Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) yesterday arrived in New Zealand’s northern hub of Auckland, stirring up hope of new trade avenues among the nation’s business leaders.
Li is on a six-day tour of New Zealand and Australia, the highest-ranking official to visit either nation since his predecessor in 2017.
China accounts for 30 percent of New Zealand’s export earnings, according to World Bank data, but there are fears this could evaporate if the world’s second-largest economy continues to slow.
Photo: AFP
The New Zealand China Council — which represents some of the nation’s biggest exporters and most influential companies — was slated to meet with Li yesterday evening. A council spokesperson said they were enthusiastic about “hearing the premier’s views on potential new areas of growth for the bilateral relationship.”
Mark Piper, chief executive of a top New Zealand government science institute, met Li earlier during a tour of a research facility.
“He was talking about more research collaborations and more people exchanges, which is what we’re really interested in,” Piper said. “He was really big on collaboration, the value that New Zealand can bring to China and that China can bring to New Zealand.”
New Zealand was one of the first developed nations to ink a comprehensive free-trade deal with Beijing. Chinese consumers have a voracious appetite, in particular, for New Zealand’s premium meat, dairy and wine.
Li on Thursday touted opportunities for trade, tourism and investment as he started his tour in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, but he warned that emerging differences between the two nations “should not become a chasm that blocks exchanges and cooperation between us.”
New Zealand, long seen as one of China’s closest partners in the region, has become increasingly bold in its criticism of Beijing’s role in the South Pacific.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home