Clark and Key’s China visit sends wrong message

Former New Zealand Prime Ministers Helen Clark and John Key are reportedly attending at present’s ‘Victory Day’ navy parade in Beijing, commemorating the tip of the Second World Warfare. Hosted by the Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP) authorities, the occasion is framed as a celebration of China’s function in defeating fascism.

But this extremely choreographed navy parade is just not a real act of remembrance. It’s a strategic efficiency of historic revisionism and political legitimation.

Among the many confirmed VIP contributors are Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, alongside a cohort of leaders from different authoritarian regimes. Their presence indicators the occasion is supposed as an affirmation of a China-centred authoritarian axis. CCP Normal Secretary Xi Jinping’s ambition is to assemble another worldwide order—one which rejects the rules-based worldwide order—in favour of reveals of pressure and intolerant solidarity.

On this context, the participation of two former leaders from a democratic state reminiscent of New Zealand is just not merely symbolic—it’s deeply consequential.

John Key says he’s attending the Victory Parade to recollect the “courageous efforts of New Zealanders who fought for the liberty we take pleasure in at present”. The Xi administration’s parade is nothing like New Zealand’s Anzac Day. The Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP) authorities seldom hosts occasions to commemorate WWII, or certainly any warfare, and has typically been criticised by its personal veterans for not honouring their service. The PRC has solely ever hosted one ‘Anti-Fascist Victory Parade’ earlier than, in 2015. Putin additionally attended that parade.

China’s contribution to WWII was made by the Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist authorities, not the CCP navy. The Individuals’s Liberation Military had been then a really small navy pressure, principally confined to the Northwest of China. The CCP engaged in small scale guerrilla warfare in opposition to Imperialist Japan in border areas, however they averted giant conflicts. They had been saving their power for the resumption of the civil warfare in opposition to the KMT, which erupted a really quick time after the tip of WWII. 

KMT forces fought bravely within the Battle of Shanghai, Wuhan, and Changsha and labored intently with Allied forces on the Burma Rd. In distinction, the CCP navy forces didn’t struggle alongside the Allies in opposition to the Japanese in any respect. Their sole level of navy contact was the failed 1944 Dixie Mission. US navy representatives proposed the CCP forces work underground with the Workplace for Strategic Companies (OSS)—predecessor to the CIA—for joint guerrilla warfare efforts. The Dixie Mission by no means resulted in something in apply, because the CCP had been intently aligned with the Soviet Union and ready out the world warfare to assault the KMT once more.

The Individuals’s Republic of China (PRC) was based in 1949. New Zealand was a part of the Allies who labored with the Kuomintang (KMT) authorities in China. New Zealand had diplomatic relations with the KMT authorities throughout World Warfare II, and no hyperlinks in any respect with the CCP.

The 2025 Victory Parade is not going to commemorate the precise information of China’s World Warfare II historical past. The parade is a propaganda train to say the brand new allegiances forming and as an illustration of the PLA’s navy power. Russia has additionally hosted related parades in recent times, and once more these new parades began beneath Putin don’t mirror the true WWII historical past.

Helen Clark mentioned she is attending the parade as a result of “China is New Zealand’s main commerce associate”.  She has spoken to MFAT officers and says she gained’t be making an announcement on NZ-China relations on this journey. On a go to to China in 2019, quickly after New Zealand had launched its counter-foreign interference insurance policies, Clark took it upon herself to inform Xi Jinping that Prime Minister Ardern “very a lot hoped” to go to China.

The attendance of democratic former leaders reminiscent of Clark and Key alongside heads of state like Putin and Kim conveys a message of ethical equivalency and political subservience. It grants symbolic validation to a worldview that’s essentially at odds with the values that New Zealand upholds.

Clark and Key’s attendance at this navy parade additionally contributes to the normalisation of the CCP’s efforts to rewrite historical past and deflect worldwide scrutiny. At a time when the Xi authorities is funding and supplying Russia’s warfare machine in Ukraine, normalising the PLA’s navy presence within the South Pacific, and fascinating in reveals of pressure within the Tasman Sea, the presence of two former Prime Ministers of New Zealand on the PRC’s ceremonies can’t be thought-about impartial.

Traditionally, as soon as out of energy, New Zealand’s former Prime Ministers have saved a low profile. Helen Clark and John Key’s continuous advocacy for the PRC’s pursuits is uncommon. 

Helen Clark and John Key shouldn’t be endorsing this ‘Victory Parade’, particularly after the sacrifices the New Zealand individuals made within the Second World Warfare. 

By giving democratic assist to an authoritarian show, the 2 leaders threat being perceived in an unflattering mild—as helpful idiots—the time period famously attributed to Lenin to explain Westerners who, wittingly or not, assist prop up authoritarian regimes by lending them legitimacy.