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Speaker 1: It's nine after five, Bryan. Chinese very sensitive right now

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Speaker 1: over Taiwan thanks to taka Ichi, who's the new Japanese

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Speaker 1: Prime minister, and our Defense force has kind of been

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Speaker 1: caught up in this. So they've revealed that one of

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Speaker 1: our navy ships was followed around by Chinese warships. Recently,

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Speaker 1: Hti Men's as alto been patrolling international waters. This is

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Speaker 1: close to the East China Sea, close to the Yellow Sea,

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Speaker 1: helping to curb North Korea's nuclear bilistic missile programs. That's

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Speaker 1: what they were doing there, but the Chinese didn't like it.

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Speaker 1: So seven Chinese warships shadowed the New Zealand Navy apparently,

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Speaker 1: according to the Defense Force, though they maintained a safe

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Speaker 1: and professional distance. Geopolitical political analyst Jeffrey Miller is with

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Speaker 1: me tonight, Jeffrey, Good evening.

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Speaker 2: Good evening.

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Speaker 1: Ryan, unsurprising that the Chinese military keeping a close eye

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Speaker 1: on us.

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Speaker 2: He's very unsurprising. I think I think that was always

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Speaker 2: going to happen if you sailed through the Taiwan Strait.

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Speaker 2: New Zealand did it last year. Last time it was

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Speaker 2: accompanied by an Australian vessel. It seems to have been alone,

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Speaker 2: but no surprise at all that China was keeping a

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Speaker 2: close watch on what New Zealand Navy was up to.

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Speaker 1: Is it less offensive us doing it on our own name?

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Speaker 2: I've thought about that and I think is in general,

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Speaker 2: China takes the view that when you undertake joint actions

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Speaker 2: with other particularly with other Five Eyes countries, that's more provocative.

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Speaker 2: So the fact New Zealand was on its own possibly

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Speaker 2: makes it a little bit better in China's eyes. I

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Speaker 2: don't know, though, And you have to remember, after last

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Speaker 2: year's incident that was in September twenty twenty four, we

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Speaker 2: then had the live fire exercises by the Chinese ships

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Speaker 2: in the Tasman Sea that was in February, and that

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Speaker 2: seemed to be I guess a consequence of that, or

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Speaker 2: retaliation to that incident in fact of September twenty four.

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Speaker 2: So you will wait and see whether there's any further

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Speaker 2: repercussion to what transpired back earlier last month.

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Speaker 1: Did you free? You will know we've had the US officials,

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Speaker 1: some quite senior US officials, for years now saying this

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Speaker 1: Taiwan situation is going to kick off, and some of

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Speaker 1: them even gave a date. They said by twenty twenty seven,

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Speaker 1: we would see the Chinese either invade or blockade or

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Speaker 1: quarantine or whatever. Taiwan by twenty twenty seven. Do you

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Speaker 1: think things are heating up? You know, are they reaching

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Speaker 1: a boiling point?

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Speaker 2: Well, in some ways yes, Overall, in the last few

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Speaker 2: years things have got hotter rather than colder, if you like,

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Speaker 2: in terms of geopolitical tensions. And yeah, I would say

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Speaker 2: this year, if you look at it holistically, we're actually

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Speaker 2: in a better place. We've got a trade truce between

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Speaker 2: China and the United States. Remember Donald Trump met with

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Speaker 2: Jijingping at Apex back in what October and signed a

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Speaker 2: trade truce and stepped back from the brink with the tariffs.

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Speaker 2: But also I think when you look at New Zealand

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Speaker 2: this year, New Zealand has come to appreciate China more

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Speaker 2: than perhaps in recent years, and that's because of Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump and Liberation Day and all the tariffs. So we

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Speaker 2: we saw two meetings this year by Christopher Luxon with Jijiping.

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Speaker 2: Luxon went to China back in June and then he

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Speaker 2: had a quick meeting with him at in South Korea

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Speaker 2: at Apex. And also you've got the Tod Todd McLay.

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Speaker 2: The Trade Minister, Winston Peters was in China just last month,

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Speaker 2: so there's been a lot of attention paid by New

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Speaker 2: Zealand to China. But the one exception here is Judith Collins,

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Speaker 2: the Defense Minister, who's taken a very hawkish positioning, and

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Speaker 2: she was up in Washington and mid October, and you

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Speaker 2: have to wonder whether she talked about what New Zealand

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Speaker 2: was going to do with the Taiwan Strait with her

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Speaker 2: counterpart Pete Hexseth. So you know there are some differences

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Speaker 2: obviously in the cabinet and there's a more hawkish side

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Speaker 2: and there's a more i think trade focused side.

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Speaker 1: Well that's hope everyone can call their jets. Jeffrey Miller,

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Speaker 1: geopolitical analyst.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: News Talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.