Aukus and security on the agenda as Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits New Zealand

Christopher Luxon NZ PM and Li Qiang Chinese Premier. Composite photo / NZME, AP

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit New Zealand later this week. It will be the first visit to New Zealand by a Premier from China since a visit by the former Premier, Li Keqiang, in 2017.

This makes it the highest ranking official visit in seven years, although other high-ranking officials have visited in that time. Premier Li will receive a ceremonial welcome in Wellington. This will be followed by bilateral talks with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and an official dinner. He will also visit Auckland.

Premier Li will face very different agenda to his predecessor, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirming on Monday that the pair would likely discuss the Aukus agreement and New Zealand’s possible involvement in the non-nuclear pillar 2 of the deal, and security situation in the indo-Pacific.

Premier Li will also find a Government propped up by two parties that have taken hawkish positions on issues close to China’s heart. Foreign Minister Winston Peters told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi this year that he did not believe the security concerns Aukus is designed to respond to were “imaginary”, as asserted by China.

Meanwhile the Act Party drove the 2021 effort to have Parliament declare its grave concerns at the “severe human rights abuses” occurring in Xinjiang. The party’s Foreign Affairs Spokeswoman Brooke van Velden tried to have the wording of that statement go even further, labelling the situation in Xinjiang a “genocide”, but Labour’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta would not have it.

“Our conscience requires that we support this motion. We know that a genocide is taking place,” van Velden said at the time.

Luxon said he looked forward to “warmly welcoming Premier Li in New Zealand. The Premier’s visit is a valuable opportunity for exchanges on areas of co-operation between New Zealand and China.

“China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade worth almost $38 billion last year. From innovative agri-tech and high-quality food, to creative industries, and world class tourism and education, New Zealand has a lot to offer China,” he said.

Luxon talked up the trade focus of talks, saying he was “confident that trade with China will continue to grow, supporting the Government’s goal to double the value of exports in the next decade”.

However, when asked whether he would be comfortable with the share of trade with China increasing, given risks of economic coercion, Luxon said this would be “challenging” given China’s slowing economic growth rate, however he said trade would continue to grow.

“I expect trade between New Zealand and China to continue to grow as a proportion of the total mix,” Luxon said.

Premier Li’s visit marks 10 years since the conclusion of the New Zealand China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which was signed when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited New Zealand in 2014.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, and Minister of Foreign Affairs People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi, shakes hands during a bilateral meeting at Parliament. Photo / Getty Images

“New Zealand and China engage where we have shared interests, and we speak frankly and constructively with each other where we have differences. Our relationship is significant, complex and resilient,” Luxon said.

He said the pair would discuss things like Aukus and the areas on which the two countries disagreed.

“We have different political systems. We have different histories. We have differences. We raise those differences very predictably, very consistently, both publicly... and also privately and so I will be raising all the areas of difference we have with China,” Luxon said.

Luxon said he was “keen” to visit China early next year.

Former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins met Premier Li in Beijing last year. The pair had a long bilateral meeting and a lunch.

This year’s pecuniary interests register noted Premier Li gifted Hipkins a bike on the trip, although the bike never made it back to New Zealand and was left with MFAT officials in Beijing to avoid the cost of having it shipped back.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.