China

Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong’s speech at the China Business Summit contained warnings against NZ’s involvement in AUKUS. This pressure may backfire.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) presents potential benefits and risks for New Zealand, with cautious engagement advised. Recent BRI refocusing and debt-trap diplomacy pose significant concerns, warranting prioritisation of long-term stability and autonomy.

The timing of New Zealand’s opposition leader’s willingness to accept Chinese funding for infrastructure coincides with Italy’s decision to withdraw from the BRI, raising geopolitical implications.

French President Macron’s bold foreign policy in China challenges traditional alliances, alarming both the US and Europe. His stance risks dividing the West and undermining trans-Atlantic unity.

Yes, “harder years, tough years” are coming for Germany. But they could be all the harder because the country’s leadership still is not ready to acknowledge its past failures or to apply the lessons to its future policy settings.

China’s President Xi Jinping once said that Soviet Communism collapsed because its ideals and beliefs had been shaken. Would he not expect the same of countries unwilling to stand up for their own ideals and beliefs?

Winston Peters’ comments on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre were candid. Where Western politicians have turned not upsetting China over its human rights record into an art form, the Foreign Minister left diplomatic niceties behind.

For a change, Europe’s worries do not originate from the continent itself. Instead, they stem from the fallout of China’s dramatic slowdown.