DON BRASH: THAT CLARK/KEY VISIT TO CHINA

At the risk of triggering a torrent of abuse, I can’t refrain from expressing my strong support for the visit which Helen Clark and John Key made to Beijing a few days ago to attend the parade marking the 80^th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific.

Most of those who have expressed opposition to their trip have focused on the identity of some of China’s other guests at the event, with particular mention of Vladimir Putin from Russia and Kim Jong Un from North Korea. 

I’m no admirer of either man, but it is only a few short weeks ago that Vladimir Putin was given a red-carpet welcome, complete with military fly-over, by Donald Trump in the United States.  So there can hardly be any objection to two retired Prime Ministers from New Zealand attending a function at which Putin was also an invited guest.

I’ve heard at least one radio host dismiss the anniversary on the grounds that China didn’t play a huge part in Japan’s defeat in 1945.  That just reflected his ignorance.  Nobody knows how many Chinese lost their lives as a result of the war following Japan’s invasion in 1937 – estimates range up to more than 20 million – but from the perspective of defeating Japan it is surely relevant that at times Japan had in excess of one million troops deployed in China.  Those were troops not available for fighting the Americans and other allies elsewhere.  (By way of comparison, the number of Americans who lost their lives in the Pacific theatre during World War II is estimated to have been about 160,000, fewer than some estimates of the Chinese who lost their lives in the massacre of Nanking.)

But, it is sometimes objected, much of the brunt of fighting the Japanese was borne not by the Communist forces but by the Nationalists.  That may well be true – I’m not familiar enough with that era of Chinese history to quarrel with that view – but it was nevertheless the Chinese people who did the fighting and dying, and it is therefore hardly surprising that it is the government of China which marks the occasion.

There can surely be no objection to Helen Clark and John Key visiting China because of the nature of the Chinese regime.  It is only a few months ago that Prime Minister Luxon paid an official visit to Beijing and met with President Xi Jinping.  And successive New Zealand Prime Ministers have made similar visits when in office.

One of the enlightened policies of New Zealand’s Parliament is that it covers the cost to have the Leader of the Opposition make an overseas trip about once in every two years in order to ensure that if in future he or she becomes Prime Minister, the ground-work has been laid for important international relationships.  When I myself was Leader of the Opposition, I undertook two such trips, and on each occasion visited Washington, London, Beijing and Canberra.  Even when I was Leader of the Opposition, between 2003 and 2006, it was obvious that China was going to be hugely important to New Zealand’s future.

New Zealand was officially represented at the 80^th anniversary event by somebody from our embassy in China, but we should have been represented at a more senior official level.

Helen Clark and John Key attended the occasion as private individuals, and paid their own travel expenses.  I think it is a great pity that the New Zealand Government did not have the sense to cover the travel expenses of both of them, and give them some kind of official status as representing New Zealand.  Both did a huge amount to build New Zealand’s relationship with China when in office, and that relationship has been vital to our economic prosperity over the last several decades.

One of those who was not at the anniversary event was Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India and somebody with whom the New Zealand Government is very keen to develop a positive relationship.  But he had been rubbing shoulders with Putin, Kim and Xi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin, China, only two days previously. 

If the Prime Minister of India was comfortable rubbing shoulders with – and indeed holding hands with – Putin, it’s impossible to understand why there should have been the slightest criticism of Helen Clark and John Key for attending the parade.  In helping to preserve New Zealand’s relationship with our most important trading partner, we owe them our gratitude.

There are some in New Zealand, in our universities and even in our Government, who deplore the Clark/Key visit and who appear convinced that China poses a terrible threat to New Zealand, spying on us and firing live rounds from naval vessels sailing through the Tasman Sea.  I’d be surprised if China is not spying on us, as other Powers certainly do, and there is little doubt that Chinese vessels sailing through international waters in the Tasman Sea was a response to Australian and New Zealand naval vessels sailing through the very much narrower Taiwan Strait months earlier.

I’m personally grateful to both Helen Clark and John Key for helping to keep alive a positive relationship between China and New Zealand, despite the efforts of their less well informed and certainly less objective critics.

Don Brash

8 September 2025

Disclosure: I am the chairman of ICBC in New Zealand