Clare Fearnley became New Zealand’s ambassador to China in 2018, cross-accredited to Mongolia. She was previously ambassador in Seoul, where she also oversaw Pyongyang, consul-general in Shanghai and head of the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei.

She has also been posted to the New Zealand Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. While working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington, she was director-general for north Asia, and has led international trade litigation, including cases at the WTO. 

Ambassador Fearnley has arts and law degrees from the University of Canterbury. She is a Mandarin speaker, and studied at Beijing University and at the Beijing Languages Institute in the 1980s. 

Clare joins NuVoices board member and Telegraph correspondent Sophia Yan to chat about New Zealand-China relations, how and why Asia piqued her interest early on, and New Zealand’s gender equality successes.