ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 studies the first developed country that became a BRI member, New Zealand. This is a free trade-oriented small state with strong primary sectors that has a marginal position within the West. Its efforts to take advantage economically of China’s rise have created a strong dependency on agricultural exports to Chinese markets. A very close bilateral relationship developed during the National Party governments of John Key (2008–2016) and Bill English (2016–2017), whose members were visibly socialized by Beijing. As a developed country, New Zealand did not need China’s infrastructure projects used as material incentives elsewhere in the BRI. This role was played by the instrumentalization of the trade dependency and by the so-called united front work, i.e. political influence activities. However, National Party elites’ successful Chinese socialization was accompanied by their efforts to significantly improve security relations with the US, which questions the depth of their socialization. Moreover, Beijing’s use of political influence activities backfired. They were at the origin of a series of scandals that resulted in the 2017 electoral defeat of the National Party and in the ‘China Reset’ of the new coalition government, whose cooperation with Beijing remains strong but is purely strategic calculation-based.
