The recent Wall Street crisis had strongly reminded New Zealand decision-makers not to put all our economic eggs in one basket, University of Otago Prof Robert Patman said yesterday.
Prof Patman, an international relations specialist in the university's politics department, is co-director, with Victoria University professor Xiaoming Huang, of Otago University's next Foreign Policy School, which is devoted to "China's Ascent".
The mid-year school, which is expected to attract 150 to 180 participants, including several high-powered international speakers, will investigate whether the rise of China will result in a "New Superpower or New Global System".
New Zealand was the first Western country to enter into a free-trade agreement with China, Prof Patman noted in an interview.
New Zealand and Australian leaders had linked their respective economies with China's rising economic strength and its huge export market of more than one billion people, as well as with other Asian markets.
Chinese economic growth had fallen from 9% but continued to run about 6%, while some other countries were in recession.
New Zealand first learned the need to diversify when Britain, its traditional main export market, entered the European Community in the 1970s.
The recent Wall Street economic crisis further highlighted a key lesson from that earlier time - "in economic terms, never place all your eggs in one basket", Prof Patman said.
Traditional friends should not be taken for granted but "if we get the opportunity to get access to new markets, why not take it?" he said.
The Dunedin gathering will consider many aspects of China's relationship with the rest of the world, including New Zealand, and would ask whether China would change the rules of the global system, or "simply become another great power using the traditional tools of money, force and diplomacy", organisers said.
Otago University's 45th annual Foreign Policy School is being held in association with the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, at Victoria University of Wellington.
