The New Zealand China Friendship Society and The United Nations Association joint meeting for the visit to Tauranga of Michael Powles
speaking on
Tuesday 28June11 7pm
Tauranga Intermediate School
Attended by 30 people.
Challenges in constructive engagement with China
China is a perplexing country huge country. Why has a free trade agreement
been negotiated with NZ the first developed economy to do so ? Referred to by the Hong Kong Press as the odd couple.
Michael recounted a story told by the US Ambassador about how a mouse rode on the head of an elephant crossing a bridge the mouse exclaimed” how the bridge trembles when us great creatures cross”.
Australia has tried to negotiate a free trade deal for many years without success.
Explainations for the Trade deal ;
1 Conspiracy theorists argue to shake up the world
2 More likely to encourage other countries to negotiate, NZ is a small country if the agreement fails there will be little publicity and little harm to China.
Reasons for a good relationship between NZ and China, in the 1970s NZ government didn’t preach to China took a softly softly approach on human rights. NZ took China seriously an example was the high number of Mandarin speaking diplomats at the NZ embassy in Beijing compared with other embassies.
NZ government has asked hard questions about human rights following the Tiananmen square massacre when questioned the Chinese Ambassador defended the massacre “because we were losing Beijing”
On the 1992 visit to NZ the Chinese Premier said when visiting the Dairy Board that “it was interesting but to socialist to be of use to China”.
A joke that world cup cricket could instil Confucian values of discipline fell flat. The Premier said NZ was a very lucky country. it shared with China a location in the Asia Pacific and ancient civilisation. (Meaning our Judaic/Christian values)
Shared values make relationships easier between countries.
Tension is growing between China and USA due to frequent American naval patrols along the Chinese coast and visits to Taiwan. US reaction to Chinas economic rise is more problematical than Chinas rise. NZ has incentive to to preserve peace in the Pacific Ocean.
China role in Global organisations
Many of the Global organisations, Breton Woods the United Nations the IMF were the construct of victorious World War2 powers including the Chinese Nationalist Party. China will want to have more influence e.g. double the IMF voting rights it presently has. China will want more say in how International systems operate.
NZ does not have a formal military alliance with any country.
UN does not have an army.
European Union should have a seat on the UN security council and replace France and U.K .
Australia is committed to military alliance with USA a recent poll showed 88% of Australians in favour of the alliance. USA and Australia have a containment policy toward China.
Vice Premier Wen Shi bao has met with many of the Pacific Island leaders and reassured them that China recognises their sovereign rights over the mineral wealth in their borders.
Chinas human rights,
China has ignored human rights in the past but the trend is in the right direction. Imprisonment of Hu the UN Association leader is very distasteful. In general freedom of choice is increasing.
Regional development of human rights. Michael spoke at Pudong University law faculty in the 1990s ten years later a law student challenged Michael and demanded freeing up of human rights. The Student was not rebuked by the Dean of Law present at the meeting. A much freer atmosphere for debate.
The Communist Party is still above the judiciary, NZ is helping with judicial training. Some Chinese Judges are going to Hong Kong for Judicial training.
Recently there were demonstrations in Shanghai against a proposed railway line-the Shanghai Mayor met the demonstrators affirmed their rights and freedom of expression and allowed the demonstration to appear on TV.
There is still long term detention of people without trial this is not acceptable to our sense of justice.
Rising Nationalism.
Chinese outrage when Japanese President celebrated the shrine of Japanese war criminals. However there have been Japanese naval visits to China;, Japan helped with the Sichuan earthquake and China helped with the recent Tsunami.
Education
China is sending more students overseas, half of the Politbureau members children attend USA universities.
The NZ/China Free Trade agreement is useful to both sides. But the NZ government was very quiet when it negotiated the agreement, maybe afraid it would be unpopular with the public. Both countries need to maintain political contact. NZ needs a successful foreign service but budget cuts are undermining it’s efficiency.
Questions from the floor
China’s behaviour at APEC demonstrations was very hard line, is China’s Tibet policy acceptable ?
Answer NZ must pursue its economic interests . Quote from Willie Brandt “idealism is directly proportional to how far away you are from the problem”
Question two How can we manage the problem of NZs high exchange rate with China, NZ s industry is under threat. Do we want China buying up our land?
Answer Should NZ go back to a protected economy, liberalisation has enabled us to buy cheap electrical appliances that have increased our standard of living.
Low end manufacturing is moving from Guangdong to NE China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Foreigners can’t buy land in China but they can buy long term leases.
Question three explain the complicated economic relationship between China and USA.
Answer. In the cold war days we had Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D) this is an apt acronym for Chinas large holdings of USA bonds. USA needs Chinese money and China needs USA trade.
Australia in trade terms is totally beholden to China.
The Bookings institute did a survey on how to make the Government more responsive to the people and found the people were happy with government policy that advocates making them wealthier. There is no democracy at central government level but rural people can vote for village councils and there is voting for candidates within the communist party.
China needs a new value system, Maoism replaced Confucianism now the communists are advocating a watered down Confucianism. (with the negative attitudes to women and servants removed)
The talk was followed by a Chinese buffet meal, supplied by the Fraser Cove Chinatown Restaurant.
Meeting closed 9.30pm
