Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Beijing. Photo / Thomas Coughlan
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has poured cold water on the description of a new flight from China to South America as part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
On Thursday, the Government announced it was changing visa rules for Chinese travellers to allow them to transit through New Zealand without a dedicated transit visa.
This was accompanied by the announcement of a new China Eastern airlines flight from Shanghai to Buenos Aires via Auckland.
The flight was described as the Southern Link, a long-sought-after Belt and Road (BRI) project to connect China with South America via New Zealand.
The status of the flight as a BRI project was referenced by China Eastern Airlines chairman Wang Zhiqing who, at an event organised to commemorate the signing of an agreement between the airline and Auckland Airport, said he was “committed to building the Southern Link into a broader path of cooperation, development and happiness, making our contributions to mutual exchanges and high quality Belt and Road Initiative,” he said, according to a translator.
That view was shared by China’s ambassador to Wellington, Wang Xiaolong, who, while visiting a garden in Shanghai shortly after the agreement, agreed that it was part of the BRI and told the Politik website that it was the achievement he was most proud of in his time as ambassador.
However, Luxon did not agree the flight was part of the BRI.
“No, it’s not,” he said when asked about it the next day.
“It’s a commercial deal between China Eastern and Auckland Airport.”
It came as Luxon prepares to meet President Xi Jinping on Friday.
The situation appears to be less of a miscommunication and more a case of agreeing to disagree.
Both sides might be getting what they want out of it. China gets to proclaim New Zealand’s support for a BRI project, while New Zealand can tell BRI-sceptics like the US that it’s just a flight.
BRI deals have been controversial. The BRI is mainly thought of as a massive infrastructure project, financed by Chinese capital and often built with Chinese labour. Critics of the scheme argue it traps developing nations with unaffordable debt and prefers the use of Chinese over local contractors.
Projects like the South American flight are rather less significant than the infrastructure projects BRI is famous for.
A commercial flight into and out of Auckland Airport is unlikely to significantly change China’s influence in New Zealand, but it may irk partners like the United States and allies like Australia who see the flight as an endorsement of Xi’s geopolitical strategy.
New Zealand is the only Five Eyes nation to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China on the Belt and Road, however very little has come of that agreement, which was signed in 2017.
Members of previous New Zealand Governments appear to have considered Southern Link as part of BRI - they also appeared at least partly supportive of it.
In 2019, New Zealand’s then-trade Minister David Parker spoke at a conference dedicated to the idea of building a Southern Link.
In that speech, he alluded to the fact that the project was part of the BRI with a whole section laying out what the Labour Government thought of the idea.
“I travelled to China in May to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum, and to lead a delegation of senior New Zealand business people. The Coalition Government recognises that the BRI is important to China and that it aspires to meet regional needs in some areas.
“...we welcomed President Xi’s speech to this year’s Belt and Road Forum when he committed to address international concerns around transparency, debt and environmental sustainability.
“A BRI geared to supporting sustainable infrastructure in countries that require it, but which also values wider regional input and participation in ensuring open, competitive and transparent business environments, would be of genuine value in shaping regional development and commerce,” Parker said.