China Archive

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  At last, Key congratulates Chinese Nobel prize winner - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  On Friday the great news came through the Liu Xiaobo, jailed for his promotion of the Chinese democracy manifesto, Charter 08, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Within 24 hours we had congratulatory messages from Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner,  the European Commission chief, Jose Manual Barroso, etc.  Green co-leader [...] read more
  October 12, 2010 5:53 pm - 4 Comments
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  Liu Xiaobo awarded Nobel Peace Prize - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  Liu Xiaobo, Chinese dissident and democracy campaigner, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. Liu is in jail for 11 years for advocating for democracy and human rights in China. NY Times reports that China threatened that relations with Norway would be damaged if [...] read more
  October 9, 2010 5:20 pm - No Comments
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  Hospitals, morgues overflow and coffin supply running very short - by frog

  
  
  
  Moscow has worst heatwave since records began Muscovites are dying from extreme heat and smoke faster than their bodies can be stored, cremated or buried Morgues are overflowing and one crematorium in the Russian capital is working around the clock in three shifts “The cheapest coffin costs 6,700 roubles ($225) but there are only a [...] read more
  August 11, 2010 9:36 am - 13 Comments
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  China’s competitive edge - by frog

  
  
  
  I was bemused by John Key’s statements on China’s ‘competitive edge’ yesterday, during an interview with Guyon Espiner on Q+A. read more
  July 12, 2010 11:25 am - 55 Comments
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  The Labour Party’s “Two Chinas” policy - by frog

  
  
  
  It seems the Labour Party has its own current version of the historic “Two Chinas” policy – but with respect to Tibet. Here are Labour MPs Raymond Huo and Phil Twyford, definitely not singing from the same songsheet. I’m with Phil on this one. read more
  June 30, 2010 8:56 pm - 137 Comments
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  Under the leather - by frog

  
  
  
  What would you say if I were to tell you that a New Zealand company has been fined every year since 2004 for breaches of air pollution regulations — in China? What if I was to tell you this company, which has strong New Zealand links – including a former Prime Minister on the board [...] read more
  April 2, 2010 3:04 pm - 2 Comments
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  Tibetan cause remembered at Parliament - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  The Tibetan flags being waved on Parliament’s lawn may have alerted passers by to the presence inside of high level Chinese delegation.  The delegation was visiting to “update” MPs on ‘economic and social developments in Tibet.” I was happy to attend the official luncheon and be ‘updated’ by Mr Quingba Puncog, a Tibetan who is [...] read more
  March 26, 2010 12:03 pm - 6 Comments
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  Cambodia deports Uighers to China – and an uncertain fate. - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  There has rightly been a big international outcry at Cambodia returning 20 Uigher asylum seekers to China, where have been detained. The deportation, on December 19,  flies in the face of all refugee law, that people shouldn’t be returned to persecution. Heavy political pressure and bribery seems to have worked for Beijing. Just after the [...] read more
  December 24, 2009 7:17 pm - 6 Comments
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  Foreign Affairs is a million shades of grey - by frog

  
  
  
  I was wading through the agreement establishing the ASEAN-Australia New Zealand Free Trade Area a few weeks ago – a little light reading for a Frog. Looks like New Zealand will be doing business with Burma (or Myanmar as the military dictators refer to Burma). Green MP Dr Kennedy Graham spoke about this in the [...] read more
  May 6, 2009 2:58 pm - 8 Comments
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  Letters to the editor - by frog

  
  
  
  These two letters in The Press caught my eye today: Heh heh. And on a more serious note: Incidentally the preferential trade agreement with China comes into force tomorrow (1 October).  From that point on provisions that make it easier and faster for China to get its goods through our our customs and biosecurity take [...] read more
  September 30, 2008 1:49 pm - 10 Comments
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  I’m less likely to trust them too - by frog

  
  
  
  No, not Clark and Key this time. In the Business section of the Dominion Post today: More than half of Chinese consumers say they are now less likely to trust New Zealand food products after the melamine contamination scandal, according to a just-released survey. And: Sinogie Consulting chief executive Bruce McLaughlin, who is based in [...] read more
  September 29, 2008 2:02 pm - 2 Comments
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  NZ’s melamine contamination - by frog

  
  
  
  Poisonous food and dying babies is strictly a ‘far away in China’ sort of thing, even if it happens to be large New Zealand company embroiled in the scandal?  Right? We can look sadly on and shake our heads despondently at Chinese officials and businessmen who didn’t respond fast enough or allow the public to [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 3:19 pm - No Comments
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  Knowing where your milk powder comes from - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s some more from Question Time in the house yesterday.  The government has a longstanding position that Country of Origin Labelling on food is not a food safety issue and so it refuses to protect consumers’ right to know where their food comes from. That assertion that the safety of food has nothing to do [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 9:02 am - 5 Comments
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  A sahara desert’s worth of milk powder - by frog

  
  
  
  I just got sent this video of a Sanlu advertising campaign: Sanlu’s September 2008 TV commercial for Western media, with the copy “For the past 15 years we have enough sale volume covered the entire sahara desert”. The ‘volume’ refers to milk powder. Meanwhile Sue Kedgley has been asking some pertinent questions: While we welcome [...] read more
  September 22, 2008 3:50 pm - 6 Comments
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  Our company was a guest in China - by frog

  
  
  
  According to the Sunday Star Times this morning: [A] Christchurch political scientist says Fonterra’s lack of understanding of the Chinese political and business environment meant the dairy giant was out of its depth before it had even bought its 43% shareholding in China’s largest dairy company, Sanlu, in late 2005 for $US107m. That remains one [...] read more
  September 21, 2008 1:55 pm - 5 Comments
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  Car Free Day – more from China - by frog

  
  
  
  Beijing’s massive traffic restriction programme, launched just before the Olympics is coming to an end: The return to Beijing’s traffic- and smog-heavy status quo will mark the end of what may have been the world’s largest pollution control experiment: a restriction on cars, factories and construction that lasted for two months and resulted in the [...] read more
  September 19, 2008 9:18 am - 10 Comments
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  Fonterra’s baby milk tragedy - by frog

  
  
  
  I wonder how we would feel if a Chinese company operating in New Zealand were found to be responsible for the death one baby and made another 432 sick with kidney damage? Then the Chinese Premier steps in to defend the company, whose subsidiary had known about this for 6 months, and hopes that its [...] read more
  September 15, 2008 11:15 am - 6 Comments
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  Car Free Day in China - by frog

  
  
  
  Have I mentioned it’s Car Free Day soon?  Oh I have.  Well, China has thrown out quite a big “I dare you“: China plans to ban cars from streets in 108 cities in its first “No Car Day” on Sept. 22, part of an effort to promote environmental protection and ease congestion in the world’s [...] read more
  September 14, 2008 7:03 am - 36 Comments
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  GM chinese food - by frog

  
  
  
  I always figured when I bought food that might contain US ingredients I needed to be especially careful checking what the ingredients were and where they came from if I wanted to avoid GE food.  Not that I can check of course because there is no requirement for anyone to tell me what they are [...] read more
  September 8, 2008 4:37 pm - 25 Comments
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  Oil politics backfire on the US - by frog

  
  
  
  Open Democracy’s Paul Rogers notes that as China looks to secure oil for it’s increasing consumption it is becoming a strategic power in the Middle East in exactly the way the US would not have intended or wanted. Three transnational oil companies – Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil – were all expected to complete deals [...] read more
  September 6, 2008 9:50 am - 6 Comments
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  Protecting food safety - by frog

  
  
  
  Mother Jones has an icky story about imported Chinese food in the USA involving contamination, salmonella, bateria and pesticides. At one [poultry] plant, inspectors had found paint from the ceiling “on the table used for edible product,” while workers at another facility wiped down meat-handling areas with dirty cloths. Parts of a third factory, designated [...] read more
  August 28, 2008 3:57 pm - 5 Comments
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  The youth of today - by frog

  
  
  
  I visited Parliament a couple of times on school trips as a child, but nothing as cool as this Hanmer Primary School story ever happened to me: Hanmer School teacher Katie Wenborn said the Year 7 and 8 students were eating lunch on [Parliament] lawn when a woman began talking about the [human rights in [...] read more
  August 7, 2008 2:07 pm - 36 Comments
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  Getting ready for the Olympics - by frog

  
  
  
  Keith Locke will be resuming his familiar position tomorrow lunch time, outside of Parliament, to draw attention to human rights abuses in China in the lead up to the Olympics. Tomorrow was also supposed to be the first day of the Chinese Government’s trial of Ni Yulan, the prominent human rights activist and defender of the rights [...] read more
  August 4, 2008 4:04 pm - 10 Comments
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  The real Tibet - by frog

  
  
  
  It seems, according to a Chinese delegation here in NZ this week, that we were mistaken about state violence in Tibet earlier this year: Delegation leader Shes-rab-nyi-ma, vice-president of Beijing’s Central University for Nationalities, said they wanted to correct erroneous reports of a violent crackdown on Tibet. The delegates wanted to show “the real picture” [...] read more
  July 29, 2008 10:39 am - 16 Comments
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  Carbon fin prints - by frog

  
  
  
  Jeanette’s question this afternoon on the Government’s claim to be the first carbon neutral country in the world resulted in the usual banter with the Michael Cullen, who was answering on behalf of the Prime Minister. Even National’s Nick Smith got in on the game, asking much the same as what many Green supporters have [...] read more
  May 29, 2008 9:15 pm - 17 Comments
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  Two questions in Parliament from Jeanette today - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s not often the Greens get allotted two questions in one day at Parliamentary question time. (I think today’s double dose might have come about due to some horse trading with the Maori Party?)  Anyway, they’re both good ones: Question 1 – Jeanette Fitzsimons to the Prime Minister Does she still aspire for New Zealand [...] read more
  May 29, 2008 11:27 am - 24 Comments
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  A meaty dilemma - by frog

  
  
  
  Paul Roberts, author of The End of Food, has a compelling article in Seed magazine, Carnivores like us, which begins looking at the impact of China’s new-found meat eating revolution: Thanks in part to the meatier diet, the number of people suffering physical stunting has fallen from three in 10 in 1980 to half as [...] read more
  May 27, 2008 11:05 am - 14 Comments
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  China looks to NZ food and farms - by frog

  
  
  
  The head of HSBC, Margaret Leung is in the Herald this morning saying that we can expect lots more Chinese financial interest in New Zealand assets. It is interesting that she particularly singles out food as an area for future investment: “At the moment we are financing quite a bit of meat exports but we [...] read more
  May 6, 2008 8:53 am - 5 Comments
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  Trade agreement with China – the right to change our mind - by frog

  
  
  
  Scoop’s Election 08 site has just posted a detailed analysis of the Annex 13 investment rules in New Zealand’s preferential trade agreement with China.  In it US Professor and international trade law expert, Matthew Porterfield, suggests New Zealand might gone too far in its efforts to protect the rights of foreign investors: “The language of [...] read more
  April 28, 2008 4:57 pm - No Comments
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  Solidarity movement aims to send Zimbabwean arms back to China - by frog

  
  
  
  A few days ago Nandor reported on a shipment of arms that Zimbabwe was attempting to import from China but that had been blocked from unloading in South Africa because of a solidarity movement led by a South African dock workers’ union.  Well as the US and UK have also stepped in to apply pressure [...] read more
  April 24, 2008 8:40 am - No Comments
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  The drug deal - by frog

  
  
  
  One of the things we will be trading with China under our new preferential trade deal is drugs. And Sue Kedgley has just pointed out that provisions in the preferential China trade agreement require most goods to be fast tracked through borders within 48 hours. It seems highly likely that this will weaken the safety [...] read more
  April 23, 2008 12:27 pm - 3 Comments

• fresh news from the Cape - by Nandor Tanczos

  
  
  
  Well, I’m still in Cape Town. Don’t know if NZ media is reporting much about it, but Zimbabwe is still the big news here. A shipment of arms from China, ordered three days after the election, docked in Durban for overland transportation to Zimbabwe late last week. The Government said they had no legal grounds [...] read more
  April 22, 2008 4:47 am - 6 Comments
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  Some discussion points - by frog

  
  
  
  George Bush leads the way US President George Bush has announced an ‘ambitious‘ climate change programme to stop increasing carbon emission in 2025. And, after that, the US is going to start reducing emissions. That’s only 17 years and somewhat more than 100 billion metric tonnes of CO². We’ll probably be onto our 3rd Bush [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 9:26 am - 18 Comments
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  Globalisation - by frog

  
  
  
  The Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association’s Alasdair Thompson thinks the government might be playing political games by opposing the sale of Auckland Airport: And it’s a dishonest ploy at that, because we know the Government supports globalisation, foreign direct investment (FDI) both into and out of New Zealand, free trade and free capital flows too. [...] read more
  April 15, 2008 10:41 am - No Comments
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  The Record Falls – Jan ’08 is the new world record for crude oil (plus condensate) production - by frog

  
  
  
  Nate Hagens over at The Oil Drum says: The EIA’s newest International Petroleum Monthly shows World C+C production for January was 74,466,000 barrels per day, eclipsing the heretofore peak of May 2005 by 168,000 barrels per day. (thanks to Ron Patterson for the heads up and to Khebab for the quick graphics). Fig 1.- World [...] read more
  April 14, 2008 10:04 am - 10 Comments
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  The end of Petrodollars - by frog

  
  
  
  I wrote a huge post yesterday trying to tie up a whole lot of interconnected issues, so I’ll try not to go on so long again today. Luckily Celsias has already done it for me with a very full article that covers the links between the traditional trade of oil in US dollars (also known [...] read more
  April 11, 2008 4:23 pm - 21 Comments
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  A saga about bees, biosecurity and GE - by frog

  
  
  
  There was an article in the Gisborne Herald over the weekend where Gisborne beekeepers argued that the Government is sacrificing New Zealand’s environment and biosecurity in order to promote free trade. Beekeepers were protesting about the Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances Legislation Amendment Bill, which passed last week despite opposition from the Greens and the Maori [...] read more
  April 10, 2008 4:18 pm - 5 Comments
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  Olympic torch protests – An overseas holiday with a difference - by frog

  
  
  
  Sadly for sports fans the Olympic Torch isn’t coming to our shores. And after seeing all the fun in London, Paris and San Francisco you might be feeling like you are missing out on all the fun. Fear not; Gridskipper presents Google’s Guide to Protesting the Olympic Torch. The nearest destination you can travel to [...] read more
  April 10, 2008 10:21 am - No Comments
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  Winston’s credibility - by frog

  
  
  
  Like people from most corners of the political spectrum, defending Winston Peters doesn’t come naturally to me. But in this case I think he probably does deserve some support. Kiwiblog, Whale Oil, the Hive and others are all calling for Peters to resign following his announcement that NZ First will not be supporting the Preferential [...] read more
  April 9, 2008 8:15 am - 21 Comments
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  Helpful advice for Chinese farmers - by frog

  
  
  
  An NZPA story that I can’t yet find online has the Minister for Climate Change, David Parker, talking about the benefits that the preferential trade agreement with China might have for climate change: However, Mr Parker said the FTA was a realistic platform for New Zealand to have an influence on China’s pollution. “It is, [...] read more
  April 8, 2008 2:19 pm - 3 Comments