New Zealand is carefully managing its relationship with China and must avoid getting pulled from "pillar and post" amid the strategic rivalry between China and the United States, the Pacific nation's foreign minister said on Friday. "China's a complex relationship that we manage very carefully," Mahuta said in an interview with Reuters. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-manages-china-relationship-carefully-works-avoid-being-caught-2023-06-30/) Nanaia Mahuta's comments come as Chris Hipkins nears the end of a six-day visit to China leading a trade delegation, which included meetings with China President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang focusing on economic partnership and trade. Hipkins has faced domestic criticism for not spending more time during his visit raising New Zealand's concerns about human rights violations in Xinjiang. In a statement after Hipkins' meeting with Xi, there was no mention of human rights concerns or the Taiwan Strait. Both were noted in the readout of the meeting between former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Xi in November 2022. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for China's embassy in New Zealand said last week that during the past five decades, "through joint efforts and based on mutual respect, seeking commonality while shelving differences" the relationship between the two countries had come a long way.
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