Is this the right time for Winston Peters to pick another fight with China? That seems a dangerous game when we arguably need that country now more than ever.
The Foreign Minister has made a big play in the last couple of days.
He’s publicly backing Taiwan’s bid to rejoin the WHO. And this, according to him, isn’t just his personal view. It is now the government’s position.
He is smart enough and has been around long enough to know that this is going to irritate China.
China's very sensitive over Taiwan. It doesn’t regard Taiwan as a country, but rather as a province of itself, and firmly opposes Taiwan joining the WHO or anything that might legitimise Taiwan’s claim to sovereignty.
China’s already reacted. Its ambassador here has put out a statement essentially telling New Zealand to get back in line, with the hint of a threat that carrying on could damage our relationship.
It’s no surprise Peters is doing this. He’s made no secret in the past that he would prefer us to align with the United States over China. And by doing this, he is falling into line with the States and Australia.
But, is this the right move, right now?
We saw what happened last time China got grumpy at us: seafood shipments had trouble getting into Chinese ports, Jacinda Ardern couldn’t get an invitation to visit Beijing, a Tourism event at Te Papa was postponed.
Why’d that happen? At least in part because of Peters. He went to Washington and “unashamedly” called for the States to exert more influence down here in the Pacific which was seen as a bit of a dig at china.
Do we want to head down the same path as Australia who have taken pot-shots at China’s handling of Covid-19 and ended up with China threatening a consumer boycott of students, tourists and exports.
China’s our biggest export market. It takes 30% of what we send overseas.
We need that to continue. We need their tourists to come back. We need their students to come back.
This is a terrible time - when we’re heading into a recession if not a depression - for Peters to start picking one of his fights with the country that could help pull us out of this.
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