Jacinda Ardern sees China's role in the world in a state of transformation. People disagree with their most important trading partner on many issues, she said. She wants to continue to address difficult issues such as Hong Kong or the persecution of Uyghurs.
Relations between New Zealand and China have been easier before. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that differences between New Zealand and China are increasingly difficult to reconcile as Beijing's role in the world grows and changes in the process. Speaking at the "China Business Summit" in Auckland, Ardern said there were issues on which China and New Zealand "disagree, cannot agree and will not agree."
But the prime minister added that those differences need not be determinative of the two countries' relationship. "It will not have escaped anyone here that as China's role in the world grows and changes, the differences between our systems - and the interests and values that shape those systems - are increasingly difficult to reconcile," Ardern said. "This is a challenge that we and many other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as in Europe and other regions, are also struggling with," she added.
China angry about "Five Eyes"
China, New Zealand's largest trading partner, has accused the Five Eyes (the intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) of ganging up on China by issuing statements on Hong Kong and the treatment of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. Ardern said New Zealand will continue to speak out on these issues, both individually and through its partners. read more