China–New Zealand relations or Sino–New Zealand relations are relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and New Zealand. New Zealand recognised the Republic of China after it lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan in 1949, but switched recognition to the People's Republic of China on 22 December 1972. Since then, economic, cultural, and political relations between the two countries have grown. China is New Zealand's largest trading partner in goods, and second largest trading partner in services. In 2008, New Zealand became the first developed country to enter into a free trade agreement with China. In recent years, New Zealand's extensive economic relations with China have been complicated by influence operations, espionage accusations, and the country's security ties to the United States.
In addition to formal diplomatic and economic relations, there has been significant people-to-people contact between China and New Zealand. Chinese immigration to New Zealand dates back to the gold rushes of the 1860s and has substantially increased since the 1980s.
History Qing dynasty China New Zealand's contact with China started in the mid 19th century. The first records of ethnic Chinese in New Zealand were migrant workers from Guangdong province, who arrived during the 1860s Otago gold rush. Most of the migrant workers were male, with few women migrants. Emigration from China was driven by overpopulation, land shortages, famine, drought, banditry, and peasant revolts, which triggered a wave of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.
Early Chinese migrants encountered considerable racial discrimination and prejudice. In 1871, the New Zealand Government imposed a poll tax on Chinese migrants that was not repealed until 1944. Other discriminatory policies included an English literacy test, restrictive immigration measures, denial of old age pensions, and being barred from permanent residency and citizenship (from 1908 to 1952). After the Gold Rush ended in the 1880s, many of the former Chinese miners found work as market gardeners, shopkeepers, and laundry operators. There was some limited intermarriage with White and indigenous Māori women.
Republic of China, 1912–1949 In 1903, the Qing dynasty had established a consulate in Wellington to deal with trade, immigration, and local Chinese welfare. Following the Xinhai Revolution in 1912, the Republic of China took over the consulate. The lack of a reciprocal New Zealand mission in China made the Republic of China's mission in Wellington serve as the primary point of contact between both governments until 1972. During the Republican era, New Zealand interests in China were largely represented by British diplomatic and consular missions. However, there were some attempts to establish New Zealand trade commissions in Tianjin and Shanghai.
Between 1912 and 1949, there were over 350 New Zealand expatriates living and working in China, including missionaries for various Christian denominations, medical workers, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) workers, teachers, and telegraph workers. Some notable expatriates included the missionaries Annie James and James Huston Edgar, and the communist writer, teacher, and activist Rewi Alley.
During the Second World War, New Zealand society developed a more favourable view of China because of its status as a wartime ally against Japan. Chinese market gardeners were viewed as an important contribution to the wartime economy. New Zealand also eased its immigration policy to admit Chinese refugees and grant them permanent residency. In the postwar years, many Chinese migrants, including women and children, settled in New Zealand since the Communist victory in 1949 made it difficult for many to return home.
Cold War, 1949–1972
Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, New Zealand did not initially recognise the new government. Instead, it joined Australia and the United States in continuing to recognise the Republic of China (ROC) government, which had relocated to Taiwan, as the legitimate government of China. Between 1951 and 1960, New Zealand and Australia consistently supported a US moratorium proposal to block Soviet efforts to seat the PRC as the lawful representatives of China in the United Nations and to expel the ROC representatives. By contrast, the United Kingdom had established diplomatic relations with the PRC in 1949. While the conservative National Party favoured the ROC, the social democratic Labour Party favoured extending diplomatic relations to the PRC. New Zealand and the PRC also fought on opposite sides during the Korean War, with the former supporting the United Nations forces and the latter backing North Korea.
The PRC government also expelled many missionaries and foreigners, including most New Zealand expatriates by 1951. One missionary, Annie James of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church's Canton Villages Mission, was imprisoned and interrogated. However, some pro-communist Westerners, including Rewi Alley, were allowed to remain in China. Alley pioneered a working model for secular "cooperative education" in vocational subjects and rural development. Despite the lack of official relations between the two countries, unofficial relations were conducted through the auspices of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the New Zealand China Friendship Society (NZCFS). In addition, the Communist Party of New Zealand and some trade unions were sympathetic to the PRC rather than the Soviet Union.
In 1955 Warren Freer (then an opposition Labour MP) was the first Western politician to visit China, against the wishes of Labour leader Walter Nash but with the encouragement of Prime Minister Sidney Holland.
New Zealand photographer Brian Brake was given irregular access to China in 1957 and 1959, photographing Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the country, members of the PRC government like Chairman Mao Zedong, and scenes of life around the country at the time. Brake was the only Western photojournalist who documented the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
Prime Minister of New Zealand Keith Holyoake visited ROC President Chiang Kai-shek in 1960. Holyoake had a favourable view of the ROC and permitted the upgrading of the ROC consulate to full embassy status in 1962. However, New Zealand declined to establish any diplomatic or trading mission in Taiwan but opted to conduct its relations with the ROC through trade commissioners based in Tokyo and Hong Kong. As pressure for PRC representation at the United Nations grew, the New Zealand Government came to favour dual representation of both Chinese governments, but that was rejected by both the ROC and the PRC. In 1971, New Zealand and other US allies unsuccessfully opposed United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 to recognise the PRC as the "only legitimate representative of China to the UN."
People's Republic of China, 1971–present In 1971, 78 countries invited Chinese table tennis teams to tour. New Zealand was the sixth nation whose invitation was accepted, for a tour in July 1972. The Chinese delegation arrived in Auckland, then flew to Wellington on 17 July, where they were met by protesters advising them to defect. They played in the Lower Hutt Town Hall. The following day an official afternoon tea reception was attended by the Prime Minister Jack Marshall, half the cabinet, Labour leader Norman Kirk, Wellington Mayor Frank Kitts, and Bryce Harland who was soon to be the first Ambassador to China. A tour followed, to the farm of former All Black Ken Gray at Pauatahanui, where they watched sheep shearing and sheep dogs.
On 22 December 1972 the newly elected Third Labour Government formally recognised the People's Republic of China, with the two governments signing a joint communique to govern bilateral relations. According to former New Zealand diplomat Gerald Hensley, Prime Minister Norman Kirk initially hesitated recognising the PRC until his second term but changed his mind because of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kirk was influenced by his Australian counterpart Gough Whitlam's decision to recognise the PRC. In recognising the PRC, New Zealand adopted a One China policy, by which it acknowledges the PRC's One China principle, which is that there is one China, it is governed by the PRC, and Taiwan is part of its territory. New Zealand did not say it agreed with the principle, just that it acknowledges that the PRC government holds that position. Thus New Zealand adopted a policy of deliberate ambiguity over Taiwan.
Despite ending diplomatic relations with the ROC, the New Zealand Permanent Representative to the UN negotiated an agreement with his ROC counterpart Huang Hua for both countries to continue maintaining trade and other non-official contacts with Taiwan. The last ROC Ambassador to New Zealand was Konsin Shah, the dean of the diplomatic corps in Wellington.
In April 1973 Joe Walding became the first New Zealand government minister to visit China and met Premier Zhou Enlai. In return, Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Bai Xiangguo visited Wellington, seeking to sign a trade agreement in New Zealand. The same year, the PRC established an embassy in Wellington, and Pei Tsien-chang was appointed as the first Chinese ambassador to New Zealand. In September 1973, the New Zealand Embassy was established in Beijing with Bryce Harland serving as the first New Zealand Ambassador to China.
Following the 1975 general election, the Third National Government abandoned National's support for the "Two Chinas policy" and expanded upon its Labour predecessors' diplomatic and trade relations with the PRC. In April–May 1976, Robert Muldoon became the first New Zealand Prime Minister to visit China. He visited Beijing and met with Premier Hua Guofeng and Mao, being one of the last foreign leaders to meet the chairman before he passed in July. Muldoon's visit served to strengthen diplomatic and trading ties between the two countries, and to reassure the New Zealand public that China did not pose a threat to New Zealand.
Since the end of the Cold War, bilateral relations between New Zealand and China have grown, particularly in the areas of trade, education, tourism, climate change, and public sector co-operation. Bilateral relations have been characterised by trade and economic co-operation. In August 1997, New Zealand became the first Western country to support China's accession to the World Trade Organization by concluding a bilateral agreement. In April 2004, New Zealand became the first country to recognise China as a market economy during a second round of trade negotiations. In November 2004, New Zealand and China launched negotiations towards a free trade agreement in November 2004, with the agreement being signed in April 2008. In November 2016, the two countries entered into negotiations to upgrade their free trade agreement.
In the mid-2020s, New Zealand began to increase defence spending and capabilities, which was recognised by observers to be driven by China's rapid military build-up and growing military exercises in the region. In November 2025 HMNZS Aotearoa transited the Taiwan Strait, with China objecting.
Cultural and migration relations
China and New Zealand have a long history of people-to-people contacts. During the 19th century, Chinese migrated to New Zealand to work as miners. Despite racial prejudice and anti-immigrant legislation, a small number settled to work as market gardeners, businessmen, and shopkeepers. Following World War II, official and public attitudes and policies towards Chinese migrants were relaxed and more Chinese women and children were allowed to settle. During the post-war years, the Chinese population in New Zealand increased, with many becoming middle-class professionals and businessmen.