Asia | Banyan

New Zealand is right to atone for its colonial crimes in the Pacific 

Its sensible diplomacy offers lessons for other countries

Image: Lan Truong

In LONDON RECENTLY, Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, called on Britain to face up, in the Indo-Pacific, to the uncomfortable realities of its colonial past. Ms Wong’s forebears were from ethnic-Chinese communities that laboured in British Borneo’s perilous mines. Colonial stories, she said, “can sometimes feel uncomfortable—for those whose stories they are, and for those who hear them.”

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Whales’ teeth, not crocodile tears”

From the March 4th 2023 edition

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