The China–New Zealand relations, sometimes known as Sino–New Zealand relations, are the relations between China 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 over the past four decades. 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 its 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 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 In 1871, the New Zealand Government imposed a poll tax on Chinese migrants that was not repealed until 1944.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.