China rightly laments Jacinda Ardern’s resignation

Tom Rogan

January 19, 05:15 PM January 19, 05:15 PM

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When news broke of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s resignation on Wednesday, I simply tweeted, “Loss for China.”

Beijing agrees.

RUSSIA CANNOT SUSTAIN THE OFFENSIVE INITIATIVE

In its report on Thursday, China’s Global Times state newspaper lamented Ardern’s looming departure. A Chinese foreign policy expert observed that “Ardern’s tenure was indispensable to the sound development of China-New Zealand relations. … As a member of the Five Eyes Alliance, New Zealand retained its independence and subjectivity, and did not blindly follow the U.S. to press China like Australia’s Morrison administration did, and withstood pressure from the U.S.”

This high praise echoes the Global Times’s treatment of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her resignation. And as with Merkel, Ardern’s praise is well earned.

After all, Ardern has successfully made New Zealand the weak link in the U.S.-led Five Eyes intelligence partnership. Pretending that her foreign policy is defined by a balancing of interests, Ardern instead embraced near-absolute appeasement of Beijing in return for unrestricted trade. So deferential was the Ardern administration to Beijing that it became a source of jokes in the U.S. intelligence community that New Zealand might as well be regarded as a Communist Party outpost. While individual New Zealand intelligence officers retain U.S. trust, there is significant concern by the United States over sharing of the most sensitive intelligence with Wellington.

This is no small concern.

Alongside the U.S., Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, the Five Eyes partnership sees the sharing of highly sensitive intelligence in support of common democratic interests. But refusing even to join human rights condemnations of China’s most grotesque human rights abuses, Ardern has firmly situated her foreign policy in Beijing’s favor. Indeed, her government has tolerated very significant Chinese espionage and influence operations. Two Chinese agents even served in the New Zealand Parliament.

These are concerns that too few in the Western media recognize even as they rightly praise Ardern for her strong leadership following the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacres.

Unfortunately, even as the U.S. anticipates near-term war with China over Taiwan, Ardern’s legacy is the tip of a bigger U.S. alliance iceberg. France and Germany remain firmly captured by China’s trade-for-appeasement strategy. Under its new prime minister, Anthony Albanese, Australia is restoring trade ties with China by closing its eyes to Beijing’s various imperial gambits. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appears similarly unsure how to handle China, although his recent agreement with America’s stalwart Pacific ally Japan is positive.

Still, China’s lament over Ardern’s resignation isn’t shocking but rather highly rational. Beijing is losing a loyal and trusted friend.

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