Old Friends

Living With the Dragon

New Zealand's relationship to China provides an interesting case study with lots of fascinating permutations. 

Here are some of the issues and  paradoxes which drive the permutations:

• China is in our geographical region which means it is a logical trading partner for New Zealand (given our geographical isolation from the rest of the world.  Last time we checked there was not much trade going on with Antarctica.)
• China is the most populous nation upon the globe, with a rapidly emerging, higher spending middle class which is developing tastes for Western foods and high protein product.  It is also a dirty food producer.  New Zealand's industrial and productive strength is clean food production.  But it will be small and insignificant in the longer time frame, only ever capable of meeting an infinitesimal portion of China's growing food demand.  
• China is an authoritarian country, with an abysmal record of human rights.  It is run by oppressive, xenophobic, plutocratic, and corrupt governments--at all levels (national, regional, and local).  Commerce is conducted only by means of oleaginous fragrant grease.  Chinese leaders hate dissent.  The culture as a whole hates to lose face and be subject to public shame or ridicule.  All trade and business contacts with China risk contamination by Chinese oppressive and corrupt tactics. 
• Chinese culture remains strong and deeply rooted.  New Zealand's cultural tradition is fragmented and thin: its people philosophically and culturally rootless.  For decades it has denied and derided its Western cultural heritage.  Its schools pride themselves on teaching nothing--so wedded have the prevailing philosophies of education become to neo-Marxism and post-modernism.  New Zealand exists in a cultural vacuum.  It stands for very little and falls for just about anything.  
• Chinese military power will only grow to where it will become the dominant military power on the globe.  There is simply no way New Zealand could ever defend itself successfully against Chinese attack.  Moreover, the Chinese government already has pressured New Zealand to triangulate with China in foreign affairs (over such issues as Tibet and the Dalai Lama) where China has attempted to pressure New Zealand to adopt the Chinese government position on issues.  

The only way forward for New Zealand is to make itself three things to China:

Politically neutral.  We need progressively to shed our alliances with other nations so that we can genuinely front China as a neutral, independent nation which refuses to be drawn into geo-political alliances.

High integrity trader.  Our trade with China must be scrupulously driven by the rules of commercial law with zero tolerance for breach of our own trade standards.  The New Zealand trade marks (e.g. quality certifications) need to be maintained rigorously with substantial penalties for any New Zealand business which violates or breaches standards. 

Long term focused, with clearly espoused, unbendable principles and integrity.  Culturally, the Chinese appreciate "old friends" and longer term relationships.  Unfortunately, these tend to operate within the Chinese culture as a means of control.  All too readily the "old friends" category operates more as a patronage system akin to the Mafiosi modus operandi.

Of these three necessary pre-requisites, the only one which has both skeleton and muscle at present is the second: we are a high integrity trader.  New Zealand quality assurance has meaning and substance and it is generally well-supported in New Zealand.

When it comes to political neutrality and the necessary moral integrity to avoid being captured and corrupted by the "old friends" category, however, we are hopelessly at sea.  New Zealand is too riven by party politics to have stable principles and consistent integrity to maintain a consistent longer term relationship.  Culturally New Zealand is too insecure, to thin, too rootless, we fear.  Our political neutrality is already compromised due to our military alliances with the United States and Nato.

Yet the window of opportunity remains open--at least for the present.  We have an excellent free trade agreement with China, which sets the frame for high-integrity trading.  We clearly produce what China increasingly demands and requires.  Chinese manufactures are increasingly penetrating our economy.  The Chinese are allowing our dairy industry to invest in China, even as they are investing in our dairy industry in New Zealand.  All of this bodes well--as far as it goes.

But what of the Chinese government's latent hostility towards the Christian faith?  Tactically, the best thing is to persuade the Chinese authorities that Chinese Christians represent no threat to China, any more than they represent a threat to the United States, to Brazil, or to South Korea.  Such things can probably best be communicated within the bounds of a mutually respectful, high integrity relationship, rather than through one government hectoring another.