To commemorate the 35th Anniversary of Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand, Monday 21 May 2007
Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA)
Tianda Institute
New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA)
Opening Remarks by Tianda Institute
The Sino-New Zealand Relations: Trust Taps Potentials
It is an honor for Tianda Institute, jointly with the Chinese People’s Institute for Foreign Affairs and the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, to host this conference on the 35th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand. On behalf of Mr. Alan Fang, founder of the Institute and the Chairman of Tianda Group, I would like to extend our warm regards to all the participants in this conference today and to those who have contributed so much to this relationship.
The subject of relationships between China and its regional partners has been a special focus for Tianda Institute after it was established in 2005. The institute, headquartered in Hong Kong, is a non-governmental and non-profit research organization with a mission to serve as a platform to carry out research in key areas of Chinese national strategy and regional security. The goal of such research is to improve the quality of relationships between China and the world community through international cooperation for a peaceful and harmonized world and to contribute to China’s sustainable development.
Collectively with China Reform Forum and the French Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS) in October， 2005, Tianda Institute hosted an international seminar on “China’s Peaceful Rise & Sino-European Relations” in Paris. Then in April, 2006, together again with China Reform Forum and the United States Centre for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), the Institute successfully sponsored an international seminar on “China’s Peaceful Rise & Sino-US Relations” in Seattle. Just last month soon after Premier Wen Jiabao’s successful visit to Japan, the Institute jointly with the Chinese People’s Institute for Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) and the Japanese Institute for World Peace held a seminar on “the 35th Anniversary of Normalization of Diplomatic Relations between China and Japan” in Tokyo.
Three days ago in Sydney, Tianda Institute, the Chinese People’s Institute for Foreign Affairs and the Lowy Institute of Australia successfully hosted a seminar to celebrate 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Australia. So when we get together today we are glad to see the bilateral relations between China and New Zealand have also witnessed a smooth development with frequent exchanges of visits and contacts between the leaders of the two nations.
Political trust and collaborations built by the leaders of two countries have certainly given momentum to the economic cooperation between China and New Zealand. Today, China has become New Zealand’s fourth-biggest trade partner, after Australia, the United States and Japan. The bilateral trade volume in 2006 has reached almost 2.9 billion US Dollars.
In April, 2004, New Zealand officially recognized China’s market economy status (MES).While it was the first developed country to recognized China’s MES, New Zealand was also the first developed country to start FTA negotiation with China. Up to now, 11 rounds of talks have been held.
Finally, I would like to paraphrase what Chinese President Hu Jintao told Prime Minister Helen Clark when they met in San Diego, Chile, in April, 2004. President Hu said the Sino-New Zealand relations maintained good momentum of development with increasing exchanges of high-level visits. However, he urged both countries to tap their potentials and open up new areas of economic and trade cooperation. Yes, tapping potentials of cooperation is something facing and challenging us and is one the main subject we are going to explore today. Thank you.
To commemorate the 35th Anniversary of Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand, Monday 21 May 2007
Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA)
Tianda Institute
New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA)
Closing Remarks by Tianda Institute
We are doing the right thing
As I have mentioned in the opening remarks that political trust would greatly tap potentials of economic and trade cooperation between China and New Zealand. In our discussion today about the Sino-New Zealand present and future relationship, I believe we both come to realize and agree that there is great potential in this regard.
I also absolutely believe that it’s not a question of cooperation between China and New Zealand, it’s just a matter of increasing mutual trust and expanding strategic cooperation. I am optimistic that the relationship between China and New Zealand will be further improved and all of us will be a part in Sino-New Zealand history. Sometimes history is made this way. We are sure that we are doing the right thing and shall all feel proud that we are all history makers.
Last week before I left Hong Kong for Australia and New Zealand, a friend of mine called me and told me that he was going to Shanxi Province in the North West part of China for an investment project in paper manufacturing. I was surprised and advised him to be careful about this kind of investment in China today because environmental issue is very sensitive and high pollution project like paper manufacturing may bring great risk to his investment. I know that the State Environmental Protection Administration and its provincial branches are getting more and more authority and are less hesitate to execute their authorized power to veto any new projects or close any factories if these projects might cause pollution problems or fail to pass certain related environmental criteria or standards.
1 The Environmental Authorities are getting more powerful
So in talking about environmental issues in China, I would consider this as the most significant change in this regard.
According to government sources that recently the authorities have closed more than 230 paper-manufacturing facilities in the areas of Lake Dongting in northern Hunan Province so as to improve the water quality of the lake. Another good example to suggest that the government is paying more attention to pollution problems is that they have paid up billions of RMB to move the huge Capital Iron and Steel Mill out of Beijing for clean air for the city and the Beijing Olympics of course.
Although these steps taken are not enough to solve the severe pollution issues in China, it shows that the Chinese authorities have not only begun to realize the crisis that China and the world have been facing but also started adopting a new policy called “New Concept of Scientific Development” or “being a friendly part of the nature”. Under such circumstances more powers are therefore given to the Environmental Protection Authorities every where in the country.
2 Why would this Happen?
This is a great change or we may academically call it a paradigm shift. What is a paradigm shift? The well known American scientific philosopher Thomas Kuhn gave a definition to it as “a change from one way of thinking to another.” Or “one conceptual world view is replaced by another”.
Mr. Kuhn further elaborated that the most significant point about this was that “It all begins in the mind of the person”. “Awareness is prerequisite to all acceptable changes of the theory.”
Agents of change have helped raising the status of the environmental
5 China’s greenhouse gas emission
This is so concerned by the world. As I have mentioned that China has become the third largest economy, after US and Japan, and is regarded as “ the world manufacturer”, its greenhouse gas emission has catched the attention of the whole world. According to data provided by some of the international organizations that the amount of greenhouse gas emission in China ranked number two, right after the US, with 0.65 tons of carbon equivalent per person in average, about 61% of the world average.. It is predicted that in the year 2010, China will surpass the US, and become the number one in gas emission, about 22.3% of the total emission of the world if China’s economic growth keeps at present rate and the energy production structure does not change.
6 The conclusion
The present environmental problems in China or the environmental damage in the world today are essentially the results of the technical and economic structure and life style created and lead by the industrialized countries and China is just following the steps. We hope that it is time for the industrialized countries including New Zealand to cooperate with China to shift the paradigm of development and to transform the traditional economic structure to a new one, not only keeping the economy booming but also conserving the nature.
*Jianmin Wang was a senior journalist in China, US and Hong Kong before he joined the Tianda Institute. This is a speech outline presented at the seminar to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and New Zealand sponsored by the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA), Tianda Institute and New Zealand Institute of International Affairs(NZIIA).
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