Their ambassador to New Zealand, Madam Wu Xi, was pretty direct telling a cocktail function hosted by the NZ-China Council in the capital the other night that the countries need to build a more resilient relationship and handle differences properly to avoid the rocks.
Ardern, just a few hours earlier, had made a more diplomatic statement to journalists, talking about the complexity of the relationship but quoting statistics to prove everything was the same as it's ever been - which of course it isn't.
It never has been since our super spy agency the GCSB told Spark last November it couldn't use the world's leading telecommunications company Huawei to roll out its 5G broadband network because the company posed a security risk.
The Beehive vehemently insists it had nothing to do with the Trump administration's message to the Five Eyes spy network not to use the privately-owned Chinese company, insisting it has an independent foreign policy. Of course it has everything to do with it.
Huawei's technology's already embedded in the United Kingdom and it seems they've now given it the green light for its broadband rollout after assessing the risk.
The company's suspect following a law passed in China two years ago allowing the intelligence agencies there to use companies on security issues if they feel so inclined.
But the question is: Would any country run the risk of allowing its world-leading enterprise to be used for espionage? And intelligence messages these days are so encrypted they'd be useless to those they weren't intended for.
It doesn't take a whisper to see what the real concern here is. That's the fear Washington has in their trade war with China of falling behind in the technological race.
And that's more of a risk than Huawei is to this country.
