China Premier Li backs 'dialogue, not confrontation' in New Zealand
AFP
Fri, June 14, 2024
Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research on Friday in Auckland (Brett Phibbs)
Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Friday he supported "dialogue, not confrontation" during a visit to New Zealand where he stirred up hope of new trade avenues.
Li is on a six-day tour of New Zealand and Australia, the highest-ranking official to visit either nation since his predecessor in 2017.
China accounts for 30 percent of New Zealand's export earnings, according to World Bank data, but there are fears this could evaporate if the world's second-largest economy continues to slow.
The Chinese premier praised "historic" developments in relations between the two countries over the past decade during a speech before a gala dinner in Auckland hosted by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
"We both emphasised that countries should live in harmony, engage in dialogue, not confrontation, and have cooperation, not conflict," Li said.
Luxon, who has raised sensitive issues such as foreign interference and recent escalations in the South China Sea with Li, said the pair had reached a better understanding of their "respective priorities".
New Zealand, long seen as one of China's closest partners in the region, has become increasingly bold in its criticism of Beijing's expanding influence in the South Pacific.
Business remains a priority, however.
Li met some of New Zealand's biggest exporters and most influential companies during the visit, which wraps up Saturday when he flies to the South Australian capital Adelaide.
- 'Big on collaboration' -
Mark Piper, chief executive of a top New Zealand government science institute, met the Chinese premier during a tour of an Auckland research facility earlier in the day.
"He was talking about more research collaborations and more people exchanges, which is what we're really interested in," Piper told AFP.
"He was really big on collaboration, the value that New Zealand can bring to China and that China can bring to New Zealand."
New Zealand was one of the first developed nations to sign a comprehensive free trade deal with Beijing.
Chinese consumers have a voracious appetite for New Zealand's premium meat, dairy and wine.
Li touted opportunities for trade, tourism and investment when he started his tour in New Zealand's capital Wellington on Thursday.
But he warned that emerging differences between the two nations "should not become a chasm that blocks exchanges and cooperation between us".
China's Li signals demand for New Zealand dairy and meat
Updated Fri, June 14, 2024
By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -There is a growing demand in China for high-quality dairy, beef and lamb products from New Zealand, Premier Li Qiang said on Friday, the second day of his trip to the Pacific island nation.
Li's trip to the region, which also includes a four-day stopover in Australia starting on Saturday, is aimed at strengthening trade and diplomatic ties with the two Pacific nations. China is the biggest trading partner of both nations.
Li visited the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research in Auckland on Friday, a government agency tasked with promoting the farming, food and beverage industries, before meetings and a dinner with business people, academics and diplomats.
Li said more bilateral business opportunities would emerge in the areas of energy, information technology, biomedicine and other emerging industries, Chinese state media reported.
He reiterated that China would work with New Zealand to upgrade their comprehensive strategic partnership, and stressed the need for increased cooperation in services trade and cross-border e-commerce.
His comments came as Chinese firms formally applied for an anti-dumping probe into pork imports from the European Union, escalating tensions after the bloc imposed anti-subsidy duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles.Global food companies from dairy producers to pork exporters are on high alert for potential retaliatory tariffs from China.
New Zealand and China on Thursday signed bilateral agreements on trade and climate during Li's trip, the highest level Chinese visit to New Zealand in seven years.
BOOMING TRADE
Li has promised that Beijing will further expand market access, create a market-oriented and internationalised business environment, and he encouraged entrepreneurs to seize opportunities, Chinese state media said.
Beijing sees itself as a key part of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's plan to double exports over the next 10 years.
China is already New Zealand's largest trading partner with bilateral trade totalling nearly NZ$38 billion ($23.27 billion).
New Zealand remains keen to further boost trade ties with China but has also toughened its stance over the last year, accusing Beijing of hacking its parliament and noting what it characterises as a growing Chinese threat to Pacific security.
After his meeting with Li on Thursday Luxon said that as well as discussing trade, he had also raised concerns about issues such as Chinese interference.
Li's meeting with New Zealand opposition leader Chris Hipkins was cancelled on Friday, due to Hipkins facing travel issues.
($1 = 1.6329 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Additional reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Michael Perry and Gareth Jones)
China's Li pays 'very positive' visit to Fonterra, New Zealand minister says
Reuters
Fri, June 14, 2024
(Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra on Saturday, a stop Trade Minister Todd McClay called "very positive" after the Chinese leader had spoken of demand for New Zealand's agricultural products.
"Fonterra is an important part of the Chinese food supply chain, a lot of our dairy products go to China," McClay said in comments broadcast on Radio New Zealand after Li visited Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Li said on Friday, the second day of his trip to the Pacific island nation, that there was growing demand in China for high-quality dairy, beef and lamb products from New Zealand.
China's second-highest ranked official is to travel to Australia on Saturday for a four-day stopover on a trip aimed at strengthening trade and diplomatic ties with the two commodities-exporting nations. China is the biggest trading partner of both countries.
Beijing sees itself as a key part of Luxon's plan to double New Zealand's exports over the next 10 years.
"I think it was clear there was a real appreciation on the part of the premier of China and their delegation just about how much that relationship has grown."
On Friday, Li visited Auckland's New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, a government agency that promotes the farming, food and beverage industries, before meetings and a dinner with business people, academics and diplomats.
Li met with Luxon in the capital Wellington on Thursday, signing agreements on trade and climate change, with human rights also on the agenda.
In the first visit by a Chinese premier to Australia since 2017, Li is to visit the South Australia state capital Adelaide, the national capital Canberra and the mining state of Western Australia.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by William Mallard)
Chinese Premier Li launches trade-friendly Australia visit
AFP
Sat, June 15, 2024
Chinese Premier Li Qiang will tour a wine producer and hold talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his trade-centred visit to Australia (Marty MELVILLE)
China's Premier Li Qiang embarked on a four-day trip to Australia on Saturday, dangling the promise of expanded trade even as the two nations compete for influence in the Pacific.
Li -- the second most powerful man in China after President Xi Jinping -- touched down in Adelaide at the start of a diplomatic mission across the resource-rich continent.
The premier waved from the plane's doors and was greeted on the airport tarmac by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, other government officials, and a group of photographers and TV journalists.
Flying in from a similarly trade-centred visit to New Zealand, Li is the highest ranking Chinese official to visit either country since 2017.
The premier will tour a South Australian wine grower and check in on two Chinese-loaned giant pandas in Adelaide zoo, hold talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese before tucking into a state lunch in Canberra, and then travel to a lithium mine in Western Australia.
His vineyard visit is a nod to China's recent lifting of swingeing trade sanctions on wine, timber, barley and beef exports imposed in 2020 during a diplomatic rift with a former conservative government.
The measures cost Australian exporters an estimated Aus$20 billion ($13 billion) a year.
Australia's rock lobster industry hopes Li will reopen its exports to China, removing one of the last sanctions in place since Albanese's government took power in 2022 and adopted a softer diplomatic approach to Beijing.
The Chinese premier's visit "reflects the improving tone," said Ryan Neelam, director of the foreign policy programme at Sydney-based think tank the Lowy Institute.
"The relationship is now more focused on the economic opportunities between them than it has in the past, which has been overshadowed by the political and security differences," he said.
"But at the same time, those differences haven't gone away."
Australia has tightened its defence alliance with the United States as it seeks to parry Beijing's expanding diplomatic and military influence on island states scattered around the Pacific region.
China describes the AUKUS security pact between Washington, London and Canberra -- a deal that would equip Australia with nuclear-powered but conventionally armed submarines to patrol the region -- as a divisive measure that raises nuclear proliferation risks.
- Wine and pandas -
In the most recent a sign of military tensions, Australia accused China of "unsafe and unprofessional" conduct after one of its warplanes fired flares in the path of a naval helicopter last month over the Yellow Sea.
Albanese has promised to tell Li the behaviour was "inappropriate".
Canberra also reacted with "outrage" when a Beijing court handed down a suspended death sentence to Chinese-Australian dissident writer Yang Jun earlier this year.
Such disagreements are likely to be aired behind closed doors, Neelam said.
Instead, Li sets a friendlier tone on the first full day of his trip Sunday -- visiting the famed Barossa winemaking region in Adelaide, hometown of Australia's foreign minister, who is credited with helping stabilise relations with Beijing.
China's punitive tariffs had effectively blocked premium Australian wine exports, worth an estimated Aus$1 billion a year, until just three months ago.
Even now, Australian vintners are hesitant to rush back into pre-tariff levels of trade with China, said Paul Turale, marketing manager at industry body Wine Australia.
"A lot of importers are probably taking a more conservative approach to bringing in new labels or new wines and are waiting to see it stabilise," he said.
"It will take some time to grow to what the industry was before."
First, though, Li will pop into Adelaide Zoo where giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni have been on loan from China since 2009.
Hopes are high that the pair -- instruments of China's so-called panda diplomacy -- will be allowed to stay despite producing no offspring in their time together.
djw-bur/mtp
China Li’s Australia Trip Is ‘Significant’, Chalmers Says
Swati Pandey
Sat, June 15, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia is a “really significant step” for the two nations’ relationship, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Saturday.
Li will land in Australia for a four-day trip on Saturday, heading to Adelaide, Canberra and Perth as part of the first visit by a Chinese premier since early 2017, when relations began to deteriorate.
This follows Li’s visit to New Zealand, where he pledged to strengthen economic ties with Wellington. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the two premiers had discussed issues such as foreign interference, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
While the trip is the latest sign of warming relations between Australia and China, both countries are facing strategic and political tensions across a range of fronts, from strengthening security ties between Canberra and Washington to the global struggle over critical mineral supply chains.
Li’s visit “recognizes the key economic and broader relationship between Australia and China,” Chalmers said at a press conference in Queensland state. “We’re looking forward to engaging with Premier Li and his colleagues on this really important visit.”
Chalmers will also sign the Memorandum of Understanding on the Strategic Economic Dialogue with National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Liu Sushe that was agreed last year.
“We believe that engagement is good for our people, it’s good for our economy and it’s good for our country more broadly, and that’s what this visit is all about,” Chalmers said. “We’ve made really encouraging progress stabilizing the relationship with China but in a way which is consistent with our values and our interests.”
When asked by a journalist if the Australian government will confront the Chinese prime minister on humanitarian issues, Chalmers said “we are prepared to speak up for those values and interests when that’s appropriate.”
“We don’t pretend that isn’t sometimes a difficult relationship to manage or a complex relationship to manage,” he said. “And so we disagree with the administration when we need to, we engage where we can and I think we’ve seen some of the fruits of that, certainly in terms of the economy over the last couple of years.”
(Adds Li’s NZ visit in third paragraph. A previous version of this story was corrected to clarify it’s the first visit by a Chinese premier in more than seven years.)
Bloomberg Businessweek
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