Watch live: Christopher Luxon faces questions at China Business Summit

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says New Zealand must deepen its trade ties with China as the world enters "an era of ongoing disruption".

Speaking at a Q+A session at the China Business Summit 2026 in Auckland, Luxon said the world was more "contested, fragmented and volatile".

"That's not an abstract concept, it's something that you are encountering every day, as are we, and you're seeing it in shifting supply chains and also in the changing regulatory environments."

"You're seeing it where trade is being used as a tool of leverage and as the global economy fragments, and in that age of geopolitical context, this isn't a single crisis that will pass."

Luxon said New Zealand's relationship with China was "consequential" and important at a time of global economic strain.

"We will cooperate and maximise cooperation wherever we can, and where our interests align, we will disagree where we must, and we will communicate and manage those differences in a predictable and consistent way."

He said China remained New Zealand's biggest market, and exports of dairy, meat and wood continued to thrive.

However, he said China was going through a "very important shift".

"The next phase of the China story, without doubt, is premiumisation, it's branding and innovation, and those consumer preferences are changing through the rising middle classes."

"We must keep moving up the value chain, and Kiwi businesses are doing that through digitally provided education and food innovation, and I think there's just a lot more opportunity for us to continue down that pathway, whether it be from agri-tech to gaming."

"These are not future opportunities, they're here today," he said.

Luxon was also in Auckland on Wednesday, speaking to representatives from the primary industries about the economic opportunities of the India free trade agreement.

Business leaders from New Zealand and abroad piled into the Cordis Hotel to hear the prime minister's discussion.

Speaking to summit co-chair Fran O'Sullivan, Luxon said he had a good relationship with China's Premier Li [Qiang].

"We can get straight to the chase on the issues between us and between our countries."

"Premier Li is, I really enjoy him. President Xi [Jinping], I met with a lot, I have huge respect for as well, for what he's done lifting China and lifting so many people out of poverty and putting them into the middle classes has been pretty impressive," he said.

Asked how he would justify New Zealand's stance on maintaining an independent foreign policy, given it is a member of the Five Eyes alliance, Luxon said his government had formed many alliances across the world.

"We want to have a 'mini-lateral-lattice' work of security and economic agreements all around the world."

"New Zealand is a country that respects the rules-based system, needs to find like-minded friends to actually partner with and model out to the world what a revised multilateral system could look like."

"We can shift it to a better place, but we have to work with others, and that requires us working not just in a traditional sense of Five Eyes partners, which is an intelligence relationship, security relationship, but actually with many others as well," he said.

China's ambassador to New Zealand, Dr Wang Xiaolong, and other government ministers are due to speak at the event.