Sloppy targeting of Chinese voters in the 2020 New Zealand general election: an exploration of National and Labour’s targeting strategies

ABSTRACT

The targeting of ethnic Chinese voters is a relatively hidden area in New Zealand politics. This article explores how the two major parties in New Zealand, National and Labour, employed political marketing to target Chinese voters in the 2020 election. The findings reveal that National’s targeting approach lacked clear direction and structure, while Labour failed to demonstrate explicit intentions in targeting the Chinese community. Neither party exhibited a comprehensive understanding of this ethnic group nor developed effective political products to address their concerns. These shortcomings in targeting can be attributed to the broader context of National’s chaotic 2020 election campaign and Labour’s apparent disinterest in engaging with Chinese voters during an election where it already enjoyed a high approval rate among the public. The incomplete targeting efforts by both parties reflect the unique context of an election dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• 2020 New Zealand election
• political marketing
• ethnic targeting
• Chinese New Zealander
• New Zealand National Party
• New Zealand Labour Party

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Please be aware that the Liberal Party also disseminated misleading instructions on how to vote in the Chinese language. See Paul Karp, “Labor Mulls Legal Challenge Over Misleading How-to-vote Instructions on WeChat’, The Guardian, last modified May 28, 2019. www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/28/.

2. Blue Dragons changed its name to Chiwi Nats after the 2020 election. For more information about Chiwi Nats, please visit its Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Chiwi-Nats-108523044829206/.

The Labour Party has a dedicated multicultural section within its party structure, as confirmed in interviews. This section specifically focuses on cultivating and strengthening relationships with diverse minority groups, such as ethnic minorities and LGBTQ communities.

3. National leaders’ visits to Chinese-language media in 2016 and 2017 were documented on the party’s WeChat account.

4. The Trace Research primarily conducted the Chinese voter poll on its online survey platform and social media platforms like WeChat. As a result, the sample it gathered may be skewed by the representation of the Chinese population in New Zealand.

5. The 2020 Vote Compass was conducted between August 30th and October 19th, 2020, by the Vox Pop Lab in Canada for TVNZ. The overall sample size was 175,000, with a Chinese sub-sample consisting of 3,235 respondents.

6. Notably, ethnicity information is not available in New Zealand’s election rolls. However, sampling the rolls based on the ethnic origins of names could potentially yield fairly reliable data (Park 2006). As a result, surveys of Chinese New Zealanders may yield varying outcomes while still reflecting an overall trend.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The University of Auckland Arts Faculty Doctoral Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Luna L. Zhao

Luna L. Zhao is a PhD candidate in Politics and IR at the University of Auckland. Her doctoral thesis encompasses an interdisciplinary examination of ethnic Chinese New Zealand voters, employing a blend of qualitative and quantitative analysis. Luna's research interests primarily revolve around New Zealand politics, ethnic minority voters, Asian studies, and the dynamics of elections in democratic systems. She has recently published works on Taiwan politics and the 2020 New Zealand General Election.