Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Don Brash: Former National Leader voices concern over Winston Peters' approach to China

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Don Brash: Former National Leader voices concern over Winston Peters' approach to China · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Pressure this morning on the Prime Minister to separate New
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Zealand's foreign policy from that of America's. A cross party
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: coalition of prominent leaders have signed an open leader urging
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister to not take an adversarial stance towards China.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: List of figures include Helen Clarks, Jeffrey Palmers to David Carter,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and Don Brash, former National Party leader of course and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Reserve Bank governor. Who's with me this morning?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Don?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, right, Good to have you on program.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So this is a position I know you've had for
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a while, but what exactly is the government doing to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: get what are we doing to get too close to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: America and further from China.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, a number of things that have been done in
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the last twelve eighty months, I guess the most obvious thing.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: We sailed one of our naval ships through the Taiwan
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Straits straight. We've long regarded Taiwan as part of China.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Standing naval ships through that strait is very offensive to China.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: And we know that We've recently signed a special kind
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: of military relationship with the Philippines, despite the fact they
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: are a low level confrontation with China. We've done all
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: kinds of We sent two delegations to Taiwan, led by
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: National Party MPs, knowing that that offends China, and they've
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: met with the President of China of Taiwan. I mean,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: we go out of our way to offend China. Judith Colins,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Minister of Defense, has made a number of speeches in
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: which you clearly implied that China was a military threat
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: to New Zealand and we should ally ourselves with the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: United States to prevent that.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Now are they not? I mean, you know, of.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Course they're not. I mean, in what sense are they
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: a threat to New Zealand with no sense.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: That when push comes to shove and one day when
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: they either quarantine or blockade Taiwan, what do we do?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Who sided? You know, what side do we take?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Now? It's not about business. We regard Taiwan as part
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of China, and we were out of that since nineteen
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: seventy two. It's not our business at all. The United
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: States if they want a military confrontation with China, so
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: be it. I hope they don't have such a confrontation.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: It's not good for either country. We want to attain
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: a good relationship with both the United States and China.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: But we can't do that if the United States is
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: held bent on a military confrontation with China.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: What about Aucust You've obviously got concerns about August. What
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: exactly are they?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: What Aucus is as it stands in its pure form,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: a nuclear submarine deal, where by Australia will require nuclear
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: subs from the United States at enormous costs some three
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: hundred and seventy billion Australian dollars. Most experts say Australia
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: will never actually get those submarines for a variety of
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: technic inquitions they won't boy you with. But it's deliberately
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and explicitly an anti China military relationship. Well, if Australia
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: wants to do that, that's Australia's fair, but it should
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: not be ours.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: What about that We've just yesterday a lot of our
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: troops have gone on Canterbury off to a military exercise
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: with the US and with the Australians. Those drills rile China.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Do you think we should be not engaging with them
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: minither Absolutely not.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Why would we do that?
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Well, we need to he otherwise they're doing nothing. You
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: know what would the what would the doing what?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know what they'll be doing, but in any case,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: what why take better and exercise which is explicitly aimed
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: against China, which is lotaly not thrittening US. It's our
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: largest export market by a country mile. I mean, it's
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: it's daft in every dimension.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Don I appreciate you coming on the program. Don brash Form,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the national party leader, very much encouraging Luxon to move
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: away from America or at least be a disinterested party
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: in that battle between the States and China.
• 3:52
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• 3:55
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• 3:58
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