Going its own way in a messy world, New Zealand offers an alternate parable on China

‘Ardern said the current conflict wasn’t a war of Russia versus the West … Ukraine was something simpler: an act of territorial aggression by Russia.’ Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

When Jacinda Ardern came to office, her empathic progressivism was a beacon in the reactionary populism of the time. She wasn’t the only sensible person on the world stage. Emmanuel Macron arrived as the president of France in the same year, and Angela Merkel, the European titan, exemplified the sensible centre right.

But the young New Zealand prime minister came to power in the era of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison – a time of post-truth insanity in Washington, Brexit in London, and climate wars in Australia.