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Free trade with China is a good thing. It’s a simple but important statement. We all agree on that.

However, the trading relationship is becoming increasingly difficult as a more assertive and aggressive China, dominated by the Chinese Communist Party, projects its interests into the Pacific.

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There are at least two aspects to this increased difficulty.

The first is moral. The CCP has a terrible record on human rights. How do we and other Pacific nations relate to a rising power run by an autocratic communist regime?

The second is pragmatic. The expansion of Chinese interests will ultimately change the New Zealand-China trading relationship. Probably not in our favour.

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As we all know the Chinese foreign foreign minister, Wang Yi, has been busy visiting the Pacific, seeking both bilateral and multilateral agreements with our neighbours. Agreements have been made with the likes of the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Nuie.

These agreements should be of serious concern to both the citizens of those countries and New Zealanders alike. They are a clear challenge to our national security interests in the Pacific.

Those holding power in neighbouring states are presumably happy with the deals. They are not prepared to let their citizens fully engage with the process, however. That is rather telling about the dynamics in play, which involves local media being effectively barred or gagged at the signing ceremonies.

Furthermore, much of the information on these agreements has been leaked including via myself and colleagues with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). That further underlines the lack of transparency. The secrecy of the CCP’s engagement should itself raise concerns to those of us in the democratic world.

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For those of us who have read the various agreements, much concern is rightly focused on the desire for China to train police, cooperate on the likes of cyber security, and develop infrastructure like ports. When we consider the human rights record of the various Chinese security agencies, is that the values we wanted imported into the Pacific?

New Zealanders have an obligation to raise these concerns with our Pacific neighbours. We must to remind them that these agencies and processes are part of the same communist system that is persecuting Uighurs, Christians and other minorities. They are the same agencies and processes which are being used to crust democracy in Hong Kong.

Let us be under no illusions. These agreements create a foothold in the Pacific islands. What starts as police training will inevitably expand into greater military presence.

We need only look at the leaked document detailing the weapons that the CCP wishes to bring into the Solomon Islands that I was able to share recently.

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These observations reflect the first difficultly - the moral side of things. The CCP’s human rights record - at home and abroad - is appalling. We in the Pacific should have as little to do with this as possible. These proposed agreements are encouraging a level of cooperation well beyond simple trade.

The deals are a direct attempt by China to influence the way the island nations operate internally. It is no coincidence that the Chinese foreign minister choose to visit before the Pacific Island Forum meetings over June and July. The PIF is where we, as Pacific island nations, come to talk together about our mutual regional interests.

China was able to get in first and divide and conquer by setting islands against one another. This is the CCP way. It should not be our Pacific way.

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The second difficultly is that increased Chinese presence in the Pacific will affect New Zealand’s trading relationships. We will be less free to trade. The more agreements China signs, and the stronger the umbrella of CCP aligned islands to our north, the more risk there is to our trading partners and maritime routes.

Quite aside from the military and intelligence implications, the CCP will also be able to exert greater control of fishing management, quotas, sea lanes and so on.

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Since the Second World War, New Zealand and others in the Pacific have benefited from our shared embrace of the international rules based order. That order is not accepted by China. In fact, the CCP is actively seeking to undermine it.

The more nations that become dependent and aligned to China through such bilateral agreements, the harder things will become for us. As more countries fall in line with Chinese interests, the harder it will be for New Zealand to trade on our terms. The system of free trade is predicated on a system and principles that the CCP ultimately does not support.

When that system buckles, so too our ability to trade as we wish. We should be very concerned. And much more active than we appear to be.

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