New Zealand and Australia caught in the rivalry between the US and China

Now that America has China in its sights both New Zealand and Australia are going to have to tread a balancing act between its traditional ally in the Empire and its own economic interests.

US Ambassador warns NZ not to trust China

MSN,

4 October, 2018

The United States Ambassador to New Zealand says we should be wary of China's growing influence here.

New Zealand is a small country caught in a gravitational pull between the world's two superpowers, China and the United States, both of which have a strong influence over the Government's foreign policy approach.

US Ambassador Scott Brown believes New Zealand should look to the US as a more trusted ally than China. He answered questions from Kiwis on RadioLIVE on Wednesday morning, where he defended the United States' history of perceived international meddling.

"I believe we're a country for good," Mr Brown said. "We're not taking people's land - we are usually going in because there are issues around the world and that's why we still have troops in Germany and obviously in North Korea."

He was responding to a Kiwi who called the radio station to ask why New Zealanders should trust the United States - "with a history of interfering in other countries' regimes" - over China.

"Have we made mistakes? Of course, but I think every country makes mistakes," the Ambassador retorted.

"We've been here since the Treaty of Waitangi signing, and we were here during World War II when New Zealanders were fearful that the Japanese were going to be here."

The difference between the US and China is "we have freedom and democracy," the Ambassador claimed.

"Kiwis and the US may not agree on everything, but at the end of the day those shared common values that we've had forever stand strong," he said. "When we don't agree, at the end of the day we're still going to grab a beer and a pizza and talk about it."

He reflected on recent tension between China and New Zealand, sparked by the Defence Force explicitly naming China as a threat before spending $2.3 billion on anti-submarine aircraft.

In response, China lodged "stern representations with New Zealand".

"If you disagree with China, especially with their new policies, as they did when you guys issued your new defence strategy paper, they said 'Listen, you've got to change your words'," Mr Brown said.

The New Zealand Government stood by the words used to describe China's presence and said it would not be correcting any "wrong words."

"New Zealand is a sovereign nation and whether the United States was telling us to do that or China or any other country, it comes down to our right to see things as we see it in a very responsible way," Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters said at the time.

Ambassador Brown credited Mr Peters for standing up to China. He said China is "not an enemy, they're a competitor, and they've got to start playing by the rules".

"I believe [the United States] play by the rules and so does New Zealand."

US President Donald Trump's escalating trade war with China reached new heights in September when he imposed US$200 billion (NZ$300 billion) worth of new tariffs on Chinese imports.

As an employee of the Trump administration, Mr Brown has some incentive to encourage other nations to be suspicious or distrustful of China.

Others who have warned about Chinese influence in New Zealand include University of Canterbury professor Anne-Marie Brady and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During his RadioLIVE Mr Brown also lauded the "great relationship" between New Zealand and the US, referencing the Australian and New Zealand firefighters that travelled to California in August to help fight wildfires.

He went on to criticise China for its claims to the South China Sea. The area, through which about US$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, is contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"That's why we are traversing through with our navy those areas to make sure that they stay free and open so that other countries like New Zealand and Australia don't have to pay a toll the next time they want to trade," Mr Brown said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doubled down on New Zealand's "independent foreign policy" on Tuesday, telling The AM Show New Zealand has "an independent foreign policy and we always will".

The Chinese have held sway over New Zealand to the extent that National had a spy in their ranks - list MP Yang Jian had spent 15 years studying and working with Chinese military intelligence at the PLA-Air Force Engineering College and Luoyang Foreign Language Institute.

Revealed: China's network of influence in New Zealand

• New research paper lays bare China's influence campaign in New Zealand
• Concerns raised over political donations and directorships offered to former ministers and relatives
• Chinese-owned New Zealand dairy farms said to possibly being used to test advanced missile technology
• A major research paper into China's soft-power campaign in New Zealand has detailed how dairy farms have been used for near-space balloon launches by a Chinese company developing "high-precision monitoring" of Earth from satellites.

The study also details extensive links between China and former New Zealand politicians and their families, and also highlights significant political donations.

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University of Canterbury professor Anne-Marie Brady, the author of the research paper, said she was disturbed by her findings.

"This is about our democracy and about our sovereignty. Anybody who reads the report will find this troubling," she told the Herald.

Brady said the influence campaign being waged in New Zealand would be of concern regardless of its source.

"It'd be the same if it was any country: it's not about China, but it's our country and our democracy where we value freedom of speech and association. It's our right to choose our government."

Former National Party leader Don Brash, named in the report over his directorship of a Chinese-owned bank, agreed China was looking keenly at New Zealand.

"China clearly does want to extend its influence and cultivate people they think might help them do that, as, of course, all major powers do," he said.

A request sent to the Chinese embassy in Wellington for comment on the report was not answered.

Both Prime Minister Bill English and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern downplayed the report while on the campaign trail today.

"I don't see any obvious sign of things that are inappropriate," English said.

Ardern said she had not seen any demand for New Zealand to follow

Australia's lead in launching an inquiry into foreign interference, but said she would explore the issue further.

"I don't think that's something that's necessarily come up... as being an issue. But I am interested in that work that was done in Australia, I would like to take a closer look when there is a little bit more time available," she said.

Brady, currently in Washington DC as a fellow with the Wilson Centre, is fluent in Mandarin and based much of her research on Chinese-language media both here and in China.

Her report, "Magic Weapons: China's political influence activities under Xi Jinping", was published earlier this week and builds on the methodology behind a similar study in Australia that followed investigations into the subject by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

"The focus of media attention has been on Australia, but the People's Republic of China's efforts to guide, buy or coerce political influence abroad are widespread," Brady wrote, noting New Zealand is far from immune to actions by state or state-linked actors operating a under broad "United Front" on behalf of the ruling Communist Party of China.

Clive Hamilton who has written extensively on climate change and the dangers of geoengineering has also done research on the influence of China on Australia for which he was pilloried.