From the LA Times:

First, Tao Shoulong burned his company's financial books. He then sold his private golf club memberships and disposed of his Mercedes S-600 sedan.

And then he was gone.

And just like that, China's biggest textile dye operation --…

Do you reckon he reads the SMH? If so, he's in for a bigger shock than when the Aussie cricket team got thrashed by India the other day...

World gives Aussie dollar a walloping

The big fall…

Will be interesting to see how the Chinese government treats Fonterra in the aftermath of the thing though.

I'm not predicting CCP influence in NZ is going to be changed in any way by the outcome of the comming election.

Of course the survey is small and unscientific. That said, the interview comments were interesting, and the findings gel with my experiences of the…

we are not talking about some nebulous fringe element here. We are talking about the majority of PRC-born New Zealanders. Moreover, the inexplicable personal bias in question is completely external to New Zealand.

Seems remarkable enough to be worth commenting on.

Sorry not to have mentioned on this earlier, but…

I've heard it said before that New Zealand firms should be getting stuck in and helping clean up China's environment. Sounds great in principle. A few years ago I had a look around for some NZ firms that might have this kind of expertise and found nothing much (from…

I mentioned Labor because it is the only other large party in New Zealand. Personally I see voting Green as the most useful thing I can do with my vote. They annoy me with some of their policies, but at least they have a fresh take on things and…

Sam F: You're right, but swapping 归 for 龟 turns things pun-wards in my book. Visual representations, be the words or pictures, that I've seen suggest that Chinese people hear the pun, and not just the abbreviation.

Main laptop is in…

NZ should be promoting clean, organic produce and high quality products made from natural ingredients....NZ has missed huge opportunities by not becoming much more of a leader on environmental issues at a much earlier stage.

Except organisations such as Fonterra are not even vaguely onto…

Here are some answers to your questions:

**Can I ask a few questions?

given the damage that has been done to brand NZ by Fonterra's ill-advised involvement in the poisonous Chinese dairy industry.

How…

That said, we are not talking about some nebulous fringe element here. We are talking about the majority of PRC-born New Zealanders. Moreover, the inexplicable personal bias in…

That said, a non-Chinese NZ voter who thought this way would (presumably) be in New Zealand by accident of birth rather than by…

And what everybody seems to be forgetting is the delicious little pun in 'haigui'. The hai (海) is reasonably obvious, the gui could be read as either the turtle (龟）or return (归), both of which are gui in the first tone.

Not so much a pun as the origin of…

– The commonly used Chinese word for 'country' ('guojia') is a little ambiguous. It means state, country, land and nation, all at the same time.

– You have decades of CCP propaganda telling people…

http://bunnyhugs.org/2008/10/12/ccp-style-nationalism-meets-new-zealand-democracy-hillarity-ensues/

I see it as a little odd. I think it also raises a few moral issues.

I think your comparison to New Zealander's in…

And what everybody seems to be forgetting is the delicious little pun in 'haigui'. The hai (海) is reasonably…

'Haigui' literally means 'sea turtle', and refers to overseas Chinese who have returned to China to live and work.

As heard from my partner (and supported by Renmin Ribao, for what it's worth), the phrase has now quickly spawned an offshoot – "haidai", or seaweed, for returnees who end up…

www.nzchinasociety.org.nz

stephen

' they' isn't the young urban middle class, it's the Chinese, most of whom are over 30.
23% over 50,

47% 20-50:

of which the majority are pre one child policy, and probably able to recall…

We do tend to look at this from a western perspective at…

but they have lived through worse

i would politely suggest that "they" have not lived through worse, if "they" is the urban, young, "middle class".

what percentage of the Chinese population is old enough to remember the worst excesses of the cultural revolution (i.e. pre-1970) or the famines of the…

Sure, in a democracy you can have any opinion you like. However, if you rate loyalty to a foreign one-party government above loyalty to the democracy you are voting in then the whole exercise becomes slightly peculiar.

I would argue that it is morally inappropriate to vote if…

howing leadership and intelligence and thinking about more than just satisfying their immediate, short-term desires. It would also mean NZ finally giving us linguisticky types the respect we deserve

but James they're shackled in democracy...

It was naivety along those lines that got Fonterra into its current mess.

While it sounds nasty, I would also be cautious about relying too much on 'new New Zealanders'. It seems that the loyalties of those from the…

Although this whole "whites only" lols is a little confusing to me at least – does this include Latin America? Where do we stand with countries that have large white or not white minorities?

I believe the US has a long history of distinguishing between "white" and "non-white" Hispanics. Must…

Can I ask a few questions?

given the damage that has been done to brand NZ by Fonterra's ill-advised involvement in the poisonous Chinese dairy industry.

How substantial do you gauge the damage to be?

The financial regulators here have been very conservative about allowing…

730m of them are peasant farmers with an average income of NZ$800 per year

Who are not going to be taking up the slack on $4k flat screen tellys, though maybe the Warehouse's gumboot supplier could sell a few domestically.

As Stephen points out, stock markets in the region have been hammered, led by the decline in the Shanghai market which began before anywhere else.

It's true the Chinese stock market had increased six-fold…

So far this is whites-only crisis.

as Goerge points out above, Mr. Keane appears to have some slightly misinformed opinions...

unless of course the Tokyo Stock Exchange is a now whites-only instituion?

broadest measure of the TSE is the TOPIX index.
it is currently scraping along just under 830. down…

But is he a Ricky Ponting or an Alan Border?

Neither of them are dipped in titanium.

Meanwhile, from China I've had this message. It's from a reader whose partner I've been pestering for a while to interview about the expansion of their NZ business there.

The streets here are…

The only saving grace is that Rudd looks like the sort of guy who loves a challenge – and the more the better.

But is he a Ricky Ponting or an Alan Border?

Kevin Rudd could face the same fate as Scullin, the only other one-term Prime Minister ...

Quoting Crikey just once more:

In short, Rudd has not just got a major economic meltdown to deal with, but the sort of historic problems that would tough nuts even when times were great.…

Kevin Rudd could face the same fate as Scullin, the only other one-term Prime Minister ...

They bat longer than us at cricket too.

In other news, Pakistan is on the edge of bankruptcy. This would normally make headlines, but not right now.

I was meaning to go read up on what that might mean, but it seemed a little bleak for a Friday. I mean, really.

My point was only to say that many other countries are significantly more exposed to the problems of developed countries.

So far this is whites-only crisis.

No it isn't. Several days ago Indonesia's stock exchange started to plunge dramatically, losing 10% in only a few hours. Trading has been suspended since then, in attempt to prevent the a repeat of the devastation of 1997. In that case; a country with…

I have been hanging out at film premieres [Guitars From The Leafy Suburbs]

I once read that "leafy suburbs" was Queensland slang used in newspaper "flatmate wanted" ads, to show that it was a certain kind of flat – what would probably be called "easy-going" or "open-minded" here...

Right, here's…

But China relies on exports, people will object, especially to Europe and America. Indeed. But it also has 1.2 plus billion people, in a region with another billion people in rapidly-developing economies (remember that enormous disaster, the Asian economic crisis?). So far…

Interesting times in China?

Firstly, I endorse this YouYube clip.

Do I detect the dulcet tones of Grant Robertson?

So are our babies included in the count?

Well, they are eligible to join, so not counting them wouldnt be fair... :)

While only those starting payed employment are joined up automatically... anyone can join, including infants...

... too Statist ...

With what's going on in the banking sector, it seems that Statism is the new black.

What we can do though is intensive handholding of local business – we have a wonderfull resource in NZ: native Chinese speakers – exactly what we need to do biz in…