Beijing cautions New Zealand to reconsider before joining AUKUS alliance
In a direct warning to New Zealand, Beijing has cautioned the Pacific nation against seeking to join the trilateral pact.
New Zealand should “think twice” before progressing with its plans to join the AUKUS alliance, Beijing has warned.
The defence and foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand met on Feb. 1, after which Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles announced that a delegation would travel to New Zealand “very shortly” to discuss Pillar II of the AUKUS pact—the security partnership between Australia, the UK, and United States.
The alliance is widely seen—including by Beijiing—as a response to the Chinese Communist Party’s growing influence in the Pacific.
A key part of AUKUS is the arming of the Royal Australian Navy with nuclear-powered submarines from its two partners, at a cost of up to $368 billion by the mid-2050s.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that discussions between the two countries were of “far greater acuity and importance than it’s ever been in the lifetime of anybody in this room” given the current global climate.
When asked if he was concerned that joining AUKUS would have repercussions for New Zealand’s relationship with its biggest trading partner, Mr. Peters said: “China is a country that practices something I have got a lot of time for. They practice their national interest … and that’s what we’re doing.”
Stark Warning From Beijing’s Mouthpiece
Beijing has used an editorial in the China Daily—a newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP—to warn Wellington that joining AUKUS would “cast a shadow on bilateral ties and even offset what has been achieved in advancing bilateral cooperation.
Until the recent change of government, New Zealand had seemed comfortable about the fact that it was not a party to the pact, the editorial notes. But now the country seeks to join Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement, which centers on advanced technology sharing, including artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, and military interoperability.
This has led to questions allegedly being asked about “whether New Zealand will hold firm to its non-nuclear stance, and what are intentions of the trilateral military group in trying to draw New Zealand into its fold,” the CCP newspaper said.
“New Zealand may have calculated that its participation in Pillar Two of AUKUS, not Pillar One, that focuses on Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarine technology, can help it get closer to its Western allies in a rapidly changing world environment while still maintaining its own non-nuclear stance.
“But if so, it is being naive as the geopolitical intention of AUKUS cannot be more obvious.”
The newspaper claimed New Zealand was undermining its obligations under non-nuclear obligation treaties, a similar argument it has meted out against Australia.
It further claimed New Zealand was simply following the footsteps of the United States.
Beijing’s local embassy reacted even more strongly to the joint ANZMIN statement, saying the CCP “strongly deplores and firmly opposes it.”
The envoy claimed it was a manifestation of a “Cold War mentality” and that it would “undermine peace and stability.”
The recent warning is also a reversal of the China Daily’s previous editorial stance.
