The Chinese Embassy is right. The recent joint statement by Australia and New Zealand condemning China’s actions in the South China Sea reads like a relic from a bygone colonial era. A weirdly misplaced concern, too. At a time when the US and Israeli have (a) harmed the trade routes to and from the Middle East (b) tanked the global economy (c) sent fuel prices surging upwards, and (d) caused our own cost of living to skyrocket – who does Defence Minister Judith Collins choose to criticise? China. Mainly for the potential threat it poses to the trade routes located in its region. Go figure.
Likewise, the joint statement also displayed an absurdly selective morality. At a time when Israel continues to commit genocide in Gaza, kill thousands of men, women and children indiscriminately across the Middle East, displace hundreds of thousands more, reduce essential infrastructure to rubble, bomb apartment buildings in Beirut and Teheran etc etc, at whom do Collins and her Aussie counterpart choose to wag their fingers? China. For its human right abuses in Xinjiang, and for its crushing of the democracy movement in Hong Kong.
That critique would have a shred of credibility if New Zealand wasn’t so selective in its moralising on human rights. In condemning only China’s very real human rights abuses, our Defence strategy is being dictated not by our fearless expressions of moral conscience, but by our craven desire to please US President Donald Trump. As if Trump has the attention span and inclination to reward his flunkies for past services.
It is long past time for New Zealand to begin treating the US for what it now is – an unreliable, erratic isolationist power that treats its allies solely in terms of how they can be used to advance America’s interests. In the Asia Pacific, we need to begin acknowledging that, as a global superpower, China’s military presence in the Pacific is just as legitimate as the American military presence. We have to stop treating the Pacific as an American pond.
We also need to tell our Defence establishment the bad news: that they can’t continue to make a career out of swapping in China to replace the Soviets in a mindset that still appears to be stuck in Cold War patterns. America is no longer our friend. The old tightrope that we used to pride ourselves in walking – rely on China for trade, and the US for defence and security – is delusional in the context of the second Trump presidency. The US/Israeli assault on Iran is doing everyone in the “free” world (let alone the Iranians and the Lebanese) far more harm than good.
Footnote: The threat that our Defence strategists see China posing to the trade routes in the South China Sea ignores the fact that China is just as dependent as we are on keeping them open. Meaning: it would be a suicidal blow to China’s economic prosperity for it to stop maritime trade passing through the South China Sea. As is happening in Iran, closing those trade routes down would be a Doomsday Weapon to be deployed only defensively, and only in the context of a prior US attack.
But hey, if only all of us could live within the golden silo inhabited by the Defence boffins. They get billions for new gear, no questions asked, no cost/benefit analysis required. We are preparing to spend billions more on frigates even though the Iran War has just shown that they would be floating death traps if they were ever used in serious combat.
Most worrying of all, our entire defence policy seems predicated on an alliance with the United States, as if we are still living in the 20th century. There is no acknowledgement by our government that in this part of the world, the US defensive shield no longer exists. Yet like some forgotten colonial outpost of the American empire, we dutifully demonise China, and treat its presence in the Pacific as an existential threat.
Twin Mandates are back
On gaining office, the Luxon government made a very big deal out of scrapping the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate. Henceforth, the RB would focus solely on keeping the annual inflation rate within the target 1-3% band. No longer would the RB use monetary policy settings to maximise employment as well.
But guess what? Inflation surged over the 3% upper limit in December, and that’s even before the price rises triggered by the Iran War have washed up here. Regardless, the RB is being expected to ignore that current (and looming) inflationary surge, lest raising interest rates should stifle the government’s endlessly fragile economic recovery. Co-incidentally, this new-found tolerance for inflation by our “independent” central bank is occurring in an election year.
It has been an interesting demonstration of priorities. Ignore the impact of higher interest rates on employment? Sure, no problem. Let’s scrap that concern, even though there was already a risk of rising unemployment, since realised. But control inflation by raising interest rates and inhibit economic growth, in an election year? Not likely, not if the Reserve Bank can possibly avoid it.
Suddenly that sole mandate has – like an amoeba – split into two, right before our eyes. Or into three, if you count (a) controlling inflation, (b) fostering economic growth and (c) doing nothing that might prevent the re-election of a centre -right government.
Merch Power
Selling merchandise is the way a lot of bands manage to keep their heads above water in the age of streaming. Leah Levinson and Dan Meyer from the US “ecstatic black metal” band Agriculture put this succinctly a few months ago in an interview:
DM: We exist as a band because we sell t-shirts. Our job is that we sell t-shirts and the way we promote those t-shirts is by playing music. If we were talking strictly economically, that’s just a fact.
LL: Weirdly, it’s also our most direct engagement with the money we make and with our fans. We’re often selling our own shirts at the merch table; that’s actually how we talk to a lot of fans and get feedback on our sets. We get cash in our hands; that’s one of the most direct economic exchanges in our lives as musicians. So, it is funny because it seems cynical, but it’s actually one of the more grounded exchanges in what we do.
With that in mind, for many people, the New Orleans-based musician Thomas Dollbaum will be known solely as the name on the t-shirt worn by M J Lenderman during his Tiny Desk Concert last year. He’s more than that. This is Dollbaum’s latest single “Dozen Roses” from his upcoming album Birds of Paradise: