New Zealand is not in talks to join President Joe Biden’s desired “alliance of democracies” to manage threats from China, as the top Kiwi diplomat gave the relationship with Beijing a bill of “good health” in a major foreign policy speech.
“That hasn’t been brought to my attention,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told reporters Monday when asked about the U.S.-touted group. “That would require a conversation, but that’s not yet been brought to my attention.”
Biden, who regards the U.S.-China rivalry as a historic test of the viability of democratic systems of governance as opposed to authoritarian regimes, announced last month his desire to host “an alliance of democracies” to discuss the threats from Beijing. New Zealand is one of the closest U.S. allies in terms of intelligence-sharing, but the small country’s economic dependence on China has spurred Wellington to maintain a “respectful” attitude in potential disputes with China.
“The relationship is in good health at many levels,” Mahuta told reporters on the sidelines of an event at the New Zealand China Council. “We are engaging with China on a number of issues, and a respectful, predictable, consistent relationship ensures that we have those many conversations in private, as we’re working through a number of issues.”
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That comment could portend a diminution of New Zealand’s public cooperation in diplomatic circles with its four closest allies — the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, which together constitute the intelligence-sharing network known as “Five Eyes.” That group of nations issued a statement in January condemning the mainland communist regime’s crackdown on Hong Kong, but Mahuta signaled that such political gestures are a thing of the past.
“New Zealand has been very clear … not to invoke the Five Eyes as the first point of contact on messaging out on a range of issues that really exist outside of the remit of the five eyes,” she said. “We’ve not favored that type of approach and have expressed that to Five Eyes partners.”
That statement is likely to be welcomed in Beijing. Chinese state media recently condemned the Five Eyes network as an “axis of white supremacy” in response to a resolution adopted by Canadian lawmakers that condemned the Chinese Communist Party for committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
“Those countries share the Anglo-Saxon civilization,” the Global Times editorial said. “Except for New Zealand, the smallest of the five countries and unwilling to get too involved in international conflicts, the other four are increasingly coordinating their attacks against China and have rapidly transformed from the intelligence-sharing mechanism into a political clique.”
New Zealand signed an agreement to “upgrade” its free trade agreement with China in January. That economic decision acquired diplomatic resonance due to Beijing’s use of punitive economic policies to sanction neighboring Australia in the wake of political disputes related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“They want to get along with everybody,” former Senate Intelligence Committee deputy staff director Emily Harding, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of New Zealand. “As the Five Eyes partnership goes, nobody’s been looking to them to be a leader on the China issue, but … there’s a lot of conversations going on with them, the same way we were with the Brits, about [the need to] watch out for the Chinese.”
The contrast between China’s approach to New Zealand and Australia produced a controversy earlier this year. New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O’Connor suggested in November that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government should “follow us and show respect, and, I guess, show a little more diplomacy from time to time and be cautious with wording” in order to have a better economic relationship with China. O’Connor promptly walked back that comment in public and in a private call to his Australian counterpart.
“It’s a very strong partnership, so it’d be too much to say that this is going to cause a rift,” Harding said of Aussie-Kiwi ties. “Now, China — they’re not dumb. They’re going to do their very best to create tension in any kind of Western partnership that might oppose them.”
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne will travel to New Zealand this week as the two countries open their borders to each other for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Mahuta gave an implicit signal of displeasure over the economic measures that Beijing has imposed on Australia over the last year.
“We look for a similar spirit of respect and engagement to be shown to all international friends and partners,” she said during her speech to the New Zealand China Council. “As a significant power, the way China treats its partners is important to us.”
The Australian experience may have increased New Zealand’s appetite for more economic independence from China. “It is prudent not to put all eggs in a single basket,” she told the council.
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That observation may mean that Mahuta expects New Zealand to hedge against dependence on Beijing while trying to minimize backlash from the communist regime.
“It’s one of the little-known facts of the intelligence community, that there’s diplomacy-diplomacy, and then there’s intelligence-diplomacy,” Harding said. “A lot of times, the various foreign ministries of all these countries will come out and say things that they need to say for some other piece of the agenda, but despite that, the intelligence relationships stay very strong.”
