Source: Radio New Zealand
Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon around the Manawatu coastline and RNZAF Base Ohakea. Corporal Naomi James
A global security expert said China’s complaint, over what it calls the New Zealand Airforce’s repeated “harassment” near its airspace, could be sign of Beijing’s other concerns with New Zealand foreign policy settings – including its attitude towards the war in the Middle East.
Spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Guo Jiakun said that a P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the New Zealand Air Force recently conducted repeated close-in reconnaissance and harassment in the airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.
Guo claimed that New Zealand’s actions had disrupted the order of civil aviation in the relevant airspace.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said New Zealand’s P-8A maritime patrol aircraft has been undertaking activities that monitor North Korean sanctions evasions at sea in North Asia under UN Security Council resolutions, which it has contributed to since 2018.
The University of Otago’s Professor Robert Patman said what appears to be an over-reaction from China to a routine flight could be a sign of something else “irritating the Chinese leadership”.
He pointed to underlying tensions following the joint statement by New Zealand and Australia’s defence ministers in March, which called behaviour by China in the South China sea as unsafe and unprofessional.
Professor Patman said the criticism of China, alongside the absence of any criticism about the US breaking international law in its attacks on Iran, would not have sat well with Beijing.
He said while in the past, Beijing would see New Zealand as more balanced in its foreign policy compared with Australia – whose relationship with the US is “too close” for China’s comfort – that perception of New Zealand may be changing.
Professor Patman said the very stern rebuke from China didn’t come out of nowhere.
“The response this time may have been much more intense because they may have believed that previously when China, when New Zealand was perceived to be pursuing a more independent foreign policy, they were less concerned,
“But they may be of the view that New Zealand is increasingly tightening its cooperation with the likes of Australia and perhaps the Trump administration, and that would make China much more uncomfortable than previously,” he said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the Embassy of China in New Zealand said in a statement that the activities of the New Zealand military aircraft had posed “a threat to China’s sovereignty and security”.
Foreign Affairs minister Winston Peters’ office has been approached for comment.
A statement from his office said it had nothing to add to NZDF’s response on the matter.
The defence minister Chris Penk’s office also said it had no further comment beyond NZDF’s statement.
International relations expert: China-Japan tensions complicates things
Professor David Capie, the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University, said China’s reaction is unsurprising, as it has expressed unhappiness about these flights in the past.
“But these are flights that take place over international waters and in international airspace and are perfectly lawful,” he said.
However he added that the language used by Beijing this time is stronger – using a word like “harassment”.
Professor Capie said reports by China’s state media has pointed to the fact that the flights are taking off from Japan’s Kadema airbase, and that Japan had welcomed New Zealand’s continuing role in enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea.
He said he wonders if the tense China-Japan relations at the moment is a complicating factor in China’s response to New Zealand.
“Japan-China relations right now are really tense, probably the worst they’ve been in decades.
“I think that that the Japan context is sort of giving this a kind of an extra sharpness… I mean they’ve always disliked these flights, but I think right now there’s the Japan dimension has given it an extra sort of sharpness,” he said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
