The New Zealand Parliament has backed out of debating a motion that would call the oppression of the Uyghur people in China a genocide.
This week the New Zealand Parliament decided to water down the language around the proposed motion and would talk about human rights abuses in the region only in more general terms.
According to a spokeswoman for the ACT party, Brooke van Velden, who is also the party’s deputy leader and speaks on foreign affairs for the party, the governing Labour party would not support the motion unless the word ‘genocide’ was removed.
New Zealand’s refusal to label what is happening to the Uyghur people a ‘genocide’ puts it out of step with its traditional allies in the West, notably the United Kingdom, its former colonial master. Last month British MPs voted to declare what is happening in Xinjiang (the Chinese region where oppression of the Uygur people is taking place) a genocide.
The New Zealand government is likely to feel the need to tread carefully. The value of exports from New Zealand to China was more than the value exported to its next four biggest trading partners combined. China is a major destination for New Zealand agricultural products.
Wellington will also have taken note of what has happened to Australia. Following a diplomatic spat, China placed tariffs and import restrictions on Australian products, estimated to have cost Canberra nearly US$40 billion.
In a speech earlier this week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that there were certain issues on which China and New Zealand simply could not agree. When questioned on whether she personally believed the situation in Xinjiang constituted a genocide, Ardern declined to answer.