Every March, the ‘lianghui’ or ‘Two Sessions’ political meetings in Beijing set the scene and key directions for China’s year ahead: its intended socio-economic goals and strategies, priority sectors, key personnel appointments and foreign policy settings. These are valuable signposts for New Zealanders following latest developments in China. In this podcast, Director of the Contemporary China Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington Associate Professor Jason Young returns to distil the essential highlights of the 2024 ‘lianghui’ in discussion with our Executive Director Alistair Crozier.

‘How to feed 1.4 billion people’ is already a big question. And how to do it sustainably?

Answers to these questions are not only crucial for people in China, but also important for New Zealand. China is our largest trade partner: Understanding its future sustainable food policy directions, and how this will affect China’s food consumption, production and investment, is essential.

In late 2023 we commissioned Trivium China to prepare a research report on China’s policy and regulatory approaches to sustainable food, with a focus on protein. This podcast is a recording of the report launch webinar on 4 December, including the report author’s summary of key findings and an industry experts discussion, co-hosted with the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence.

The New Zealand Business Roundtable in China (NZBRiC), a representative body for New Zealand companies doing business in and with China, recently completed a groundbreaking survey of over 50 kiwi businesses to provide a first-hand, on-the-ground perspective of the real business environment and mood for New Zealand companies operating there in 2023. In this podcast we explore the main strategies, challenges and perspectives revealed in the survey, hot off the press, with NZBRiC’s Executive Director Anna-May Isbey and Executive Member James Robertson (Fonterra).

Collaborative Horizons report launch Webinar by New Zealand China Council Podcast

How do New Zealanders assess China’s response to climate change? We recently had a unique opportunity to work with InstatData, a kiwi start-up which analyses social media posts to gauge New Zealanders’ opinions on particular issues. We put their technology to the test to focus on China and climate change, as an issue we suspected would reveal diverse public perceptions. And then we discussed the findings with New Zealander Emilly Fan, who is currently researching in this area in Beijing.

Are New Zealanders’ impressions about China and climate change justified? How do younger Chinese feel about the issues? And what more could New Zealand and China do together to tackle this critical global challenge?

This podcast is a recording of the webinar launching our report “Resuming Normal Service? Assessing future prospects for New Zealand-China services trade”, jointly held with the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence. It includes an exclusive briefing by the report author and a discussion featuring services trade experts, moderated by the Executive Director of the New Zealand China Council. The questions discussed include: Will trade in established services sectors again be an important part of overall bilateral trade with scope for future recovery and expansion? Are there new sectors that so far remain under-explored? What are the barriers and challenges that will need to be overcome for services sectors to reach their full potential?

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China took place recently in Beijing. The pivotal five-yearly event in China’s political calendar drew global interest. But beyond the media headlines, what were the key outcomes of the Congress and how could these affect China’s policy directions and New Zealand’s future engagement with China?

In this podcast, Jason Young, Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations at the Victoria University of Wellington, discusses these issues with our Council’s Executive Director Alistair Crozier.

This week is New Zealand Chinese Language Week. We sat down with our Council members Kiri Nathan, founder of her eponymous clothing brand Kiri Nathan Limited, and Mark Tanner, Founder and Managing Director of Shanghai based market strategy and research agency China Skinny, to explore their own Chinese language journeys.

In this podcast you will hear how two New Zealanders have tackled learning and using their Chinese language. Kiri also shares how she has gained more understanding and respect of different cultures through learning Te Reo Māori and Chinese.

In late April the New Zealand China Council released a report commissioned from Sense Partners, “In Perspective: The New Zealand-China Trade and Business Relationship 2022 Update”. Amongst other findings, the report confirmed that China’s share of New Zealand’s global goods exports reached 32.6% in 2021.

How we assess this situation and what it means for our exporters were the key themes of a webinar marking the launch of the report. The webinar included a briefing by report author John Ballingall, and a discussion with Andy Wotton, Chief Operating Officer at Kono, and Simon Tucker, Fonterra’s Director Global Sustainability, Stakeholder Affairs and Trade, moderated by Council Executive Director Alistair Crozier.

This podcast is a recording of the webinar, which was jointly hosted by the Council and the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence.

The Southern Link places New Zealand in the middle of a global value chain connecting Asia and South America, generating growth in trade, tourism and export opportunities.

Transiting via New Zealand offers the shortest air route between many major cities on the two continents, along with time zone advantages and efficient hubbing and servicing.

The NZCC commissioned a report on the Southern Link to quantify the Link’s economic benefits, and identify New Zealand's advantages and the challenges we will need to overcome to harness this opportunity.

In this podcast, we discuss the findings with report author Chris Nixon - NZIER Principal Economist, Lionel Berte - Head of Asia Pacific for Asendia (an international mail joint venture between French La Poste and Swiss Post), Steve Jones - NZTE’s Regional Director for Latin America, and Justin Watson - Christchurch Airport’s Chief Aeronautical and Commercial Officer.