The New Zealand Labour government has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta gave an important speech last week, only her second in the role, that was meant to lay out her government’s position on matters of concern with China, without causing diplomatic offence.
Yet the outcome was that her words ended up offending New Zealand’s closest partners, while the Chinese state media launched a disinformation campaign against the speech that damaged New Zealand’s international reputation.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne with her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta, whose remarks triggered the diplomatic tension.Credit:Getty Images
A Chinese fable from the Warring States period sums up this diplomatic fiasco well: hua she tian zu, drawing a snake and adding feet to it. In other words, to ruin an effect by adding something superfluous.
According to the fable, a family in the state of Qi offered wine to honour their ancestors, but there wasn’t enough wine to share with everyone after the ceremony. So they held a competition to draw a snake; the person who finished drawing first would get the wine. One young man finished first, then to show how clever he was, added feet to his drawing. The fable describes the foolishness of a person who does something that is not only useless, it actually causes harm.
Mahuta’s speech was carefully drafted by New Zealand diplomats, with heavy input from the minister herself. The speech referenced a diplomatic approach used by the People’s Republic of China’s most esteemed foreign minister, Zhou Enlai, of “looking for common points, while setting aside di ..
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