in the other direction because it will not make the members of AUKUS or the broader region more peaceful, more stable and more secure.
Q: Do you feel that China has been treated unfairly with AUKUS , you know like trying to sort of oppose China? Do you feel it’s fair?
Ambassador Wang: Well, we don’t think AUKUS belongs to the current era because it’s a reflection of the cold war mentality. And it doesn’t go with the current trend of cooperating and building partnerships to promote common peace and stability, either in the Pacific region or the wider world.
Q: Do you feel if New Zealand did join AUKUS even at a lower level that could negatively impact our trade relationship that is so important to New Zealand?
Ambassador Wang: Essentially, I think this is about the mutual trust between countries like New Zealand and China. And I’ve made it clear on a couple of occasions that the essence of our bilateral relationship between New Zealand and China is mutually beneficial cooperation, and its basis is mutual respect and mutual trust, and its future depends on joint efforts on both sides. On our part we look forward to working together with New Zealand to take our relationship to the next level, to the benefits of both sides on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust.
Q: Do you feel that you are getting that mutual respect though? I know that our Defense Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister in Australia they issued that joint statement that I think you guys weren’t too happy about which mentioned human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and also what was going on in Hong Kong that they were saying, you know, it’s an erosion of rights in Hong Kong. What did you make of that statement?
Ambassador Wang: Over the years, the mainstream of the relationship is very clear. That is what we have in common between us, and the mutual benefits that could be generated from this relationship. But although we do have a fair share of differences, we’re willing to address them through constructive dialogue, and there is, I think, common recognition on both sides that we shouldn’t allow these differences to define our relationship. And, as a matter of principle, we don’t believe in megaphone diplomacy and we do believe in dialogues.
Q: When it comes to and you’re talking about the AUKUS makes you feel that it is a cold war mentality. What is China’s view on the Pacific are you trying to would you like to get your military down into the Pacific or have a military base in the Pacific?
Ambassador Wang: As far as our relationship with the South Pacific is concerned, we are part of the Asia Pacific community and we have a long standing relationship with a lot of the Pacific Island countries. Some of these relationships are at least as old as our relationship with New Zealand for example. So in that sense, we’re neither an outsider or a late comer and our purpose of developing these partnerships with the Pacific Island countries is to first and foremost maintain peace and stability in this region, and at the same time, promote common development with most of these island developing countries, as fellow developing countries, and we share a lot of common experiences and common interest, particularly in terms of addressing challenges like climate change and the pursuit of broader sustainable development.
Q: So you don’t think New Zealanders should see that as a threat China try to increase its influence in the region.
Ambassador Wang: Right. We have always considered ourselves a partner for common development for the region. And we respect the traditional links and traditional influence of New Zealand in the South Pacific. We respect these and we are willing to work with partners like New Zealand in tripartite or multi party cooperation, to support our Pacific Island partners in their efforts for development. And we have actually started working together with New Zealand and hopefully, we could build upon that experience to engage in more such activities.
Q: Excellent. Just a slight pivot here. Is the Chinese Embassy following what’s happening with migration workers in New Zealand? There’s a lot of stories of migrant workers in New Zealand getting exploited at the moment by some companies falling out , is it something that’s on your radar?
Ambassador Wang: Yeah, the protection of the legitimate interests and rights of all the migrant workers from China in New Zealand is a going concern for the embassy, and we welcome the measures taken by the New Zealand government in this regard, and hopefully we’ll continue down that road. And on our part, we are willing to work with the government agencies to make sure that the legitimate rights and interests of these workers are protected, so that they won’t be abused or exploited.
Q: Do you feel that the New Zealand government is doing enough here or would you like to see them to take further steps to ensure that they’re not getting exploited?
Ambassador Wang: I think things are going in the right direction. And we’re glad to see that some of these issues are beginning to be resolved.
Q：Thank you very much. That’s all the questions. Did you have anything else you wanted to get across or anything like that before we end.
Ambassador Wang: Yeah, as far as this visit is concerned, the focus is very clear, is to see how we might work even closer together to take the relationship to the next level, particularly on practical economic and trade cooperation. Because we see ourselves as mutually useful partners, particularly as far as some of the economic priorities for the new coalition government is concerned. The cooperation between us could play a useful role in growing the trade for New Zealand, bringing down the cost of living and helping to make up for the infrastructure deficit. So there’s a lot of room for friends to work together. And this comes on top of a very close People to People links between us. We have a sizable Chinese community here. And China is one of the biggest sources of both international students and tourists coming into New Zealand. So in all that space, I think there’s a lot of room for us to work together.
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