Chinese media reacts to Prime Minister Luxon's visit

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaking at an event in Shanghai

Prior to Luxon’s departure for China, the New Zealand government had announced that it would trial visa waivers for Chinese citizens with valid Australian visas, along with other smaller changes to make the visa application process easier.

This announcement attracted positive coverage by several outlets, including the Global Times (环球网) and China Youth Daily (中国青年报), a newspaper under the Communist Youth League.

In comments to China Youth Daily, Chen Hong (陈弘), director of the New Zealand Studies Centre at East China Normal University and frequent media commentator on New Zealand, stated that the timing of the visa waiver announcement, a year before a general election, showed that New Zealand was not like “some Western countries” (一些西方国家) that “hype up China-related issues” (炒作涉华议题) before elections.

For Chen, the timing of visit and the visa changes served to demonstrate that the New Zealand government “very clearly recognises the importance of relations with China” (非常清醒地认识到对华关系的重要性), not only as a vital trade partner, but more broadly as a “stabilising force in a turbulent world” (动荡世界中的稳定力量).

The visit’s timing was not universally portrayed as positive, with one Global Times article stating that “from the perspective of the New Zealand media, Luxon’s visit to China ‘had not come soon enough’” (在新西兰媒体看来，拉克森此次访华“不够早”).

Many outlets expected the trade relationship to feature prominently in the visit, with China’s importance to New Zealand’s economy often remarked upon.

China’s importance to New Zealand’s economy was remarked upon by a number of news agencies

The Jiefang Daily (解放日报) and its Shanghai Observer (上观) website provided a broader preview of the visit, noting that the emphasis would likely be on three areas: “enhancing mutual political trust” (增进政治互信), “promoting economic and trade cooperation” (促进经贸合作), and “deepening people-to-people and cultural exchanges” (深化人文交流) through education and tourism.

Once the trip was underway, coverage of the Prime Minister’s engagements further reinforced similar themes.

Luxon’s promotion of New Zealand products during the 618 Shopping Festival (618购物节), the announcement of Southern Link (南向通道) flights between China and South America via Auckland and upcoming removal of transit visa requirements for Chinese nationals travelling through Auckland, prompted positive coverage of New Zealand-China trade prospects and the people-to-people connections.

A visit to Fudan University resulted in enthusiastic appraisals of current and future cooperation between New Zealand and Chinese universities, and reporting on a meeting between Luxon and Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining (陈吉宁) highlighted Shanghai’s and China’s ties to New Zealand.

Meetings with National People’s Congress Chairman Zhao Leji (赵乐际), Premier Li Qiang (李强), and especially State Chairman Xi Jinping (习近平) received prominent coverage.

Each meeting was the subject of a front-page article in the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily (人民日报), the following day, accounting for almost half the paper’s font-page articles.

Coverage of the three main meetings offered a highly positive portrayal of the bilateral relationship and largely consisted of widely republished Xinhua News Agency (新华通讯社) reports on what was discussed.

The tone of the meetings with Li and Zhao, according to reports, mirrored the sentiments expressed in the Luxon-Xi meeting.

Xi reportedly noted that the relationship with New Zealand has “long been at the forefront of China’s relationships with developed Western countries” (长期走在中国同西方发达国家关系前列) and called for both sides to “place cooperation in a more prominent position in the bilateral relationship”(把合作放在双边关系中更加突出的位置), work together to defend the “international system with the United Nations at its core” (联合国为核心的国际体系) and safeguard the “multilateral trade system with the World Trade Organisation at its core” (世界贸易组织为核心的多边贸易体制).

Xi noted the absence of “fundamental conflicts of interest” (根本利益冲突) between New Zealand and China and stated that both sides “should respect the other, seek common ground while reserving differences, and properly consider and handle differences and disagreements” (要相互尊重、求同存异，正确看待和处理两国差异和分歧).

Luxon was said to have emphasised the importance of the relationship and New Zealand’s willingness for broader and deeper cooperation.

There was no indication that any issues of disagreement were raised during the meetings (or at other times that week).

Most articles published around the visit avoided any mention of bilateral tension. A small number of articles cited an open letter, signed by former prime ministers Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Helen Clark, former Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash, and others that according to the Global Times called “on the Luxon government to adopt a more flexible China policy, avoid escalating tensions, and prevent serious economic consequences for the New Zealand-China relationship resulting from antagonistic actions” (呼吁拉克森政府采取更柔性的对华政策，避免激化矛盾，防止新中关系因对抗性举动而导致严重的经济后果).

The letter was said to align with mainstream views in New Zealand of how to handle relations with China.

The Global Times also employed data from the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s recently released New Zealanders’ Perceptions of Asia and Asia Peoples to illustrate New Zealanders’ views on China’s importance to New Zealand and to (incorrectly) claim that the survey had found that more New Zealanders view China as a friend than consider the United States one.

Speaking to the Global Times, Chen Hong stated that New Zealand’s approach to China is defined by its “consistency and predictability” (一致性和可预测性) and, “to a certain degree” (在一定程度上), the country has been able to resist internal and external pressure to take a hawkish stance on China.

While Luxon was in China, news broke that New Zealand had paused nearly $20 million in development assistance to the Cook Islands. This decision, part of the fallout from the Cook Islands not consulting with New Zealand before signing partnership agreements with China, received scant attention in the Chinese media.

One of the few articles that mentioned the decision, published by the Global Times, touched on the issue only briefly. It noted, “like Australia, New Zealand views the Pacific as its ‘backyard’. Recently, it announced that it will stop economic aid to the Cook Islands due to the Cook Islands’ increasing cooperation with China” (新西兰和澳大利亚一样，把太平洋岛国地区视为自己的“后院”。近日，新西兰宣布停止对太平洋岛国库克群岛的经济援助，原因是库克群岛加强了与中国的合作).

The article continued, “on this matter, New Zealand should adopt a more open and mature approach to China’s relations with Pacific Island countries” 在这一问题上，新西兰方面应该以开放、成熟的态度对待中国和太平洋岛国之间的关系).

Overall, media coverage of Luxon’s visit was consistent with past coverage of high-level New Zealand-China engagement.

Strengths in the relationship were emphasised, while New Zealand’s views on issues of tenson were ignored, downplayed, or reinterpreted. Any changes in these patterns as both countries negotiate an increasing fraught international environment will be worth watching.

The Foundation's Asia in Focus initiative publishes expert insights and analysis on issues across Asia, as well as New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the region.