China bans four New Zealand MPs after Taiwan visit

China has banned four New Zealand MPs from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau for one year after a five-day cross-party visit to Taiwan, in a move that sharpens Beijing’s pressure campaign over official contact with the island.

The lawmakers, National’s Maureen Pugh, Labour’s Duncan Webb, ACT’s Laura McClure and New Zealand First’s David Wilson, learned of the ban when they returned from Taiwan in May. The decision was relayed through Parliament’s Office of the Clerk after a meeting between the Clerk’s office and Chinese Embassy officials in Wellington, at the embassy’s request. The embassy said the sanctions could be reduced or lifted if the MPs apologised.

Laura McClure described the move as intimidation and said it was “a type of foreign interference,” adding that she would not apologise for visiting Taiwan. Her remarks underscored the political message Beijing appeared to be sending not just to the four MPs but to other lawmakers weighing similar visits.

The trip was part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Taiwan, a cross-party group launched in 2023 to coordinate legislative relations, soft diplomacy and economic cooperation between New Zealand and Taiwan. Officials said this was the first time China had imposed travel bans on New Zealand MPs over a Taiwan visit, a significant step because it reaches beyond diplomatic statements and into personal movement, a tool that can chill parliamentary diplomacy in smaller democracies.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was surprised by the decision, noting that New Zealand MPs have visited Taiwan for decades. He asked officials in Beijing and Wellington to express concern and better understand the move. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said New Zealand would continue trade, economic, cultural and indigenous exchanges with Taiwan, and said the MPs were not representing the government. It also said such visits were not inconsistent with New Zealand’s One China policy.

Parliament Speaker Gerry Brownlee said the MPs were not ministers, did not carry government authority and were likely interested in the China-Taiwan relationship. The Chinese Embassy has previously described Taiwan as a red line that should not be crossed or challenged, and the latest ban shows how Beijing is internationalizing that warning by targeting elected representatives from a small democracy as a deterrent to future contact.