2022 marks nearly five decades since the death of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, but the legacy of his Great Leap Forward lingers on for Chinese farmers that raise livestock and fish or grow crops. Chinese history has made many demands of the country’s agricultural workers, relying on their labor while granting few benefits in return.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has maintained a bipartisan consensus on New Zealand’s relationship with China, which was nurtured over decades by successive governments. In return for a lucrative trading relationship, criticism of China has remained muted. Yet Ardern has likely sensed that the public mood on China is hardening.
In recent years, press secretaries in China’s Foreign Ministry have increasingly ventured beyond their podiums and onto social media, conducting rapid-response interventions on Western platforms like Twitter and YouTube. This reflects the emphasis Beijing is putting on finding creative ways to “tell better Chinese stories.”
