New Zealand to raise lawmakers’ travel ban directly with China, PM Luxon says
New Zealand to raise lawmakers’ travel ban directly with China, PM Luxon says
June 5 (Reuters) – New Zealand will directly raise China’s “entirely inappropriate” ban on four lawmakers who visited Taiwan with Beijing, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Friday.
Three backbenchers from New Zealand’s centre-right coalition, Laura McClure, David Wilson and Maureen Pugh, along with Duncan Webb from the Labour party, visited Taipei last month for five days.
The Chinese embassy informed lawmakers the group had been banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau for a year, according to an email from the Office of the Clerk, which administers New Zealand’s parliament.
Luxon said the backbenchers did not represent the executive government in Taiwan and should be “free to see who they want to see”.
“We think it’s entirely inappropriate, the reaction that we’ve seen from the Chinese. We will raise that with them ourselves,” he told reporters during a visit to Australia, where he will meet his counterpart Anthony Albanese.
New Zealand and China have maintained a largely stable relationship in recent years, with China remaining New Zealand’s largest trading partner, even as Wellington has grown more outspoken about Beijing’s expanding influence in the Pacific.
Senior politicians from both countries have exchanged a number of visits over the past three years, with Luxon visiting China in 2025.
China views Taiwan as its own territory, and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of the island. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
A New Zealand parliament official on Thursday confirmed a meeting with Chinese embassy representatives but did not disclose details. Foreign Minister Winston Peters instructed New Zealand foreign ministry officials in Beijing and Wellington to discuss the matter with Chinese authorities.
Australia has also said it would raise concerns with the Chinese embassy in Canberra as well as in Beijing.
Luxon welcomed Australia’s support but said the matter was a “nation-to-nation” issue between New Zealand and China.
He said he would raise the fact that New Zealand maintains a “one China policy”, where it recognises Beijing as the sole legal government and acknowledges its claim on Taiwan but does not endorse it.
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Ros Russell)
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