China, NZ show that they want to build on their firsts: China Daily editorial

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been widely and rightly praised for the leadership she displayed after the right wing terror attacks on two mosques in Christchurch. Now, on a visit to Beijing, her first to the city since taking office more than a year ago and her first overseas trip since the tragedy, she had an opportunity to demonstrate that New Zealand is a country that is open to new possibilities and welcoming of regional and global cooperation, as she portrayed it in her memorial speech.

At their meeting on Monday, President Xi Jinping extended his condolences and said that her proceeding with the visit at such a sensitive time showed the importance of bilateral relations.

That Xi and Premier Li Keqiang held separate meetings with Ardern on Monday, indicates how highly Beijing values its ties with Wellington and its willingness to deepen and widen bilateral cooperation.

Relations between the two countries have made remarkable progress in recent years, producing many "firsts", including New Zealand being the first developed country to recognize China as a market economy, the first to sign a free trade agreement with China and the first to sign a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative with China.

But against this rosy picture there have been less desirable undercurrents too. These have largely stemmed from Wellington's seeming enthusiasm to jump on the US bandwagon to contain the overseas growth of Chinese science and technology companies.

Ardern took pains to show that is not the case and New Zealand is seeking to view its ties with China from a broad perspective and is willing to provide a fair and transparent investment environment to Chinese companies, when speaking to the media ahead of her visit. She said that New Zealand makes its decisions independent of the other Five Eyes nations, and that reports the Chinese telecom provider Huawei has been banned in New Zealand are untrue. Five Eyes is the Anglosphere electronic eavesdropping alliance that comprises Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand.

As long as China and New Zealand continue to build political mutual trust and treat each other as equal partners, there are undoubtedly bright prospects for their bilateral interaction.

China is already New Zealand's largest trading partner, largest origin country for foreign students, and second-largest source of foreign tourists. During Ardern's visit, the two countries have signed agreements on avoiding double taxation, as well as on agriculture, financial dialogue and science and research. And on Saturday, the 2019 China-New Zealand Year of Tourism was officially inaugurated with an aim to enhance mutual understanding and facilitate people-to-people exchanges.

Although, there has been much speculation in recent months on the trajectory of New Zealand's ties with China, Ardern's visit, although shorter than planned because of the Christchurch attacks, has shown that rather than souring, bilateral ties are getting fresh impetus and gaining greater momentum.