Chris Hipkins to meet China's President Xi Jinping

Chris Hipkins will have a meeting with President Xi Jinping when he travels to China later this month.

The prime minister is leading a trade delegation to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

It is the first prime ministerial visit to China since the pandemic.

Exports to China were $21 billion in the year to December - almost a quarter of New Zealand's total export earnings.

When announcing the trip earlier this month, he was asked how he would navigate raising human rights abuses or grievances.

Hipkins said New Zealand had prided itself on being "stable and consistent" in its approach.

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"That means that where we have human rights concerns we will raise them. Where we have concerns around trade or any other foreign policy issue, we will raise those.

"Our relationship with China has always been based on setting out, clearly, our position, and being consistent in our position, and we'll continue to do that."