Experts think China pulled punches in muted reaction to Jacinda Ardern-Joe Biden meeting – New Zealand Herald

President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the Oval Office of the White House - China's reaction was muted. Photo / AP

China's reaction to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's meeting with US President Joe Biden was been relatively muted in the view of longtime China watchers - despite a Government spokesman accusing New Zealand of spreading "disinformation" as a result of the visit.

Ardern met Biden at the White House on Wednesday morning, New Zealand time.

The meeting produced a joint statement that noted New Zealand and the United States' close ties on matters of security and singled out China's recent inroads in the Pacific as concerning.

"We note with concern the security agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Solomon Islands," the declaration read.

"In particular, the United States and New Zealand share a concern that the establishment of a persistent military presence in the Pacific by a state that does not share our values or security interests would fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region and pose national-security concerns to both our countries," it said.

After that meeting, China's foreign affairs ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the statement was a "hype-up" and had "ulterior motives to create disinformation and attack and discredit China".

University of Canterbury Professor Anne-Marie Brady, an internationally renowned expert on the propaganda system of the Chinese Communist Party, said there had not been much fallout from the meeting.

"It's a very bad look for the Xi Government to have got NZ-China relations to the point that they'll say their concerns in public," Brady said.

Brady said China's recent diplomatic push into the Pacific was beginning to look like an act of hubris, particularly after it failed to get Pacific island nations onboard with a cooperation agreement, which leaked last month, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was touring the region.

"The Xi government's strategic overreach in the Pacific is turning into a diplomatic failure. They don't want the Chinese public to be raising questions about the failure of BRI [the Belt and Road Initiative - President Xi's key foreign policy platform].

"The Wang Yi trip to the Pacific has been a disaster for China. Almost every Pacific state he has visited has politely rebuffed the plan to create a cross-Pacific security agreement led by China that excluded New Zealand and Australia," Brady said.

Former diplomat, and former executive director of the NZ China Council Stephen Jacobi, who led programmes in New Zealand on BRI agreed the reaction from China was fairly soft.

"You've got to see [the reaction] in the context of the rivalry and strategic competition with the US," Jacobi said.

Jacobi said it was only the very end of China's official response to the meeting, which urged New Zealand to hew to its historically independent foreign policy, which was directly addressed to New Zealand, rather than jointly at New Zealand and the US.

"Of course this is the first thing they've said. We're going to have to watch to see if something else happens," Jacobi said.

Jacobi noted that he had spent the day at the China International Import Expo, where China's ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong had not once mentioned the growing tension between the two countries.

"The ambassador made no mention of it at all in his speech - which was focused on Chinese growth, the success of Covid, the opportunity for New Zealanders to do more business in China," Jacobi said.

He said there was no indication yet that China would look to apply informal sanctions against New Zealand exports. Australian exporters have struggled at times to get goods into China. It has often been presumed this is in retaliation at Australia's more hawkish stance on relations with the superpower.

"There is no suggestion that is a problem at the moment," Jacobi said.

"Of course, we just signed the FTA upgrade, which gives us new procedures to manage difficulties if they arise," he said.

He said the next step in the relationship with China was having a high-level ministerial visit, either the prime minister or the foreign minister. This was difficult at the moment given China's zero-covid policy.

"We have to maintain the direct discussion and engagement," he said.

Jacobi said China had some understanding for New Zealand siding with the United States on particular issues.

"We are who we are, right - we are a Western democracy. That's kind of what we do. The Chinese, however, are quite capable of reading between the lines on these things," he said.

University of Otago Professor Robert Patman agreed the fallout from Ardern's visit had been muted.

"The Chinese continue to make the distinction between Australia and New Zealand in terms of their respective relationships with Washington," Patman said.

He said that while New Zealand was close to the US, it was not in "lockstep" on certain issues like Australia was perceived to be.

"We have a different worldview from both Australia and the United States," he said.

Patman said this difference fed all the way into things like the recently announced Aukus security agreement between Australia, the US, and the UK. He said not being part of the agreement had benefits to New Zealand.

"It gives us a chance to diversify economically," he said.

Patman said Ardern's foreign policy appeared to recognise that China, as a superpower, was going to be involved in the region one way or another, so New Zealand would have to find a way to strengthen the democracies of the Pacific to respond to that challenge.

"We can't contain China, and nor can we take a top-down position, where we say to them 'we know what's best for you'... that's not going to work," Patman said.

"If you're a micro-state you've got opportunities. There's more than one game in town," he said.

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Experts think China pulled punches in muted reaction to Jacinda Ardern-Joe Biden meeting - New Zealand Herald