Alistair Crozier: China Council Executive director says PM's meeting with Xi Jinping will be 'more than pleasantries'

Prime Minister Chris Luxon’s trip to China looks to be successful so far as it reaches its conclusion today. 

Chris Luxon is due to meet President Xi Jinping this afternoon after 871 million dollars of commercial agreements have been signed so far between Kiwi businesses and our Chinese counterparts. 

New Zealand China Council executive director Alistair Crozier told Andrew Dickens that today's meeting between leaders will be more than pleasantries. 

He says there is a lot to discuss, and it will come down to a respectful exchange of views. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Big Day Ahead. On the diplomacy front, Christopher Luxen will
meet with Chinese President Jijimping in an attempt to strengthen
our trade relationship. So eight hundred and seventy one million
dollars where the commercial agreements have been signed so far
between Kiwi businesses and our Chinese counterparts, and more is
expected to come. Alistair Crozier is the executive director of

(00:37):
the New Zealand China Council and is with us this morning.
Happy Mataniki to you, Alistair.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
And to you too, Andrew, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Nearly a billion dollars worth of business. Is this a
success so far?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yes, it looks to have been a really busy couple
of days in Shanghai. Agreements signed in all sorts of areas,
from primary produce to beauty product exports to new air
routes and so. Yes, going to Beijing on a bit
of a high.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
So there was there were some visits that he did yesterday,
but today they really down to it. So how should
the Prime Minister play this today with meeting g do
they just exchange peasantries, Hello, how do you do? Or
will they talk specifics?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Sure? No, these will be substantive meetings. I think the
first point to notice there's actually three big meetings today
is I understand it with President She but also the
PM's most direct counterpart is probably Premier Lee Chang, who
visited New Zealand last year and also the Speaker of
the legislature there. And in all these meetings they will

(01:39):
be more than peasantries. There's a lot to discuss. I
think it comes down to a respectful exchange of views
on a wide range of subjects.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Okay, will we be talking about our relationship when it
comes to of course, the threat that China opposes in
the South Pacific is our relationship somewhat fractured as we stand.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Up to them.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
I don't think it is fractured. I won't hazard a
guess as to exactly what topics will come up today,
but I think the key thing that both sides have
repeatedly emphasized is firstly, there are in nevatively going to
be differences between countries of such different situations as New
Zealand and China. But secondly, it's important to deal with

(02:25):
those differences respectfully and consistently, and that very much ties
in with New Zealand style of diplomacy. We don't use
the megaphone, and I think, you know, we'll get to
a stage with our relationship where we're both able to
raise things in a collaborative way and make progress that way.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Was the announcement of the dropping of funding to the
Cook Islands unfortunate timing.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I think it's just part of the world we live
in that there's multiple issues going on at any one time,
and again it's really the way in which these things
are discussed rather than the contents.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
All right now, how big a focus will tourism be,
because I know we're at something like eighty something percent
of what there was pre COVID. It's been tough times
in China, they're not traveling quite so much. How important
is tourism in our relationship?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Very important? And I think you've seen that on the
visit and then the lead up to the visit. I
think we've had three separate announcements from Immigration New Zealand
about tweaks to the visa policy that will make it
easier for Chinese people to visit New Zealand. We've also
had the announcement of a new flight from Shanghai through

(03:41):
Auckland to Latin America. So you know, I think New
Zealand's pulling out all the stops to encourage those tourists
to come back to New Zealand. We have had about
a quarter of a million Chinese visitors in the last year,
but you're right, that's still down on where we were
before the pandemic.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Have you a little bit as good, Alison Crozier from
the New Zealand China Council, I thank you for your
time this morning.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
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