Chris Hipkins heading to China later this month

Chris Hipkins will take a trade delegation to China this month in the first Prime Ministerial visit to the country since the covid-19 pandemic. Hipkins said China was one of New Zealand’s most “signifiant, wide-ranging, and complex” relationships and it would be the first Prime Minister-led trade delegation since 2018. As the world's second largest economy, China is NZ’s largest single trading partner and purchases almost 25% of its total exports. The Prime Minister would not say whether the trip to China would include a meeting with President Xi Jinping. “We’ve prided ourselves in our relationship with China in being stable and consistent in our position,” he said.