PM talked of balance in NZ’s relations with China – but journos digressed to balance in RNZ reports on Ukraine
No new press statements or speeches have been posted on the government’s official website, since Point of Order checked yesterday on the latest machinations of our ministers of the Crown.
But the transcript of the PM’s Cabinet press conference records his announcement that he will be leading “a major trade delegation to China” at the end of this month, with stops in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai.
Asked if he would be meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Chris Hipkins said he could not confirm the details of the programme at this stage, but, as they are firmed up, he will share them.
Another journalist asked:
It’s always been a balancing act for Prime Ministers going there, raising human rights issues, and raising grievances. Do you plan to take to a more aggressive or a more fulsome approach when you’re there in China?
PM: I think we’ve prided ourselves, in our relationship with China, of being stable and consistent in our position, and we’ll continue to be so. That means that where we have human rights concerns, we will raise them; where we have concerns around trade or any other foreign-policy issue, we will raise those. So our relationship with China has always been based on setting out clearly our position and, you know, being consistent in our position, and we’ll continue to do that.
This will be the first prime ministerial-level visit to China since the COVID-19 global pandemic began, and New Zealand’s first Prime Minister-led trade delegation there since 2016.
The PM showed how the relationship with China is one of New Zealand’s most significant, wide-ranging, and complex by noting.
Asked if he would be meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Chris Hipkins said he could not confirm the details of the programme at this stage, but, as they are firmed up, he will share them.
Another journalist asked:
It’s always been a balancing act for Prime Ministers going there, raising human rights issues, and raising grievances. Do you plan to take to a more aggressive or a more fulsome approach when you’re there in China?
PM: I think we’ve prided ourselves, in our relationship with China, of being stable and consistent in our position, and we’ll continue to be so. That means that where we have human rights concerns, we will raise them; where we have concerns around trade or any other foreign-policy issue, we will raise those. So our relationship with China has always been based on setting out clearly our position and, you know, being consistent in our position, and we’ll continue to do that.
This will be the first prime ministerial-level visit to China since the COVID-19 global pandemic began, and New Zealand’s first Prime Minister-led trade delegation there since 2016.
The PM showed how the relationship with China is one of New Zealand’s most significant, wide-ranging, and complex by noting.
- Exports to China increased to over $21 billion in the year to December, accounting for almost a quarter of New Zealand’s total export earnings.
- Pre-COVID-19, China was New Zealand’s second-largest international visitor market. While the return of Chinese visitors has been gradual to date, it’s set to ramp up in the coming months, with direct airline connectivity out of China expected to return to around 75 percent of pre-COVID levels in the June quarter of this year.
He will head there after going to Brussels, where the focus will be on New Zealand’s free-trade agreement with the European Union.
After Hipkins had answered the question about how tough he might be when chatting with Chinese big-wigs, Point of Order expected the Press Gallery hacks would want to press him further on this key element of our foreign policy.
They did – but not yet. They were more fascinated, at that point in proceedings, with the carry-on at Radio New Zealand and the injection of some Moscow-sourced flavouring into reports about the invasion of the Ukraine.
The editing of these reports, and subsequent re-editing, brought questions of balance or imbalance into the reports, the answer depending on the extent of your regard for the credibility of the Kremlin.
Media: Prime Minister, should there be an investigation separate to the internal one going on into Radio New Zealand?
PM: That’s ultimately a matter for Radio New Zealand. Obviously, editorial independence here is very important. As a listener to Radio New Zealand, I am sure that they will be—I hope that they will be—taking it very seriously. As a Minister, I intend to stay well out of it.
Media: Do you see any evidence at the moment that a wider or a parliamentary—there have been calls this morning for a parliamentary inquiry. Do you see any evidence that that is needed at this stage?
PM: I’m not sure that a parliamentary inquiry is the best way to preserve Radio New Zealand’s editorial independence.
Media: While you will be reluctant—are the security service, the GCSB or SAS, keeping a watching brief on that situation, given it involves, perhaps, misinformation from a foreign power?
PM: I certainly have not been advised of that.
Media: How damaging is this to RNZ’s reputation?
PM: Look, that’s really a matter for Radio New Zealand. I don’t want to comment on it. It’s ultimately a question for them.
Media: Are you satisfied of the handling so far of the controversy, given that Radio New Zealand is publicly funded?
PM: Radio New Zealand is publicly funded, but it’s also editorially independent. That editorial independence is incredibly important. State-funded media is a common feature around the world. State-funded media that answers to the Government of the day, in terms of their editorial decisions, is not independent. That’s not the case for RNZ. RNZ make those decisions independently for a reason.
Media: Has anything come across your desk that suggests that Russia has infiltrated our State broadcaster?
PM: Certainly, nothing has come to me personally. I understand that the Minister of broadcasting has previously received at least one complaint, which he has referred to Radio New Zealand.
At long last, one of the journalists brought the media’s attention back to the NZ-China relationship:
Media: Has New Zealand ever faced economic coercion from China, or the threat of it?
PM: We have a robust, ongoing dialogue with China, and we’ve always been very clear in our opposition to economic coercion. We believe in a rules-based system. That is what New Zealand has consistently spoken in favour of, and we’ll continue to do that.
Yes, there were more questions about China.
Readers can find what they were and how the PM answered them HERE.
One of the better questions was to establish how Hipkins reconciled this trade trip (“which sounds like it’s going to have a pretty huge delegation”) with the Government’s overall messaging regarding the need to diversify New Zealand’s export partners so that we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.
Is there any contradiction there, do you think?
PM: No, not at all. Of course, China is an existing trading partner, and a valuable one to New Zealand, but the work that we have been doing around the EU free-trade agreement, the UK free-trade agreement, and our other trade discussions in a range of different contexts—including, significantly, the CPTPP—are a part of our really concerted effort to diversify our overall export market shares.
Geoffrey Miller’s analysis of the PM’s visit to China can be reader HERE.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
1 comment:
Has anyone woken Willie Jackson up and asked for comment on the events at RNZ? Asking for a friend.
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