Geoffrey Miller: Geopolitical expert talks New Zealand navy ship being shadowed by Chinese vessels

A geopolitical expert says it's a good thing a New Zealand navy ship was on its own in waters around East Asia - when it was shadowed by seven Chinese warships.

The vessel was patrolling last month as part of international efforts to monitor and restrict North Korea’s nuclear and missile activity.

The Defence Force says the Chinese ships followed at a safe, professional distance.

Geoffrey Miller told Ryan Bridge we'll have to wait and see if there are further repercussions.

He says China's usually more offended by joint actions with other Five Eyes countries - so it's probably better our Defence Force was alone.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nine after five, Bryan. Chinese very sensitive right now
over Taiwan thanks to taka Ichi, who's the new Japanese
Prime minister, and our Defense force has kind of been
caught up in this. So they've revealed that one of
our navy ships was followed around by Chinese warships. Recently,
Hti Men's as alto been patrolling international waters. This is
close to the East China Sea, close to the Yellow Sea,

(00:22):
helping to curb North Korea's nuclear bilistic missile programs. That's
what they were doing there, but the Chinese didn't like it.
So seven Chinese warships shadowed the New Zealand Navy apparently,
according to the Defense Force, though they maintained a safe
and professional distance. Geopolitical political analyst Jeffrey Miller is with
me tonight, Jeffrey, Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good evening.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Ryan, unsurprising that the Chinese military keeping a close eye
on us.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
He's very unsurprising. I think I think that was always
going to happen if you sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
New Zealand did it last year. Last time it was
accompanied by an Australian vessel. It seems to have been alone,
but no surprise at all that China was keeping a
close watch on what New Zealand Navy was up to.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Is it less offensive us doing it on our own name?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I've thought about that and I think is in general,
China takes the view that when you undertake joint actions
with other particularly with other Five Eyes countries, that's more provocative.
So the fact New Zealand was on its own possibly
makes it a little bit better in China's eyes. I
don't know, though, And you have to remember, after last
year's incident that was in September twenty twenty four, we

(01:32):
then had the live fire exercises by the Chinese ships
in the Tasman Sea that was in February, and that
seemed to be I guess a consequence of that, or
retaliation to that incident in fact of September twenty four.
So you will wait and see whether there's any further
repercussion to what transpired back earlier last month.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Did you free? You will know we've had the US officials,
some quite senior US officials, for years now saying this
Taiwan situation is going to kick off, and some of
them even gave a date. They said by twenty twenty seven,
we would see the Chinese either invade or blockade or
quarantine or whatever. Taiwan by twenty twenty seven. Do you
think things are heating up? You know, are they reaching

(02:14):
a boiling point?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, in some ways yes, Overall, in the last few
years things have got hotter rather than colder, if you like,
in terms of geopolitical tensions. And yeah, I would say
this year, if you look at it holistically, we're actually
in a better place. We've got a trade truce between
China and the United States. Remember Donald Trump met with
Jijingping at Apex back in what October and signed a

(02:41):
trade truce and stepped back from the brink with the tariffs.
But also I think when you look at New Zealand
this year, New Zealand has come to appreciate China more
than perhaps in recent years, and that's because of Donald
Trump and Liberation Day and all the tariffs. So we
we saw two meetings this year by Christopher Luxon with Jijiping.
Luxon went to China back in June and then he

(03:01):
had a quick meeting with him at in South Korea
at Apex. And also you've got the Tod Todd McLay.
The Trade Minister, Winston Peters was in China just last month,
so there's been a lot of attention paid by New
Zealand to China. But the one exception here is Judith Collins,
the Defense Minister, who's taken a very hawkish positioning, and
she was up in Washington and mid October, and you

(03:23):
have to wonder whether she talked about what New Zealand
was going to do with the Taiwan Strait with her
counterpart Pete Hexseth. So you know there are some differences
obviously in the cabinet and there's a more hawkish side
and there's a more i think trade focused side.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well that's hope everyone can call their jets. Jeffrey Miller,
geopolitical analyst.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
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Speaker 1 (03:46):
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