ENCOUNTERING CHINA: New Zealanders and the People's Republic.

• Date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Belgrave, David

Editors: Duncan Campbell and Brian Moloughney Published by: Massey University Press, Auckland, 2022, 392pp, $39.99.

It has been half a century since New Zealand established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Between 1949 and 1972 New Zealand had few connections with the vast bulk of China and its people. Only a few adventurous New Zealanders (mostly with communist sympathies) or particularly hardy businesspeople travelled to the Chinese mainland when Wellington's official relations were with Taiwan and not Beijing. Once diplomatic relations were established, person-to-person contacts with the People's Republic could only grow. Duncan Campbell and Brian Moloughney have edited a book that tells human-scale stories of New Zealanders encountering China and how those personal relations were built over those 50 years.

The book is not concerned with the structural forces that the 'rise of China' has had on New Zealand. Explaining the economics of rapid development, geo-strategic shifts in Asia and the politics of a one-party state is not the purpose of this book, but those issues loom large in 50 vignettes describing New Zealand experiences of China and Chinese experiences of New Zealand. These stories tell of how the relationship has changed through those experiences, from a China still...