Opinion | How one little female leader plays it cool and fools the US oppressor
By Augustus K. Yeung
INTRODUCTION
On the world stage, a man and a woman in the West are emerging: They are Elon Musk, business magnate who is keenly courted by the world's political leaders, and Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister, who is hard pressed by the Biden administration. The latter requires our immediate attention as American Biden and his Australian boys are stepping up efforts to bully the little woman leader of New Zealand.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in Washington to promote trade; in this trip she was held up by the Biden administration for quite a while, while the US president was said to be holding meetings with Asian leaders in a summit initiated by the host. But Biden personally delayed granting audience to this little lady who stands up to the American president every inch of the way ever since Biden called on the English-speaking countries in the Pacific to form the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine pact, consisting of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the US.
To honor her country's commitment to the non-nuclear proliferation pledge to the region, Jacinda Ardern's administration has been resisting the call and the pressure from Washington to join the nuclear-powered submarine, and to denounce China together with the AUKUS members for the former's alleged crime of "genocide" against Muslims in Xinjiang.
The pressure that the New Zealand prime minister felt from the group was so great that she had to make an official statement in the nation's parliament, explaining her reasoning why she had resisted against condemning China. She explained that the charge of "genocide" has never been legally documented in a court of law, implying that she had not been refusing to do so, but to be waiting for a scientific proof. How wise!
Will Biden and his Australian boys let go of her? Biden is on a Crusade mission, trying to whip up anti-China sentiment, just to counter his rival Donald Trump's accusations that the US president has all along been chummy with China, a charge which Joe Biden repeatedly refutes by mouth and by action.
The formation of the AUKUS pact may have been motivated by this not-so-thinly veiled threat that he is getting from the US former president, who has never conceded defeat at the polls of losing the US presidency to Joe Biden, his archrival, and is threatening to have a rematch in 2024.
Given this political backdrop, how can Joe Biden let go of Jacinta Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister, the little woman leader who has been wisely resisting America's anti-China campaigns in the Indo-Pacific region? The political pressure on the latter is expected to continue.
The following statement from Wellington is an unwilling answer to America's high-handed policy.
NEW ZEALAND TO SEND 120 MILITARY PERSONNEL TO BRITAIN TO TRAIN UKRAINIANS
"Today, Wellington reports that New Zealand is sending 120 military personnel to Britain to help train Ukrainians in front-line combat, the government said on Monday," according to Reuters.
The deployment will enable two infantry training teams to equip Ukrainian personnel with the core skills to be effective in combat, including weapon handling, combat first aid, operational law and other skills.
The training of about 800 Ukrainian soldiers will be conducted exclusively at one of the four locations in Britain, and New Zealand defense personnel will not travel to Ukraine, the government said in a statement.
"We have been clear that a blatant attack on a country's sovereignty and the subsequent loss of innocent lives is wrong and intolerable. Our condemnation will continue to extend beyond words and include critical support," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference to announce the deployment.
She stressed that New Zealand troops have not and would not engage in combat in Ukraine.
Thirty New Zealand defense personnel completed a deployment in May to train Ukrainian military personnel in operational artillery.
The training deployments are part of a series of actions in response to Ukraine's conflict with Russia since February. On top, there has also been financial aid of more than NZ$40 million ($25.70 million) in support and the sanctioning of 840 individuals and entities.
CONCLUSION
As the Americans are unwisely exploiting the concept of "strategic ambiguity" on the issue of Taiwan, featuring Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, visiting Taiwan, and contradicting America's "one China principle," making a big fuss and foiling bilateral relations with China, Biden and his Western allies are simultaneously pressuring the little lady Prime Minister of New Zealand to jump on the Biden and his Australian boys' bandwagon.
Yesterday, Sky News Australia's Andrew Bolt started a series of verbal assaults on Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, accusing her of "stabbing Australia's back" for advising the new Australian government to make peace with China, which was foiled by former prime minister Scott Morrison's malicious and high-profiled policy-statement of antagonizing China by arbitrarily linking it to the origin of COVID-19, that according to China's ambassador was "the first shot".
Accordingly, Australia's trade with China – which had all along been the nation's greatest trading partner – came to an abrupt end, whereas New Zealand has been continuing dialogues and doing trade with China in ways that show trust and respect.
New Zealand's policy toward China has been dubbed, "strategic ambiguity", when in fact, its great leader is putting her country's economic interest first, in a way that wise leaders should. For example, "Australian wage growth rose at the fastest pace in almost eight years last quarter as red-hot demand for labor drove unemployment to generational lows – yet pay gains still missed forecasts and lagged behind inflation – which has shot to a 21-year high of 6.1% and is expected to top 7% in coming months, [while NZ $ jumps]." According to SYDNEY (Reuters).
Now that New Zealand has sent military personnel to Britain, and donated money to support Ukraine's cause, will the bully Biden see it as too little too late?
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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