Analysis: Wang Xiaolong’s prior role suggests Beijing keen to widen economic ties with New Zealand as diplomatic relationship becomes rockier
, particularly over technology. He called for China to recognise not just the challenge posed by the US but also its own growing strength and “the rise of our influence and power to shape the global narrative”.
Given Wang’s background, discussions about New Zealand involvement in the BRI could grow, according to Dr Jason Young, director of the Contemporary China Research Centre at Victoria University, who noted that the economic relationship between the two had “held up really well compared to some other countries”.
There was some New Zealand interest in the BRI under former prime minister John Key’s centre-right National government. In 2017, China and New Zealand signed a “memorandum of agreement” to develop a plan for New Zealand involvement. However that engagement stalled following the 2017 election of a Labour-New Zealand First coalition, which took a more sceptical view of the BRI amid reports that it involved “Last year, Wellington indicated a willingness to work with China on “mutually beneficial” BRI projects with an environmental emphasis. It remains unclear what that would involve.
Young said the New Zealand-China relationship has also come under pressure due to China’s “far more illiberal” tendencies in recent years, including
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