New Zealand's relationship with China 'on watch' - commentator

Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern. Photo / File

Each time I go back to China (and that's often), I get new perspective on what's happening there. Last month (June) was no exception.

I became acutely aware that New Zealand's relationship with China is "on watch" and not only at official level.

On the streets, people have the perception New Zealand is "taking sides" and that brings with it "risks".

Chinese media is very different to New Zealand's. In general it is influenced by positive news, particularly via state media, so any negative news stands out. Impressions last for a long time. Good news often means credentials are gained, whereas bad news means disapproval.

China-savvy politicians and businesspeople make sure to carefully navigate with the aid of those media signals.

Chinese also have different cultures, values and philosophy. National interest is put first, family second and then individual interests. Even then individual behaviour is frequently influenced by state media propaganda.

The world has not seen such a determined leadership in China for a long time. The current Chinese government is "hard lined" in Western terms. It has become much tougher in international negotiations, with sweet words or early promises not impressing anymore. What the Chinese government expects now is that you take action to prove what you mean.

If there was just a lot of noise at the beginning of the trade war between China and the United States, that trade war has united the whole of China now. Just as the founder of Huawei Ren Zhengfei said, sanctions on Huawei only made Huawei work harder and better.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's swift visit to China in April was an effort at diplomacy. In theory, Ardern's counterpart is Premier Li Keqiang, but President Xi met with her. While there was goodwill in their meeting, does New Zealand really matter to China? The answer is no. It is New Zealand that needs China's markets.

The question is how to maintain our trade relationships without losing integrity and value.

My recent trip to Beijing as a special advisor at the China International Food Safety Technology and Innovation Expo provide an answer to that question. For the first time, New Zealand had a country pavilion at the expo with the theme: "A Nation You Can Trust".

The likes of multinationals like Nestle, countries like France and all the major Chinese dairy companies have been major exhibitors for a few years.

Instead of bringing over more trade deals on the table, NEXT Federation (the New Zealand pavilion organiser) partnered with Economic Daily (the organiser of the Expo) managed to gain wide range coverage of the New Zealand pavilion and its participants including Zespri, Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms. Positive New Zealand pavilion stories appeared in many state-owned media - Economic Daily, Xinhua News and China Daily.

The Government needs take care of New Zealand's relationship with China and remember Chinese consumers influenced by negative political news may act irrationally or reluctantly.

China is an important partner for New Zealand. We need positive news about New Zealand to help Kiwi companies build credentials in China.

• Dr Xiaoying Fu and her family are NZ citizens and have lived in New Zealand since 1996. She has a PhD in Philosophy (computer science) from Southampton University (UK), but her career took her into the finance sector. Dr Fu is a former ANZ NZ-China senior relationship manager. Nowadays she is regarded as one of NZ's key strategists for NZ-China trade relationships. Dr Fu is currently chair of the NZ-China High Tech Innovation Alliance and a director of NZ Maori Tourism as well as running her own consultancy.