New Zealand has raised concerns with China over human rights abuses and growing tensions with Taiwan, Wellington’s foreign minister said in an interview yesterday.
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta held talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) in which they discussed “challenging issues,” she said, including human rights in Xinjiang, freedoms in Hong Kong and China’s influence in the Pacific.
“There’s a lot that we can agree on and we also discussed some of the challenging issues, working through where we don’t agree on,” she said at the New Zealand embassy in Beijing. “Human rights was an area where we did discuss some of those issues where we don’t agree on.”
Photo: AFP
Mahuta this week made the first visit to China by a New Zealand foreign minister since 2018.
She earlier said in a statement that she had told her counterpart that the New Zealand government had “deep concerns regarding the human rights situation in Xinjiang and the erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.”
Another major flashpoint she raised was Taiwan, she said.
In the interview, Mahuta said she had also “used the opportunity to highlight New Zealand’s position on Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine.”
Beijing has notably refrained from using such strong language to refer to the Russian invasion, instead accusing NATO of “fanning the flames.”
Mahuta added that New Zealand “urged China to use its influence with Russia to see the withdrawal of troops and ceasing of war.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to Moscow this week further exacerbated concerns that Beijing plans to provide material support to Russia.
Despite close economic ties between China and New Zealand, there were still certain topics related to human rights on which the sides disagree, Mahuta said.
New Zealand has also called out China, its largest trading partner, over reports of the repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
“In the discussion I urged China to respond to the recommendations of the Office of the [UN] Human Rights Commissioner,” she said.
Last year, the commissioner’s office detailed a string of rights violations against Uighurs and other minorities in the far northwestern region, highlighting “credible” allegations of widespread torture, arbitrary detention, and violations of religious and reproductive rights.
Beijing vehemently rejects the charges and insists it is running vocational training centers in the region to counter extremism.
New Zealand has also joined the US in accusing China of attempting to increase its military presence in the Pacific.
In Mahuta’s talks with Qin, she also raised concerns “over developments in the South China Sea,” the statement said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2