appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Orange Wang

New Zealand’s top diplomat is set to visit China next week as a state‑owned Chinese shipbuilder embarks on a multimillion-dollar interisland ferry upgrade for the Pacific nation.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed his trip on Wednesday, a month after Wellington said it had sealed a deal to buy two new ferries from Guangzhou Shipyard International to connect the country’s two main islands.
Peters said he would travel to Guangzhou to “acknowledge” the NZ$596 million (US$337.2 million) fixed-price contract, which he described as “significant” and “a contribution to economic relations with China”.
Wellington is committed to maintaining and building a “strong, mature and mutually respectful” relationship with Beijing, according to a New Zealand government statement on the trip.
“We have been pleased with the number and quality of high-level visits between China and New Zealand over the past two years,” Peters was quoted as saying.
“Both sides have been able to share perspectives on important issues and underline the importance of mutually beneficial cooperation.”
The trip is the eighth by a New Zealand government minister to China this year and another sign of the improving economic ties between the two countries.
During New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s visit to China in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping told him that the two countries had “no fundamental conflict of interest” and called for differences to be managed constructively.
And earlier this month, New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay travelled to the Chinese commercial hub of Shanghai to attend the China International Import Expo.
At the trade fair, McClay announced that companies from New Zealand and China had concluded new deals and partnerships worth up to NZ$450 million.
However, there have been tensions this year, particularly over Taiwan.
According to reports earlier this month, China’s ambassador to Wellington, Wang Xiaolong, sent letters to New Zealand lawmakers, scolding them for attending an October 24 event at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Wellington to mark the foundation of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name.
Peters later accused Wang of having a “thin” understanding of democracy and called the mainland Chinese diplomat’s response a “mistake that he shouldn’t have made”.
The Chinese embassy pushed back, saying “if China’s core interests are violated and the red line in China-New Zealand relations is crossed, that is an entirely different matter, which has nothing to do with democracy or how it operates”.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.
Most countries, including the United States and New Zealand, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
China also took umbrage in July, when the US Federal Bureau of Investigation opened its first permanent office in New Zealand.
In addition, there have been concerns in New Zealand about Guangzhou Shipyard International as the winner of the ferry contract. The company is a warship manufacturer and subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
However, Peters said last month that he was not worried, saying every component of the ferries would be inspected before they arrived in New Zealand.
New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins also said that two of the country’s spy agencies would play a role in the procurement process, “as they normally [do] in matters like this”.
New Zealand’s Cook Strait ferry upgrade has dragged on for years, with South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo assigned the work in 2021. Costs ballooned from an initial NZ$775 million to about NZ$3 billion by 2023.
Wellington announced last month it had shifted the order to Guangzhou Shipyard International.
On Wednesday, Peters said two new Chinese-built ferries would enter service in 2029 and that the total programme would save the country’s taxpayers NZ$2.3 billion.
Peters will also visit Vietnam and Thailand. He is expected to depart New Zealand on Tuesday and return the following Saturday.
Peters said Southeast Asia contributed “significantly to New Zealanders’ prosperity and security, and we are doing all we can to maximise our mutually beneficial connections”.
“We are pleased to be returning to Hanoi and Bangkok next week,” he said.


New Zealand ‘must never be seen as a proxy’, former PM Helen Clark warns

Cook Islands PM re-elected despite row over China ties with New Zealand

China claims New Zealand’s spy report is product of foreign interference

New Zealand seals trio of Pacific defence pacts to counter China’s reach

China-New Zealand relations

Top New Zealand diplomat to visit China to mark US$337 million ferries contract

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters is slated to visit China next week as well as Vietnam and Thailand. Photo: AFP

China and Cook Islands team up on sea survey as rare earths race expands to oceans

Researchers from China and the Cook Islands have completed a nine-day survey mission in the South Pacific. Photo: Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority

Chinese-New Zealander talks about heritage, his Cantonese T-shirts and comics

Ant Sang, a fifth-generation Chinese-New Zealander, wears one of his Cantotees t-shirts. Photo: Delia Sang

One of Sang’s Cantotees T-shirts. Photo: Ant Sang

Ant Sang (centre, back) with Bro’Town producer Elizabeth Mitchell (centre, front) and the Naked Samoans, writers and actors on Bro’Town. Photo: Ant Sang

A large-scale illustration of Chopstick, which was sold at the launch of The Dharma Punks comic book series in 2001. Photo: Ant Sang

A snippet from Ant Sang and Helene Wong’s comics for the Being Chinese in Aotearoa: A Photographic Journey exhibition. Photo: Ant Sang

One of Sang’s character designs for the hit New Zealand animated show Bro’Town. Photo: Ant Sang

Beijing hits out at New Zealand MPs for attending ‘unacceptable’ Taiwan reception

Beijing said the event had breached the one-China principle. Photo: Handout

A ‘Pacific Eyes’ intelligence body would offset China’s growing presence in region: report

A new report from an Australian think tank suggests Australia and other Pacific nations form a network to help plug intelligence gaps, particularly amid what it called China’s “unprecedented security inroads” in the region. Photo: Australian Defence Force/AFP

On October 6, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape, left, and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sign the Pukpuk treaty at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo: AFP

News

China

Diplomacy

Winston Peters says deal with state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International is ‘significant’ and a boost to economic ties


Winston Peters says deal with state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International is ‘significant’ and a boost to economic ties.


Top New Zealand diplomat to visit China to mark US$337 million ferries contract

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Winston Peters says deal with state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International is ‘significant’ and a boost to economic ties

Winston Peters says deal with state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International is ‘significant’ and a boost to economic ties