Christopher Luxon touched down in Shanghai as global uncertainty remains amid the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
China overnight pulled its embassy staff out of Tehran, the capital city of Iran, as China President Xi Jinping called for de-escalation in the Middle East.
Gui Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, spoke publicly on the matter.
“China calls on all parties concerned, especially those with special influence over Israel, to shoulder their due responsibilities, take immediate action to help cool down the situation, and prevent the conflict from further escalating and spreading,” Jiakun said.
It was a call echoed by Luxon.
“We don’t want to see a nuclear armed Iran, we don’t want to see Israel occupying Gaza, we don’t want to see Hamas holding on to hostages. We want to see negotiation diplomacy,” Luxon said.
New Zealand currently has an embassy in Tehran with a small number of staff.
Asked if it was time for New Zealand to pull its staff out of Tehran, the Prime Minister said not at this stage.
“Those are decisions that MFAT will ultimately make and I’d just say to you I’ve been so impressed because that’s been a conversation right from the very beginning of this conflict.”
He added there was no concern for staff safety at this time.
“MFAT are making sure they’re not at risk,” Luxon said.
The focus for the New Zealand delegation to China is to build on what it called a critical relationship.
New Zealand was the first developed country to sign a free trade deal with China back in 2008.
The opportunities between the two countries remain clear.
“Our biggest challenge is actually getting share of mind and actually raising the profile of New Zealand within China,” Luxon said.
For the tourism sector in New Zealand the pandemic hangover remained.
Innovative technology was on display at a sector event by Trip.com Group in Shanghai.
The company had the means to track up-to-date information about Chinese tourist numbers to New Zealand.
Compared to pre-Covid levels, Chinese visitors to New Zealand were sitting at around 61%.
Carrie Hurihanganui, chief executive of Auckland Airport, said it was not a unique situation to New Zealand as Australia too registered similar results.
“When you look at things like the savings right here in China, you just have that 500 million or so middle class growing that is just watching,” she said.
“They’re a bit cautious when it goes to a discretionary spend, but as I said, we are seeing green shoots, the numbers are picking up, just not quite as quickly as we’d like it to,” Hurihanganui said.
Chief executive of New Zealand Māori Toursim Dame Pania Tyson-Nathan said there were plenty of correlations between the two countries which helped attract Chinese tourists.
“From a Māori perspective, they’re intergenerational in everything they do, in the way they live, the way they think,” she said. “That’s critically important and I think it’s something that the rest of New Zealand has been able to leverage as well.”
Last year during Premier Li’s visit to Wellington, he declared 30-day visa-free entry into China for New Zealanders.
From November, our Government would trial three-month visa waivers for Chinese visitors, but only if they had an Australian visa first.
It was an issue raised directly with Luxon during today’s tourism event.
A staff member from Trip.com Group cheekily took the chance to make the point to the Prime Minister.
“Of course, if Prime Minister allow totally visa-free for Chinese tourists, that would be beautiful, that’d be fantastic,” he said.
“I appreciate the pitch,” the Prime Minister laughed.
Asked why New Zealand refused to ease restrictions further Christopher Luxon said it had been carefully considered.
“Immigration in New Zealand deals with immigration settings for 195 countries. What we’ve asked them to do since the beginning of the year as we go for growth is to continue to look at our settings with respect to China,” he said.
Asked if they were appropriate and Luxon said he believed they were.
Luxon denied it indicated New Zealand didn’t trust China.
“No, not at all. It’s just immigration New Zealand has a decision and responsibility to look at the visa settings for 195 countries,” he said.
The tourism sector, it seemed, was keen to see entry pathways eased further.
“There is a live discussion on the table at the moment and of course we will monitor,” Dame Pania Tyson-Nathan said.
“The Minister is listening to tourism and I think that…watch this space.”
