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Official name People’s Republic of China
Land area 9.5 million square kilometres
Population 1.331 billion (November 2008 est)
Capital city Beijing
Religion Religious practice, especially of Buddhism, Islam, Taoism and Christianity permitted under state-controlled structures
Language Chinese (Mandarin plus dialects) and minority languages
Currency Renminbi
Exchange rate US$1.00 = 6.83 yuan (September 2009)
Political system One party rule by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
National government State President. The Premier heads the State Council (Cabinet), which is responsible for government administration through its subordinate commissions and ministries, in accordance with strategic policy and operational directions set by the Chinese Communist Party
National legislature The National People’s Congress (unicameral); 2,989 (November 2008) deputies representing provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, the armed forces; elects (pro forma) the president, members of the State Council, and members of the Standing Committee of the NPC, which meets when the NPC is not in session; passes Chinese Communist Party policy into law.
Last election March 2008 (pro forma elections of presidential and State Council office-holders); village-level elections held nationally on three-year cycle (universal suffrage).
Next election due March 2013 (National People’s Congress)
Head of State President Hu Jintao
General Secretary, CCP Hu Jintao
Chairman, NPC Wu Bangguo
Premier Wen Jiabao
Head, CPPCC Jia Qinglin (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference)
Vice Premiers Li Keqiang, Hui Liangyu, Zhang Dejiang, Wang Qishan
State Councillors Liu Yandong, Liang Guanglie, Ma Kai, Meng Jianzhu, Dai Bingguo
Key ministers:
Yang Jiechi, Foreign Affairs
General Liang Guanglie, Defence
Zhang Ping, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)
Zhou Ji, Education
Meng Jianzhu, Public Security
Wu Aiying, Justice
Sun Zhengcai, Agriculture
Chen Deming, Commerce
Li Changjiang, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ)
GDP US$4.868 trillion (2009 est.)
GDP per capita US$3,649 (2009 est.)
GDP per capita (PPP) US$6,625 (2009 est.) (Purchasing Power Parity)
GDP growth 9.0% (2008)
Inflation 5.9% (2008)
Exports (FOB) US$1,155.3 billion (2009 est.)
Imports US$ 877.1 billion (2009 est.)
Main exports: electronics, textiles, base metals
NZ exports (FOB) - NZ$3.08 billion (April 2009, up 35%)
(NZ’s fourth-largest market, constituting 7.1% of total exports (April 2009)
NZ main exports (year to April 2009)
NZ imports (CIF) - NZ$6.63 billion (April 2009, up 14%)
(NZ’s second-largest source of imports, constituting 14% of imports (April 2009).
NZ main imports - electrical machinery and equipment, textiles, clothing and footwear, toys, consumer products
Services trade - education, tourism, specialist consultancy.top of page
In a period of less than 30 years, China has evolved into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, increasingly outwardly-oriented and market-driven.
Domestically, standards of living and economic freedom have improved markedly although China is still a developing country with a high proportion of low-income earners and significant rural poverty. China’s major economic challenges are to entrench the rule of law, improve rural living standards, modernise the financial sector, unfetter private enterprise and implement more robust environmental protection.
Politically, while communist ideology has given way to market socialism, China remains a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Elections through universal suffrage have been introduced at the village level, but have not been permitted further up the system. The National People’s Congress remains largely a rubber-stamping instrument for the CPC leadership, but it does play a more significant role in policy debate and drafting of legislation than in the past. There remain controls on freedom of association and expression, including strong state control of the media.
In foreign policy, China’s primary objectives are to ensure a stable international environment for its economic development, to secure adequate resources, and to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity, including through the pursuit of reunification with Taiwan. China uses adherence to the one China policy as a litmus test by which other countries’ relations with China are measured. China’s increasing economic success has given it greater influence in international politics. It is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and particularly active in the Asian region in APEC, ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, the ASEAN Regional Forum, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Boao Forum for Asia. Though modernising rapidly, China’s military capability remains limited. China places a high priority on good relations with the US and on building strong relationships with its neighbours.
History exerts a powerful influence in Chinese politics. Traditionally, China was ruled by an emperor, who was supported by an extensive bureaucracy that distributed his edicts throughout the empire. These edicts were carried out, or in some cases ignored, by bureaucrats in the provinces - for many of them the emperor was a very long way away.
This system established and preserved a political equilibrium, which lasted for thousands of years and was interrupted only by the rise and gradual demise of new dynasties. While individual emperors and dynasties came and went, normally in tumultuous fashion, the fundamentals of the imperial system remained largely unchanged. Under this system, and particularly towards the end of dynastic cycles, life for many of the emperor’s subjects was uncertain, often violent, and subject to frequent and destabilising change.
Following its founding by the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1949, the People’s Republic of China proved to have much in common with this tradition. The CPC was in essence controlled by a dominant leader, whose policies were faithfully implemented by the bureaucracy. Mao Zedong may have lacked the traditional prestige enjoyed by the emperors, but he was able, through manipulation of factions, military influence and force of personality, to enjoy powers similar to those of his imperial predecessors. China remained under the rule of man, rather than the rule of law.
Following Mao’s death in 1976 at the end of the devastating decade of the Cultural Revolution, China emerged into a period of political and social stability unprecedented in the 20th century, due largely to the assumption of power by veteran CPC leader Deng Xiaoping. Emerging as a paramount leader in 1978, Deng was a pragmatist, committed to the economic modernisation of China and to maintaining the CPC’s hold on power.
From late 1978, Deng set in motion a dramatic process of economic reform and “opening up”, moving China away from a centrally planned economy to a more market-based system. In the years since, China has undergone an economic and social transformation unparalleled in world history. Between 1978 and 2005, China’s economy more than quadrupled in size, and 300 million of its vast population of 1.3 billion were lifted from absolute poverty.
Deng’s policies were not without critics, especially conservatives in the CPC hierarchy. Deng found it necessary to patch together coalitions and go forward on an incremental basis, an approach which his successors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, have continued to find necessary.
Cycles of reform in China have been interspersed by periodic ideological crackdowns. These have been more benignly expressed in the last 15 years than during the 1980s. During that first decade of economic reform, the social stress of rapid change and public anger over high inflation and official corruption fuelled popular demands for political reform. The reform movement eventually sparked the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in May/June 1989, and the bloody suppression that followed. One lasting consequence of that period has been a pervasive view within official CPC ideology that political reform and serious social instability go hand in hand.
China remains a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). With the substitution of economic pragmatism for the ideological fervour of Maoism and the freeing up of the economy, many of the more oppressive controls over individual actions and (private) expression have been lifted.
In 2004 China added a clause “the State observes and respects human rights” to the constitution, but this clause has yet to be given significant practical effect. Political and civil rights in the form of public expression, freedom of association and freedom of worship remain tightly regulated and China has not yet ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it signed in 1998. Controls on the media (including the internet), activities of NGOs and academia have tightened again in the last few years, though the media retains more freedom than in the Mao era to explore issues.
Hu Jintao is the current paramount leader of China. He heads a group of leaders known as the “fourth generation”, which was elected at the 16th Chinese Communist Party Congress in November 2002 (and was confirmed for a second five-year term at the 17th Party Congress in November 2007). Like his predecessor Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao wields authority as the leader of the party, government and military. Many of his allies were promoted to senior government (State Council) positions at the 11th National People’s Congress in March 2008, increasing the space for the implementation of his and Premier Wen’s policy agenda.
Economic reform, and in particular recognition of the need to “rule by law” if the economy is to function in the modern world and comply with WTO obligations, is having a profound effect on the foundation of Chinese society. While the CPC continues to resist strongly substantive political reform, it nonetheless accepts that some changes are necessary to make its governance more transparent and accountable.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have maintained China’s commitment to market-style economic reforms, but they have also pledged to balance economic development with social and environmental concerns and to do more to bridge the widening gap between urban and rural incomes.
Maintaining social stability is a major concern of the government, especially in the face of global economic slow down of late 2008. China faces challenges associated with the recent lay-offs of some 10% of its migrant workforce of approximately 200 million. Since 2003 there has also been an increase in the frequency of local demonstrations over labour issues (such as seeking redundancy payments for factory closures), local government corruption, environmental damage or for compensation following land confiscation. Some demonstrations have ended in violence and deaths following clashes with police or vigilantes. In part to deal with the sources of protest, the government has placed greater emphasis on raising the living standards of rural residents, combating corruption and increasing access to basic social services such as health and education. A recent CPC proposal to extend farmers’ rights to enable them to rent and trade their land rights could help to alleviate rural poverty. The government is also gradually expanding the social security system, though it still covers very few.
Since China began its reform and opening up, it has maintained an average growth rate of close to 10% per annum (falling to 8.1% estimated for 2009), attracted sizeable foreign investment, greatly expanded its international trade and built up over US$2 billion in reserves. GDP per capita has increased from US$148 in 1978 to approximately US$3600 in 2009. It is now the third-largest economy (or the second largest, behind the US if taken on a PPP basis and the EU is not counted as one single economy).
Spectacular as China’s growth has been, much of it has covered the easier yards: breaking the communal mould to release rural productivity, stimulating urban construction and consumerism, and exploiting wage competitiveness in the growth of manufacturing. Only since 1998, under Premiers Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao, has China begun to tackle the harder tasks of dismantling the ‘iron rice bowl’ through reform of State Owned Enterprises (SOE), housing and the financial sector, and creating a national social security system.
These structural reforms were made more difficult by the Asian financial crisis and deflation in the mid to late 1990s. The Government used fiscal stimulus through bond-funded public works, repeated recapitalisation of the state owned commercial banks, separation of SOE non-performing loans to allow balance sheet restructuring, and a more rapid removal of the remaining constraints on private sector activity to facilitate a return to growth. The economy has grown at around 10% per annum in the 2000s and generated enough jobs to keep the lid on social discontent.
Since 2004, concerns have grown that the economy was overheating as a result of the government's continued reliance on fiscal stimulus. The increasing environmental impact of rampant growth has also become more apparent with serious air and water pollution affecting most Chinese cities. From mid-2004 until the global economic crisis China’s government was focused on trying to slow economic growth without triggering a crash or “hard landing”. Policy continues to be directed towards the twin goals of reducing expenditure in overheated sectors and stimulating domestic consumption levels. The latter was en pursuit of what China’s leadership has labelled ‘a harmonious society’. Premier Wen has spoken recently of 2008 being a difficult year for China’s economy. Longer-term priorities are highlighted in the 11th five year plan (2006-10), approved by the National People’s Congress in March 2006, in which the government prioritises quality above quantity in economic growth and balance between urban and rural development.
China's exchange rate has for years been a controversial topic with many of China's trade partners, particularly the US and the EU, claiming the RMB is artificially undervalued and constituted an unfair export advantage. Since July 2005 the renminbi has been pegged to a basket of foreign currencies and allowed to trade within a narrow band against this basket. Since then the People’s Bank of China has allowed the renminbi to increase gradually in value by over 15%, trading at 7.03 per US dollar in late March 2008, and 6.83 per US dollar by April 2009 following the impacts of the global economic crisis.
As China has opened its economy, it has also expanded its engagement in international economic and trade forums. It has been a member of APEC since 1992, and hosted the 13th APEC Ministerial Meeting in Shanghai in October 2001. Since 2001, China has hosted the annual Boao Forum for Asia, a leading Asian economic forum. China became a member of the World Trade Organisation on 11 December 2001. China’s WTO accession package of improved market access for goods and services and reform of its foreign trade regime has added impetus to its long-term programme of economic reform.
The economic downturn of mid-late 2008 has impacted China. Chinese banks held significant bonds issued by now-bankrupt US institutions, and China’s equity holdings have also suffered. Meanwhile, China’s exports have slowed due to the economic situation in other markets. There is a consensus however at the global level that an increase in domestic expenditure by China and reduction in exports is part of the necessary readjustment required to the crisis, given that US trade deficits have to some extent mirrored China’s own surpluses.
Since the 1970s, China’s foreign policy has sought to maintain a stable external environment conducive to its continued economic growth. To this end, China’s foreign policy has emphasised the maintenance of harmonious relations with major economic partners, particularly the US and the EU, safeguarding state sovereignty and territorial integrity (especially in its policies on Taiwan), and building relationships through the exercise of soft power (economic and cultural links and diplomacy) in South and East Asia. In stark contrast, China’s relationship with Japan, its major regional competitor, remains strained. In recent years China has become a more active participant in multilateral forums.
China’s relationship with the US remains its greatest foreign policy preoccupation. President Hu Jintao continues former President Jiang Zemin’s emphasis on forging a strategic relationship with the US. He visited Washington in April 2006, reciprocating President Bush’s visit to Beijing in 2005. Most recently the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited China in March 2009. At any one time, the two countries are managing a portfolio of difficult foreign policy and economic issues. These include, for example: Taiwan, intellectual property protection, trade imbalances, Iran, nuclear proliferation, currency relativity, US missile defence systems, human rights and religious freedom, North Korea (including the six party talks process) and their relationship in the UN Security Council. China and the US initiated a Senior (political) Dialogue in August 2005 and a Strategic Economic Dialogue at Vice-Premier level in September 2006. The US global anti-terrorism campaign has helped strengthen bilateral understanding.
China has a difficult relationship with Japan. Anti-Japan protests in Chinese cities in 2005 illustrated the flash points including different views on World War II history, competing claims for energy resources and territory, and Chinese concern at the US/Japan security relationship. Despite political difficulties, China and Japan are increasingly economically interdependent with investment by Japan’s high-technology manufacturers an important factor in China’s economic transformation. Under Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, relations with China have continued the improvement that began during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s term in office. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in April 2007, the first visit by a Chinese Premier since 2000. Prime Minister Fukuda travelled to Beijing in December 2007 and President Hu visited Tokyo in May 2008.
China has put considerable effort into improving relations with the 14 countries on its 28,000 kilometre border, including entering a strategic partnership with India (a change from 1998 when India attributed its nuclear tests to a ‘China threat’), and resolving territorial disputes with Viet Nam that led to war in 1979. Russia and China have put long-standing enmity behind them, agreeing a common border and embarking on energy and military cooperation. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), formed in June 2001, strengthens China’s links with its central Asian neighbours. China has established effective working relationships with both North and South Korea and played an important role in developing a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.
China’s successful engagement with the developing world is a big part of its global footprint. China’s combination of diplomacy, aid, trade and commercial investment helps it access developing world commodities that it needs to support its economic growth, as well as open new markets for Chinese-manufactured exports. This has been particularly evident in Africa, where its approach of separating commerce from political or human rights concerns has seen China invest in countries where Western firms do not (e.g. Zimbabwe, Sudan).
China has an increasing interest in the Pacific, with Chinese nationals living in the area, trade and involvement in industries such as logging, fishing, and mining. China provides aid to Pacific developing countries that extend it diplomatic recognition and held the inaugural meeting of the China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum in April 2006. China is a post Forum dialogue partner to the Pacific Islands Forum and its relationships include the Cook Islands and Niue. In March 2009, Vice Premier Xi Jinping made a stopover visit to Fiji en route to South America.
New Zealand and China celebrated 35 years of diplomatic relations on 22 December 2007. The bilateral relationship has grown to become one of New Zealand’s most valuable and important. As a global and regional power, New Zealand’s third-largest trading partner, and a major source of migrants, students and tourists, China is important to New Zealand as a bilateral, regional and multilateral partner.
The China-New Zealand relationship is characterised by regular high-level contacts, an expanding range of official dialogues - both formal and informal, healthy and diversifying trade and economic flows in both directions, and strengthening people-to-people contacts. During Premier Wen Jiabao’s April 2006 visit to New Zealand, an agreement to hold annual leaders’ meetings was reached, and two of these have since taken place – the first at the second East Asia Summit in Cebu, Philippines at the beginning of 2007 and the second during Deputy Prime Minister Dr Cullen’s September 2007 visit to China. This was followed by the visit of Prime Minister Helen Clark to witness signature of the Free Trade Agreement in April 2008. Prime Minister John Key visited China in April 2009 – his first bilateral visit to Asia
New Zealand contact with China started very early in our history, with trade, missionary, immigration and other links in China’s Republican era (1912-49). The establishment of the People’s Republic and the Korean War brought these links to a halt. New Zealand recognised the People’s Republic of China in 1972.
The history of New Zealand’s formal relations with China since 1972 has not been without discord. The Chinese Government crackdown on the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in June 1989 was strongly condemned in New Zealand and ministerial and senior official contact suspended for more than a year.
The relationship has expanded considerably since the mid-1990s with many high-level visits. Premier Wen Jiabao visited New Zealand in April 2006, and Prime Minister Helen Clark visited China in April 2008 and in May 2005. Prime Minister Key visited Beijing in April 2009, his first bilateral visit as Prime Minister, outside of Australasia. President Hu Jintao made a State visit to New Zealand in October 2003. Governor General Anand Satyanand visited China in August 2008, and Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan visited New Zealand in March 2007. Minister of Trade Phil Goff visited China in April 2008, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters in May and November 2007. The Speaker of the House of Representatives Jonathan Hunt visited China in September 2003, and the visit was reciprocated by the Chairman of the National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo in May 2005 A range of New Zealand ministers have made visits to China over the past few years, including those with responsibility for Information and Technology; Food Safety and Police; Defence; Health; Education; Finance; and Research, Science and Technology.
Bilateral communication between New Zealand and Chinese officials has also expanded over the years. Foreign policy talks, and economic and trade talks, are held regularly. There are formal bilateral dialogues on sanitary and phytosanitary issues, agriculture, dairy and forestry. Free Trade Agreement negotiations launched in November 2004 were concluded in 2008. There is regular contact on a wide range of issues including defence, law and governance, human rights, multilateral trade, regional security, international fisheries management, and development assistance. Developments in Tibet in March 2008 put the focus on human rights issues, prompting several Government statements of concern and a motion by the New Zealand Parliament.
New Zealand is careful to abide by its undertaking to China in our joint communiqué of 1972 to refrain from official dealings with Taiwan. While faithful to its one China policy, New Zealand maintains economic and cultural ties with Taiwan, an important trade and economic partner.
The Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and China entered into force on 1 October 2008. New Zealand is the first OECD country to conclude an FTA with China. Over time the FTA will result in the elimination of tariffs on 96% of New Zealand exports to China, and is projected to lift New Zealand’s export revenue from trade with China by between NZ$225-$350 million per year.
The FTA built upon the bilateral economic relationship established by the Trade and Economic Cooperation Framework, signed in May 2004 by China’s Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and New Zealand’s Minister for Trade Negotiations Jim Sutton. In this Framework, New Zealand recognised that China had established a market economy system.
Negotiations for the FTA began in November 2004, following the release of a Joint Feasibility Study. The signing in Beijing in April 2008 by then Trade Minister Hon Phil Goff and China’s Minister of Commerce Chen Deming marked the conclusion of 15 rounds of negotiations over three years. The result is a comprehensive Agreement covering trade in goods and services as well as investment. A Most Favoured Nation clause further ensures that any provisions extended by either New Zealand or China to third parties in future trade agreements will automatically apply to each other. New Zealand and China also entered into binding agreements on labour and environment, aimed at encouraging dialogue and co-operation in these two important areas.
For more details on the FTA and its outcomes please refer to www.chinafta.govt.nz.
China is New Zealand’s third-largest trading partner. According to New Zealand statistics, two-way merchandise trade grew to NZ$9.7 billion in the year to April 2009. Trade has grown rapidly. Exports to China, at NZ$3.08 billion increased by over 35 per cent in the last year while imports from China increased by 12 per cent, measured in NZ dollars. Exports to Hong Kong totalled NZ$732 million in the year to February 2009. China is New Zealand’s fourth-largest export market, after Australia, the US and Japan. It is our second-largest source of imports, after Australia.
These statistics do not take account of New Zealand exports to China through Hong Kong (NZ$732 million). Up to one third of exports to Hong Kong are destined for the mainland, while the use of packaging plants in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries means that some New Zealand products enter China as the goods of those countries.
China’s statistics claim to take such factors into account with estimated annual two-way merchandise trade at NZ$6.59 billion to February 2009. By China’s count New Zealand’s exports to China totalled NZ$2.99 billion and New Zealand’s imports from China NZ$3.60 billion. The difference in the statistics is largely due to Chinese statistics not recording trans shipments through ports such as Hong Kong where the end destination is New Zealand.
New Zealand’s exports to China are dominated by agricultural products. Dairy, wool and oils and fats are the largest agricultural exports. New Zealand’s exports to China have diversified, however, with forestry (now second only to dairy), seafood, machinery, aluminium, and high technology products (especially telecommunications products) featuring in New Zealand’s non-agricultural exports to China.
New Zealand’s imports from China include electrical machinery and equipment, textiles, clothing and footwear, toys, and a wide range of light consumer goods.
New Zealand’s exports are also diversifying in the services sector; education and tourism are our major services exports to China.
2003 and 2004 saw the peak of education related foreign exchange earnings, totalling around NZ$2 billion. A huge increase since 1998 in the number of Chinese students travelling to New Zealand for secondary, tertiary and English language study, reaching around 65,000 in 2003/04, was largely responsible for the boost in the education sector’s foreign exchange earnings. For a number of market and reputation-related factors this number declined in recent years for instance down to 32,000 students in the 2006 calendar year and now at a level of 20,000 students. China remains New Zealand’s most significant source of foreign students.
Visitor numbers from China have grown by a factor of six since New Zealand was granted Approved Destination Status (ADS) by China in 1999, and China has now overtaken the Republic of Korea to become New Zealand’s fifth-largest source of visitors (112,000 in the past year). Although there has been a recent down turn following the global economic crisis, visitor numbers are forecast to reach 200,000 in the medium term, which would make China our third-largest visitor market. Chinese visitors make an economic contribution in excess of NZ$300 million.
Investment is another strand of the economic relationship. China's investments in New Zealand total in the vicinity of NZ$808 million as at the end of 2008. Most investment has been in the forestry sector. There is also significant investment in manufacturing and commercial construction. Sectors such as property, hotels and restaurants, meat processing, electronics, fish farming and tanning have all attracted the interest of smaller Chinese investors.
New Zealand companies ANZ, Fonterra, Richina Pacific, NDA Engineering, Hayes International and PAN PAC have major holdings in China. There are a number of other companies from or closely associated with New Zealand with strategic operations or investments in China (Beca Carter, Biovittoria, TL Jones Microscan, University of Waikato in Shanghai/East China, Air New Zealand Engineering, Beca Carter, Intuto, Natural History New Zealand, Western Institute of Technology Taranaki, Wools of New Zealand in Beijing/North China).
These companies see investment in China as important to secure a long-term market for New Zealand products and to assist in the penetration of the enormous consumer market developing in China. Another company, Ice Breaker, has been able to use China as a global manufacturing and distribution base for its New Zealand designed and marketed merino wool clothing. The size and complexity of China's investment environment and market means it must be approached after careful research, with sufficient resources and a long-term commitment.
Air New Zealand’s direct flights between Auckland and Shanghai, launched in November 2006, and Auckland and Beijing launched in July 2008, are significant developments. These are the first long-term scheduled commercial passenger services between New Zealand and China, and have contributed to the growth in visitor numbers.
An air services agreement between China and New Zealand, signed in 1993, was extended in 2004 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which came into force in 2007. Subsequently, Air New Zealand has established code-sharing agreements with Air China and Shanghai Airlines.
Following a 2005 review of the China programme, the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID) determined that China would no longer be classified a core bilateral aid partner. This decision reflected both China’s significant economic development and NZAID’s focus on our Pacific neighbours.
Smaller poverty alleviation activities, collectively amounting to NZ$500,000 per annum, continue to be carried out under the Development Project Fund in seven Western provinces and autonomous regions (Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou, Gansu, Yunnan, Guangxi and Xinjiang). Many of these projects assist ethnic minority communities or women. In addition, there is a small grant scheme of NZ$80,000 per annum administered by the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing.
China and New Zealand have a long history of people-to-people contacts, beginning with the arrival in New Zealand of large numbers of Chinese immigrants in the latter half of the 19th century (notably goldminers) and travel by New Zealand missionaries and others to China to live and work.
Of the early New Zealanders in China, the best known is Rewi Alley, who lived and worked in China for 60 years until his death in 1987. He came to symbolise the important role of people-to-people contacts in building good relations and accentuating common ground between countries as different as New Zealand and China. In 1997, the 100th anniversary of Alley’s birth was marked by celebrations in Beijing and New Zealand, and the 110th anniversary was commemorated in 2007.
The New Zealand-China Friendship Society (NZCFS) in New Zealand, and the China-Maori Friendship Association (CMFA), have each maintained a long and active relationship with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (Youxie), the organisation with which Rewi Alley was closely associated for many years. There have been numerous exchanges of delegations and projects undertaken. In 1999, Youxie gifted Rewi Alley’s China papers to the National Library of New Zealand. The National Library gifted China a complete microfilm record of these papers in 2005. As its contribution to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1999, Youxie opened a Friendship Museum in Beijing in the building where Rewi Alley spent his last years, restoring his apartment in his memory. In September 2002 Youxie conferred the title of “Friendship Ambassador” on Professor Bill Willmott, long-time president of NZCFS, and on Hiwi Tauroa, founder and president of CMFA.
The New Zealand China Trade Association has long fostered the development of strong commercial linkages between New Zealand and China, encouraging New Zealand companies to explore the potential of China’s market and hosting many inward delegations from Chinese trade promotion organisations, state owned enterprises and private companies.
The establishment of sister-city relationships between New Zealand and Chinese cities and provinces has contributed strongly to the people-to-people dimension of the relationship. Sister cities bring together governmental, cultural, sporting, educational, tourism and business groups and provide opportunities for business and other engagement in these areas. There are currently more than thirty Chinese cities/regions that have a sister- or friendly-city relationship with a New Zealand local government authority. 2006 marked both the 25th anniversary of the first New Zealand-China sister-city relationship between Hastings and Guilin, and the addition of a new sister-capital relationship between Wellington and Beijing. Sister Cities New Zealand is actively involved in New Zealand’s sister city relationships with Chinese cities.
China and New Zealand have a history of education links and exchanges, including bilateral scholarship programmes and academic cooperation. There has been a dramatic expansion in student flows and other engagement since the late 1990s.
Until 1998, a New Zealand quota system permitted only 100 Chinese students per year to study in New Zealand. The removal of this restriction coincided with greater financial and social freedoms for Chinese citizens to study overseas, and by 2002 there were over 30,000 Chinese students in New Zealand. In 2003/04, nearly 65,000 mainland Chinese students applied for visas and permits to study in New Zealand.
For a number of market and reputation-related factors, this number declined but has been recovering from just under the level of 32,000 Chinese students who studied in New Zealand in 2006. China remains New Zealand’s most significant source of foreign students. Delivery of New Zealand education services in China through joint programme arrangements is increasing.
The New Zealand government and education sector are working to broaden and raise the level of education engagement with China. The appointment of a New Zealand education counsellor in Beijing, regular high-level meetings and a growing focus on research collaboration at doctoral and post-doctoral level, are all playing a role in this effort. A New Zealand Centre has been established in Peking University, which is also involved in a tripartite university relationship with Massey University in New Zealand.
The Safetravel website provides a travel advisory for travellers to China [external link].
