China’s Belt and Road is going after the West
And New Zealand is the first stop
Will this be One Belt, One Ring to Rule them All?
Welcome to China Uncensored,
I’m Chris Chappell.
China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative.
It’s Beijing’s trillion dollar
infrastructure investment scheme.
And it’s kind of like the One Ring.
Sure, it looks shiny and nice.
But if you put it on,
you might find yourself enslaved to Sauron.
Or in this case,
the Chinese Communist Party.
Which I’m pretty sure is worse,
since it’s actually real.
A lot of developing countries
that have joined the Belt and Road,
end up unable to pay back Chinese loans.
They get trapped in debt,
and are forced to give the Chinese Communist Party their souls.
As well as strategic assets
like natural resources and shipping ports.
Most countries that have joined the Belt and Road
are poor developing countries.
But the Chinese Communist Party is now making a push
to get Western developed countries to join in as well.
This year, Beijing nabbed its first G7 country—Italy.
And it’s doing some major PR by saying the Belt and Road
will from now on be green and sustainable.
Somehow using these buzzwords
must be really convincing,
because now New Zealand
has just joined the Belt and Road.
I get it.
New Zealand *is* green.
And it *is* sustainable—
like its amazing grass-fed dairy farms.
And of course New Zealand *is* the place
where Lord of the Rings was filmed,
so it seems so natural!
You know, I once visited the set of Hobbiton
dressed as Hugo Weaving dressed as Elrond.
You’ve probably never seen that episode.
But you will now?
Anyway, New Zealand is a beautiful country—
which is why they filmed Lord of the Rings there.
But now, like Middle Earth,
New Zealand is also under the watchful eye
of a shadowy, sinister force:
The Chinese Communist Party.
In 2008, New Zealand signed a free trade agreement with China.
And in the years that followed,
their trade with China tripled.
So has the Communist Party’s influence.
Chinese dissidents in New Zealand have been harassed.
People with questionable ties to the Communist Party
have been elected to powerful positions
in the New Zealand government.
And people who have criticized this,
have been threatened.
Like professor Anne-Marie Brady,
who “reported that her home was broken into,
her car was being tampered with,
and she was the recipient of threats
through the post and via phone.”
So it’s kind of shocking
that New Zealand’s trade minister
recently went to Beijing
for a Belt and Road Forum.
And came back saying New Zealand
wants to join the Belt and Road.
I believe we have a clip of that.
Against the power of Mordor,
there can be no victory,
Oops, wrong clip.
What the New Zealand trade minister actually said was,
“It seems more likely that we can find
a win-win situation with China.”
And if you believe that,
I’ve got a shiny new ring of power to give you.
What the trade minister said is,
in a way,
even more disturbing.
Because “win-win” is exactly the phrase
Chinese leader Xi Jinping uses to describe the Belt and Road.
And anyone who’s been paying attention to
should know that “win-win” just means
the Chinese regime wins either way.
It means the country either
pays back their loans with interest,
or China takes their strategic assets instead.
Of course a lot of developing countries
feel like they have no real choice.
That it’s either Chinese investment
or no investment at all.
But is New Zealand really in that same position?
Actually, the previous New Zealand government
had originally signed a Belt and Road agreement in 2017.
But it never really went anywhere
because there were concerns over having too much
Chinese influence in the country.
So how does the current New Zealand Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern feel about it?
I mean, I know I’d be a little concerned
if my trade minister went to a country
that was actively trying to undermine mine,
and came back spouting propaganda slogans.
Well, after the trade minister’s return, Arden said,
“The fact that we’ve taken a little bit of pause
as we’ve worked to really flesh out that arrangement
has been no bad thing,
because Belt and Road has really evolved.”
Oh yes, it’s evolved so much!
I mean, it’s now green and sustainable.
And when has the Chinese Communist Party ever lied.
Actually, never mind,
we don’t have time to go through that list.
Incidentally, Prime Minister Ardern’s Labour party
has accepted donations that may be linked
to the Communist Party.
But don’t worry!
Because the opposition National Party
has also been accused of hiding political donations
that are possibly linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Communist Party knows how to cover all of its bases.
So far there have not been any
concrete investment plans for New Zealand.
That’s because New Zealand is not like
most of the developing countries
that have joined the Belt and Road.
New Zealand doesn’t need massive infrastructure investment.
But New Zealand’s Finance Minister
feels New Zealand has a lot to offer to China,
specifically “greening the Belt and Road,
or helping address some of the issues…
around transparency,
or whether it’s using our regulatory systems,
which are amongst the best in the world.”
Yes, China is the perpetual bad boy.
The United States, Canada, Australia,
they never really understood China.
But New Zealand does.
New Zealand will be the one to make China change.
But there’s also the pressure of missing the boat—
the idea that if New Zealand doesn’t join up now,
China will take its big economy to another country.
One more willing to deal.
Now New Zealand’s security agencies
have been saying they’re concerned
about foreign interference from China.
Particularly in the case of Huawei,
a Chinese company that the US has said
poses a national security threat.
And New Zealand’s security agencies
were able to block a New Zealand telecom company
from using Huawei equipment.
But Prime Minister Ardern was quick to say that
there was no final ban on Huawei.
All this has led security experts to question
if maybe New Zealand is at risk of turning into a Nazgul.
New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes,
an intelligence network set up in 1955
between the United States, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
But former CIA China expert Peter Mattis
has suggested maybe New Zealand
shouldn’t be in it anymore,
because of the level of Chinese Communist Party influence.
Australia faces the same issues.
The difference is,
in New Zealand,
the former and current prime ministers
don’t seem to realize there’s a problem.
And there are a number of well-connected
voices of support inside New Zealand
that want to join the Belt and Road.
Air New Zealand for instance.
More than half the company
is owned by the new Zealand Government.
Its chief executive said,
“We're a little country...
we've got to step into this space.”
Aww, like a Hobbit.
The problem is,
if you actually put a Hobbit in front of a Dragon,
the dragon will bite his head off.
Sorry Bilbo.
Countries and business around the world
have been making this mistake for years.
People see the gold,
and forget there’s a giant dragon.
So how has China trade worked out
so far for Air New Zealand?
Over the 13 years its been in China,
Air New Zealand has lost 100 million dollars.
That’s because the Chinese government
gives preference to Chinese airlines.
But surely just because this is the same story
that happens again and again,
doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t be different.
So hand over the ring.
What do you think of New Zealand
and the Belt and Road?
Leave your comments below.
And before you go, may I remind you,
China Uncensored is not part of the Belt and Road.
So instead of getting billions of dollars
from the Communist Party,
we rely on several thousand small contributions
from viewers like you—
fans who support us
through the crowd-funding website Patreon.
And as a way of saying thanks for your support,
I answer your questions on the show.
Today’s question comes from...
Charlie Matsubara
When a CCP panda takes off its cuddly dimwitted mask
to reveal its real face,
what animal is behind it?
You mean there’s something more terrifying that a panda?!
I shudder even to imagine such a thing.
Brrr.
But I get what you’re saying,
what will happen the world finally realizes
that win-win cooperation is a lie?
Well, I imagine a lot of people in the West
might have to answer some
pretty uncomfortable questions about,
I don’t know,
how they helped build
those systems of mass surveillance in China,
or why they helped censor the Chinese internet
or handed over data to the Chinese authorities,
or the World Health Organization
has been trying so hard to promote
China’s organ transplant system,
when Chinese state-run hospitals
are killing innocent people for those same organs.
And then everyone will realize...
pandas aren't cuddly.
Nope, not cuddly at all.
Thanks for your question.
And thank you to everyone watching.
Even if you can’t support the show on Patreon,
you can support the show by liking this video,
subscribing,
and sharing it with you friends and family.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell
thanks for watching China Uncensored.