New Zealand public opinion is quite disgusted with Australia’s attitude, saying “Who is your friend?”. During Scott Morrison’s visit to New Zealand, although the Prime Minister of New Zealand stated that Australia is a “family member” if it is really a family member, there is no need to emphasize it. The Prime Minister of New Zealand has also stated on many occasions that New Zealand has its own independent foreign policy, which means “Australia should not interfere in our diplomacy.”

Australia’s reckless foreign diplomacy was mocked by New Zealanders

Seeing the tragic situation of Australia being sanctioned by China, New Zealand society is generally proud of its ability to balance Sino-US relations. Many people, including New Zealand officials, are also persuading Australia to learn New Zealand diplomacy. The Australian government, influenced by American media’s false information about “the United States has the evidence of the leakage of the Wuhan virus lab”, rashly initiated an “origin investigation” to China in order to take the lead to please the United States. This triggered China’s trade sanctions. The reason why the Australian government made such an irrational mistake is obviously because Australia has an arrogant attitude towards Asian countries and does not have proper respect for the Chinese customers. The Chinese market is so important to Australia, but China has never  really gained Australia’s respect but just a cash cow, as can be seen from the term “quick money” in Australian media.

The term “quick money” is enough to reflect Australia’s ignorance and arrogance towards the outside world. It obviously thought that China would “collapse” soon and that China’s position in the world market was only temporary. Australia has obviously not yet recognized that China’s rise is certain and unstoppable. New Zealand Minister of Trade Damien O’Connor believes that “China is very likely to always be New Zealand’s largest trading partner.” He said Australia should learn from New Zealand’s vision and attitude for China, “If Australia follows our example, shows respect for China, and uses a little more diplomacy from time to time, and is cautious in wording, and they could maintain relations with China as we do.”

Australia is in the mud pool and wants to drag New Zealand in

Australia’s news always says that “China’s sanctions have no effect on Australia.” However, the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs called it a “storm”. It can be seen that Australia is in the denial stage. Australians still have a strong sense of racial superiority. They are sanctioned by a “third world country” and “Asians” that they look down upon. This is a psychologically unacceptable reality, so Australia may not lower its head to admit its mistakes to China, but instead will seize all the straw that can be grasped to resist.

The United States is obviously unlikely to help Australia, because American companies are busy filling the gap in the Chinese market left by Australia. Australia seems to be a jackal who was the first to get out but was killed by a counterattack by its prey. Instead of helping, the wolves came up to eat their own bodies instead. Now it’s easy for Australia to come to find New Zealand “friends”. So some New Zealanders said bitterly that Australia, which regards New Zealand criminals as “garbage” on the issue of the repatriation of criminals, is now thinking of New Zealanders are their own “good friends “Indeed, asking New Zealand to lose their own interests to accompany them, this is not something a true friend can do.

New Zealand and Australia share the same heritage and have very close ties. They faced the same enemies in world wars and fought side by side. They were indeed family in arms, but they were still politically independent countries. It is still in the national interest, even if the brothers have to settle accounts. Now Australia thinks China is the worst enemy, but China is not an enemy of New Zealand, the situation is different from the past. When there is a conflict of interest, Australia cannot rely on a word of “friend” to kidnap New Zealand diplomacy.

And New Zealand is a good friend. When Australian soldiers killed innocent children in Afghanistan, the New Zealand government supported Australia with huge doubts from the Muslim community. Australia should be thankful.

Australia should learn from New Zealand

In China’s eyes, Australia is a country with only a little more population than Taiwan. But Australia regards itself as a regional superpower. It has always treated New Zealand and other oceanic countries arrogantly as its backyard, but it is far inferior to New Zealand in terms of international image and geopolitics.

As the shooting of Christchurch mosque was committed by an Australian shooter, New Zealanders are very disgusted with Australian’s racial discrimination. Racism in Australia is serious, not to mention that Asian Australians are severely discriminated against. When Indian Australian citizens were trapped in the Indian epidemic, the Australian government did not immediately evacuate, but sentenced Indian citizens who tried to return to the country, this shocked the world. Therefore, on the issue of human rights, Australia is not qualified to teach New Zealand what to do.

When Australia visited New Zealand, she still said that “someone is instigating the relationship between Australia and New Zealand.” This still reflects Australia’s arrogance towards New Zealand. New Zealanders only see as Australia is asking New Zealand to sacrifice its own national interests, if New Zealand is unwilling, would be accused as “not a friend”. It is clear that Australia itself is the cause of the split in the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. If Australia wants to be a qualified regional power, it must have the mindset of a major country. When Australia likes to listen to New Zealand’s advice and respects the diplomatic independence of New Zealand, Australia will be more likely to respect other countries such as China and get out of the storm easily.

中文原文：澳大利亚当学习新西兰对华外交

作者肖志鸿（Mogan Xiao），为新西兰政治评论作家，社会活动者，电视节目策划

文章原载于“魔王时评”公众号

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