Geopolitical turmoil ahead | Josie Pagani

JOSIE PAGANI

STRAIGHT AND TRUE

Geopolitical turmoil ahead

If the US provokes a confrontation in the South China Sea, would we have to choose between the US and China? Forced to choose sides between our largest trading partner, China, and Five Eyes partners, do any of us know which sides our major parties would take?

The relationship with China is going to get harder anyway. We can't stay on the sidelines over China's treatment of Uighurs for long. The state-sized camp China has created is fast becoming the world's gravest humanitarian scandal. Our Government has ended our extradition treaty with Hong Kong, which was the right thing to do. China's breach of the Hong Kong agreement debases its reputation, and the injury is made worse by China's furious response that Hong Kong is an "internal matter". It isn't. China made an agreement with the UK to leave the former colony intact. Since China now can't be trusted to respect an international agreement that is less than a quarter of a century old, how can it be trusted to honour its solemn commitments to us in our trade pact? We now trade with China only on its terms.

We are confronting unprecedented foreign policy challenges.

Josie's guest column in the New Zealand Herald.

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