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Zhao Leji on New Zealand Visits

Closer trade ties advocate (strong)

TL;DR

Zhao Leji strongly advocates for deepening mutually beneficial cooperation and strengthening ties during his official visit to New Zealand.

Key Points

  • He paid an official goodwill visit to New Zealand from Wednesday to Saturday in November 2025, at the invitation of the Speaker of the House.

  • He stated that China is willing to be sincere friends and cooperative partners who treat New Zealand as an equal while accommodating core interests.

  • The legislator attended the opening of the Rewi Alley Memorial Museum in Christchurch, honoring a dedicated New Zealander who built China-NZ friendly relations.

Summary

Zhao Leji, the chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, expressed a desire to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between China and New Zealand during his official visit in November 2025. He met with the Prime Minister in Auckland and the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Wellington, emphasizing that the second decade of their comprehensive strategic partnership has begun well. He called for consolidating friendship, enhancing mutual trust, accommodating each other's core interests, and promoting trade and investment liberalization.

During discussions, he highlighted the importance of strengthening multi-level exchanges between the legislative bodies and enhancing collaboration on multilateral platforms to promote a more just and reasonable direction for global governance. His itinerary also included attending the opening ceremony of the Rewi Alley Memorial Museum in Christchurch and visiting a local farm, activities framed to build on the traditional friendship established by figures like Alley.

Key Quotes

China is willing to work with New Zealand to consolidate traditional friendship, enhance understanding and mutual trust, accommodate each other's core interests and major concerns, and be sincere friends and cooperative partners who treat each other as equals

Frequently Asked Questions

Zhao Leji's position, as demonstrated during his November 2025 visit, is strongly positive, focusing on strengthening bilateral ties. He called for deepening mutually beneficial cooperation across various fields.

Zhao Leji expressed hope that China and New Zealand would jointly promote trade and investment liberalization, alongside regional economic integration. This call for closer ties was a key theme of his trip.

Zhao Leji, the chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, conducted his official visit to New Zealand in November 2025. The visit took place from Wednesday to Saturday of that week.