The protest incident involving Green Party co-leader Russel Norman will not damage New Zealand's long-term relationship with Beijing, organisers of a major conference on China predict.
About 120 people, including several top international China analysts, attended the University of Otago's latest annual Foreign Policy School, this year devoted to "China's Ascent: New Superpower or New Global System?".
For the first time, the Dunedin school was organised in association with the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, a multi-university centre based at Victoria University, of Wellington.
Several participating speakers, including Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully, referred to the June 18 incident involving Dr Norman during the three-day school, which ended yesterday.
School co-director Prof Xiaoming Huang, of Wellington, who is also the centre director, said the incident was "no big deal for China", given the well-established relationship between the countries.
It could, however, result in "some security issues" being reviewed.
Prof Robert Patman, the school co-director, said the clash could spark "learning on both sides".
It was a reminder to the Chinese that New Zealand was a democracy, where protest was permitted, but also raised questions for the New Zealand public about whether this was the most appropriate form of protest.
Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, a descendant of one of New Zealand's earliest Chinese families, said this country needed to further involve New Zealanders of Chinese descent in efforts to build closer links with China.
