A request from me

Plus: The Chinese leader's trip to North Korea, and Beijing's sanctions on New Zealand MPs

Dear Between Giants readers

I thought I’d give you an update on how this whole Substack adventure is going. In a word: Great! In the first ten weeks, more than 3,300 of you have signed up to read my missives. That number blows me away. People have come up to me at the movie theatre and on the street to tell me they’re enjoying this newsletter, which I love. People also tell me I’m too hawkish on China — which is fine too. My whole mission here is to help foster a robust discussion in Aotearoa about our place in the world (even if that means asking uncomfortable questions.)

Thanks to the flexibility of running my own newsletter, I’ve also been able to do other interesting things that adhere to this mission: Lots of radio and TV appearances, talks to high school students and groups of engaged retirees, a fortnightly column in the Listener and the weekly World Bulletin for the Spinoff. I’ve just come back from a trip to Singapore, where I worked on Substack posts like this analytical piece, a Spinoff column, a Listener cover-story, and helped generate a discussion about our defence spending.

So I’m having a blast, and I hope I’m doing a public service with this kind of journalism. I’m still not sure if I can make the economics work, but I’m committed to trying. I’m trying to chart an independent path where I’m not beholden to corporate interests (bye bye billionaire owner) so every reader and every subscription helps me do that. Thank you so much to everyone who’s opted to pay so far.

Here’s the thing, though. To make this work and ensure I can keep generating content, I am counting on 10 percent of subscribers choosing to pay.

My ask: Can you help me get to 334 paying subscribers by the end of June?

If you are enjoying my posts and are in a position to contribute financially, I would really appreciate it if you did. I get an email every time someone upgrades their subscription and the buzz has not worn off.

Your subscription will help me keep posts open for those who can’t. I strongly believe in public interest journalism, especially at a time when the world is befuddling.

To make this worth your while: Today I’m turning on a subscriber chat for paying subs only. That will be a forum for us to discuss stories and ideas, and help create a community.

This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers — kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post questions and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion. Hope to see lots of you there.

I love hearing feedback and constructive criticism is welcome. I’d especially like to hear what you’re enjoying most (and least).

Thank you for reading, and for supporting my work
- Anna

Coming up

Why did China sanction four New Zealand backbenchers?

On Friday at 8:30am NZT/Thursday 4:30pm EST, I will talk to Bonnie Glaser, an expert on China and Taiwan who is now managing director of the Indo-Pacific programme at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Washington-based think-tank.

We’ll be live on video here to discuss China’s ambitions to control Taiwan, whether President Donald Trump will make good on his pledge to sell US$14bn of arms to Taiwan this year, and what to make of Beijing’s sanctions on four New Zealand MPs who visited Taipei.

Please join the stream if you want to ask questions in real time.

What to make of the Xi-Kim summit

China’s Xi Jinping is off to Pyongyang today, his first trip since 2019 and only his second since he became leader, to see his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un.

This is extraordinary. Xi has not had to leave China this year. A raft of world leaders have gone to Beijing this year as if paying homage to a king. They include the leaders of the UK, Ireland, Germany, Pakistan, Canada, Finland and the UAE. And it comes a few weeks after Xi hosted US President Donald Trump then Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Beijing one after the other.

So the fact that Xi is travelling to meet another leader — and that it’s the leader of a small, economically backwards nation with little utility in the world — is extraordinary.

It shows that Kim has become relevant in a way he hasn’t been before — thanks to his growing ties to Putin. North Korea doesn’t have much to export, but it has something Putin badly needs as he continues to pursue his war against Ukraine: Munitions compatible with Soviet-era military hardware, and a steady supply of troops Kim doesn’t mind sacrificing.

I would say that Xi probably wants to reassert his influence over Kim — China, which shares a 1,400km-long border with North Korea, still provides Pyongyang’s economic lifeline — at a time when Russia is gaining influence.

It could also be a reflection that Trump will make another push for a summit with Kim — and that Kim might be ready to accept, a move that would enable him to play his autocratic friends off each other.

For Kim, the propaganda win of having the leader of the world’s second largest economy come to him is obvious. And for Xi, it also helps prove his influence within the CRINK (China, Russia, Iran and North Korea) countries and also to bolster his efforts to be seen as a stabilising force, as opposed to the chaos unleashed by Trump.

Analysts and officials are looking for any mention of North Korea’s nuclear program. Concerns have been rising in Washington and Seoul that China has now accepted North Korea’s status as a nuclear state because recent statements about North Korea have omitted usual references to the denuclearisation of North Korea.

We don’t ever get great visibility on what happens at these summits — neither side is known for its openness and transparency, to say the least — but I’ll be watching closely and will report back on anything that could affect the security of our wider region.

Finally: How to get started with chat

1. You can access the chat in the Substack app by clicking this link. You can also access chat on the web.

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.