by Ross Ibbetson for The Daily Mail
New Zealand has said it will no longer confront China over human rights as part of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence network, reversing an earlier commitment to its allies.
Foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta said New Zealand was ‘uncomfortable’ with pressuring Beijing and wanted to pursue its own relationship with its largest trading partner.
The intelligence sharing alliance, formalised during the Cold War, last year began issuing statements condemning China’s human rights record.
Defence ministers from Britain, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand agreed on this expanded remit last May to ‘advance their shared values of democracy, freedom and respect for human rights.’
The prospect of New Zealand being removed from the Five Eyes network has been raised in the past, with Peter Mattis – a former CIA China expert – saying in 2018 the country ‘denied there’s a problem’ when it comes to China.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington earlier this month. Her foreign affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta yesterday set out New Zealand’s new position on Five Eyes, rejecting a new direction which it had pledged to take along with its allies
Mahuta (pictured at parliament on Saturday) said that Wellington will ‘not invoke the Five Eyes as the first point of contact on messaging out on a range of issues that really exist outside the remit of Five Eyes’
Chinese president Xi Jingping. His foreign ministry has accused Five Eyes of ganging up on Beijing
Mahuta, speaking to reporters after a speech on China, confirmed that the other members of Five Eyes had been notified of Wellington’s changed position.
‘It’s a matter that we have raised with Five Eyes partners, that we are uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes relationship, that we would much rather prefer looking for multilateral opportunities to express our interests on a number of issues,’ she said.
China has accused Five Eyes of ganging up on it by issuing statements on Hong Kong and the treatment of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Speaking on Tuesday, President Xi Jinping condemned countries for ‘arrogantly’ interfering in the affairs of others.