I really do.
When he first created this Government with Labour in 2017, it was in the shadow of a looming financial collapse that had everyone believing the correction that had been building since 2008 was upon us.
Back then, Winston was waxing lyrical about the need to change the neoliberal economic hegemonic structure, it was a song he knew well having experienced the neoliberal revolution under Lange’s Labour and creating NZ First as a nationalistic response to the excesses of free market capitalism.
NZ First’s billion dollar provincial growth fund was supposed to be an essential counter weight to direct Government investment into regions but the neoliberal public service who are utterly against intervention into the market have stymied any real ability for that to succeed and NZF haven’t really gone beyond that so hoping for Winston to suddenly fulfil his rhetoric seems vacant rather than probable.
That doesn’t mean that what Winston is talking about isn’t essential to what we do next as a country attempting to get out of this pandemic mess, because it is.
New Zealand’s reliance on China is dangerous economically, culturally and politically. They have bought National who are less a political party and more a business front for Chinese business now and they can leverage our economic addiction to them for their geopolitical interests, not ours.
We have placed all our cows in one Beijing paddock and are now suffering for that. Dairy intensification not only damages our environment and pollutes our water, it makes us dependent on the largest authoritarian regime on the planet who has an appalling human rights record and who is currently under enormous scrutiny for their role in the spread of this pandemic…
THE CONTROVERSIAL EXPERIMENTS AND WUHAN LAB SUSPECTED OF STARTING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Just one day after the U.S. surpassed China to become the country with the highest number of Covid-19 cases, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency updated its assessment of the origin of the novel coronavirus to reflect that it may have been accidentally released from an infectious diseases lab, Newsweek has learned.
…if it turns out that their plague was accidentally released because of incompetence, Trump will unleash hell.
China is already lashing out at Australia for suggesting this and it makes Winston’s assurances that we can freely criticise China look naive in the extreme.
Into all of this rides Jami-Lee Ross and his new political party with a specific focus on attacking China’s influence in New Zealand...
“Our democracy no longer represents middle of the road average Kiwis – there are two blocs of parties with a handful of minor parties subservient to their big brother and sister.”
He said none of the established political parties have been prepared to speak out against the new risks the country is facing from the Chinese Communist Party.
“We are about to feel the economic effects of aligning ourselves so closely to China.”
…the NZ woke scream any criticism of China is xenophobic and racist while National are bought and paid for by China so politically the building anger towards China and our economic addiction to them has no where to go.
If tensions between America and China cause conflict in the South China Sea, NZ will need to make hard choices and amputating the corporate Dairy industry might be a sacrifice we are faced to make.
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Martyn please tell us how many visits you have made to China that qualifies you to comment?
Bomber’s right and NOBODY with even half a brain need visit China to realise they are not our allies.
It would appear even their obvious lack of support of Human Rights is beginning to seriously rub off on idiots in this country judging by the Lockdown.
ohh, but IF Jacinda does it….it’s ok…..its for the greater good….RIGHT!
When did either NZ or China even remotely consider being allies? Does one have to be an ally in order to trade? Realistically, the concerns are commercial – driven by globalism – not political. The problem for NZ is that its economy became lazily centred around selling to the biggest buyer – quantity rather than quality. That was where the quickest buck could be made. High turnover, low employment costs! As far as human rights are concerned, how many destructive wars has China initiated or participated in? The right to live in peace is the most fundamental of human rights.
And now they lazily sold off most of NZ biggest assets (they couldn’t sell Fonterra which is the neoliberals wet dream to sell off, due to cooperative status, so they are doing partnerships with Chinese business to bankrupt it, instead).
We no longer get the jobs from our NZ located businesses as our immigration policy has allowed lazily imported in other nations cheap unskilled labour force propped up by NZ welfare, so NZ taxpayers have to pay double duty.
Who imports in poverty and exploiters, and makes them citizens? NZ!
Selling off Fonterra. Its a cooperative essentially in spite of neoliberals attempting to shape it as a corporation.
The farmers are the owners.
Selling off Fonterra. Its a cooperative essentially in spite of neoliberals attempting to shape it as a corporation.
The farmers are the owners.
+100 SaveNZ…we need to sever links with China….and find other trading partners( eg Russia, as Jonkey did not do)…the costs of trading with China are too high( as someone once said “Go to bed with a giant and you are likely to get crushed”)…China guts countries natural resources food etc. and buys up all their assets and inserts its own people (overpopulation )
‘China Faces “Economic Reckoning” As COVID-19 Turns World Against Globalisation’
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-faces-economic-reckoning-covid-19-turns-world-against-globalisation
Tell me, how many destructive wars has China initiated or participated in, and as a comparison could you also give us the same information on the US and Britain
Tell that to the Tibetans
https://freetibet.org/about
So an astronomy professor is not qualified to comment until they have spent time in space?
Martyn please tell us how many visits you have made to China that qualifies you to comment?
And before anyone finds a shiny new degree in corona expertise, Trump doesn’t need evidence of the origins of the Wuhan virus to claim it was a Chinese grown experiment because he’s been jumping ahead of the science this whole time.
Trump and many others like him throw out a variety of thoughts and theories publicly acting on nearly none of them, eventually just a couple of those will be close to the mark and one will be absolutely right. Like throwing seeds in the wind, eventually one will grow in the right place, scarring the doubters and encouraging supporters. Of course when winning the gold medal at anything all the races lost are quickly forgotten or ignored. Trump is the kind of person whom latches on to victories not defeats. Those occasional victories build in some minds an unshakable personal narrative.
The science is 100% confirmed. Wuhan virus is not man made. There are plenty of scientific journals and scientists that have gone on the record saying.
And we already know 100% that Bejing bullshitted about Wuhan, knew it was a pandemic and kept it quiet and allowed there Wuhan airport to stay open longer than they should have. We know because the CIA was jumping up and down 6 days before Bejing officially came out.
I don’t think Jacinda is going to be on the wrong side of history on this one but I think she should keep a super tight dictatorship like rein on who she allows to hold press conferences on this one.
Fuck, some of you are so hung up of Trump! The syndrome is real clearly..
He never said “it was a Chinese grown experiment”,….you did.
They are STILL investigation the origins of the exact nature this virus was released but China make it difficult when they don’t let foreign investigators & media in to ask pertinent questions..
Actually Trump said: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496098
What did Trump say?
At the White House on Thursday, Mr Trump was asked by a reporter: “Have you seen anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of this virus?”
“Yes, I have. Yes, I have,” said the president, without specifying. “And I think the World Health Organization [WHO] should be ashamed of themselves because they’re like the public relations agency for China.”
Asked later to clarify his comment, he said: “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
Its like you’ve got dyslexia on this one Yi ow because you can see the trees but you’ve totally missed the forest.
Trump clearly said it – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496098
just watched it Daryl…he never said “it was a chinese grown experiment”.
Nice try though….
Perhaps watch this instead eh, as it some of the latest from ABC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Vh9yqu5Qo
seriously dude. I’m just LMFAO right now
It’s like saying “I will have an ice cream” and you take it that I didn’t eat it
Ross I find more factual information is gained from independent scientific publications.
Reporters – dime a dozen and propaganda is a US specialty..
Try not to be taken in..
The CIA has eyes everywhere so nothing is a surprise but if you believe the CIA then good luck to you.
Selective hearing again Ross?
So JLR has found a way to continue his political career while also sticking it to the National Party – such elegant vindictiveness.
It strikes me as strange that we would focus on China’s corrupting inlfuence while not mentioning that we already in the pockets of the US – what exactly are they going to do that hasn’t already been done by the US’s more ruthless and by now crazy leadership?
The government’s job in this impossible situation is to try to suck up to both of them at the same time while trying to fly under the radar. JLR has just made this a whole lot harder.
The Botany electorate is very National with a large Chinese-NZ demographic, and incumbent Jami-Lee Ross chooses a message of “average Kiwis” vs China (CCP)?
Luxon must be laughing.
Yeah that occured too me too with regards too Botany.
Luxon wont be laughing he will be smiling in a restrained manner like he has been trained too do by Mr Key.
Ross was happy too look the other way while he was an MP when he thought he had a future in the party.
He must of been aware of how things worked when he got selected in the first place but now he has a conscience ?
He will just end up like all the others as a political footnote in history.
That breakdown must have been more severe than we thought.
John Key and his prodigy Luxon laughing/snickering like Muttley.
Simple! Handover Winston to the Chinese and make him the permanent in house Ambassador in China!
Jamie Who? Cant see it swinging left…nobody home. There isn’t much happening in the Lob Botany electorate.
Maybe Winston could sweet talk the Chinese & Asian population into supporting him in Botany instead of up North?
Watch out for China’s dark assertive aspiration’s!!!!! (see below) article from CHINA RELATIONS
This makes me recall;
When at Napier High School our geography teacher ‘Jock Pimm’ was fighting japan in the south pacific while he was in the NZ air force during the second world war, and said to us all constantly while in class “pull up your socks boys the Japanese are coming”:
Now we should repeat this with “pull up your socks boys the Chinese are here”:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-s-post-pandemic-shopping-spree-how-coronavirus-strengthens-the-belt-and-road-initiative-20200430-p54ok5.html
China’s post-pandemic shopping spree: how coronavirus strengthens the Belt and Road Initiative
For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here.
By Eryk Bagshaw and James Massola
May 1, 2020 — 11.47pm
CHINA RELATIONS
The money or our sovereignty: China leaves us with no choice
A former French Ministry of Defence official dialled into a US Congress hearing this week from her study with a warning.
“We are now only beginning to pick up weak signals of Chinese ambitions on the international stage,” she said. “We should not wait for them to be fully implemented to start thinking about policy options.”
The verdict, delivered by Lowy Institute senior fellow Nadège Rolland to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Wednesday, carried with it an implicit threat: China is coming. Faster, bigger and more assertive, empowered rather than enfeebled by the pandemic that shut it down in January.
Lowy Institute senior fellow Nadege Rolland warns that China’s ambitions have not waned during the pandemic.
Right now, nations across the globe are focused inwards on their health crises as the pandemic shuts down economies worldwide to save lives.
But most countries will emerge from their lockdowns cash-strapped and looking for investment lifelines. China, likely to be the first major economy out of the crisis, will be waiting. And it has a big sweetener – its signature $1.5 trillion Belt and Road Initiative. Who would resist?
Australia is standing its ground. The Morrison government was bold enough to persist in calls for a global international inquiry into the coronavirus. Viewed by Beijing as uppity, irritating and insignificant, Australia and its campaign was a distraction.
The long standing trade relationship between Australia and China is under strain after the coronavirus halted imports and exports, forcing Australia to look inwards to develop manufacturing.
“[Australia] is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes,” said prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin, who runs the Communist Party’s international mouthpiece, The Global Times. “Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.”
The scale of China’s global ambition can be measured in the length of its shopping list for the Belt and Road Initiative. Spanning Asia, Europe, the Pacific and South America, only $190 billion of that $1.5 trillion has so far been committed to a network that aims to tie the world’s post-coronavirus economic growth to China. The US and Australia, with the exception of Victoria, are noticeably absent.
A new $1.2 billion football stadium for Qatar, an $8.4 billion high-speed rail link between Jakarta and Bandung, light rail in Tel Aviv, a $1 billion cruise ship pier in Athens, a $2.6 billion bridge in Turkey. The poster-child: a $95 billion economic and transport corridor between Pakistan and China.
By the end of January, China had signed 200 cooperation documents on the construction of the Belt and Road with 138 countries and 30 international organisations, including 37 Asian countries and 44 African countries.
In April, as coronavirus ravaged the globe, China’s President Xi Jinping called the leaders of Nepal, Iran, Zimbabwe, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Laos, Kyrgyzstan, Venezuela, Mexico and Belgium.
He told them the same thing: “In the face of unprecedented epidemic challenges, the international community needs more solidarity and cooperation than ever before”.
From her home in Princeton, Rolland tells The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the Belt and Road “is the spine of the new coalition that China wants to create”.
“It is the physical manifestation of the Sino-centric order that China wants to put in place,” she says. “In short, Beijing wants a world order less threatening to the Chinese Communist Party’s regime’s legitimacy and survival and more aligned with its own values and principles.”
The Aussies have grown some balls alright, warships in the south china sea, accusations against the CCP, attacks on the Sky news channel, do you think that they would have done any of this without Yank backing?
Remember we still have the Anzac alliance in place, we are still in the 5 eyes spy bullshirt.
Where they go we must also.
Go Jamie spill the beans on the Nat traitors give those bastards the Fingers (Not like Joe tho) lol
WWG1WGA
Yeah, the ‘brave’ Aussies (or is it the scared-of America Aussies?). Lots of posturing until reality hits, and then it will be: “Please, China, please, please buy our coal, our iron ore and our bauxite, and our meat and wool…. ‘cos we’re sunk without you.”
It will be the other way around – without imports China cannot survive – they have little in the way of natural resources and rely on imports for their industries – Australia is reliable source of these imports, especially as they are a stable democracy unlike many of the other countries that could supply the same minerals – China is also a net importer of food – one of the few countries in the world that cannot feed itself – be careful what you wish for – I get really tired of China apologists continually bagging western countries that they choose to live in – we are all lucky to live in societies that allow freedom of speech – if China is so much better go and live there
Actually China survived quite well for a very long time without imports. The 2000-plus-year culture may well have continued for another 2000-plus years if the British and Americans had no opened it up for exploitation in the mid-nineteenth century and if they had not supported forces suppressing the Boxer Rebellion around the turn of the century.
The Great Famine of the late-1950s was not due to lack of food in China but was due to Mao doing a deal with the USSR whereby China paid for industrial goods supplied by the USSR by exporting grain to the USSR. Such was the zealous nature of regional and local party officials they actually overstated how much they were producing and could produce next season to the point they then went on to starve the inhabitants of the said regions in order to fulfill outrageously high export quotas.
This statement ‘[China] -one of the few countries in the world that cannot feed itself, is blatantly wrong to the point of being ridiculous.
There are dozen of nations that cannot feed themselves without massive imports of food -Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Japan…..all dependent on grains grown in the US, Canada, Ukraine, Russia, Australia etc., and all dependent on oils extracted from monoculture plantations in Brazil, .E. Asia etc.
You wrote: ‘be careful what you wish for’ Well actually I didn’t wish for anything in my comment. I merely pointed out that Australia is overly dependent on exports to China, and would be screaming if they were to cease; even a slight drop in exports to China is enough to sent shivers down the spines of Australian governments, since a large portion of the employment and a huge portion of the income is predicated on digging up the place and selling it to China.
You wrote: ‘I get really tired of China apologists continually bagging western countries that they choose to live in’
What makes you think I live in Australia?
‘if China is so much better go and live there’
I have never suggested that China is any better than any other nation. Indeed, I would go as far as saying that China has repeated the gross mistakes made by other so-called advanced nations, particularly the US, and has invested monstrous amounts of resource in living arrangements that have no future and have destroyed much of what was sustainable in the process.
I have simply pointed out, and continue to point out, irrefutable facts. If you cannot handle a debate without resorting to ad hominem attacks you really should not participate in online discussions.
One of the ironically ‘good’ aspects about planetary overheating and environmental collapse is that those nations with the highest per capita emissions and the least regard for the future -the US, Australia, Saudi Arabia etc.- will be amongst those paying the highest price for their arrogance and stupidity.
Sadly, they will take the rest of us down with them.
NZ seems to be marching towards totalitarianism in it’s policy… I’m not sure that JLR will get any success but the ideas seem to be sorely needed.
Martin Luther King Quote…
“If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.”
—“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, April 3, 1968
Does this quote mean what you think it does? MLK fought for most of his life for the rights read about in the US constitution. Despite his successes, his dream still hasn’t become a reality.
Dreams need constant work to fulfil them, they got Obama and Oprah.
But all around the world hard won by, civil rights are being eroded.
China misled the world hiding the Covid 19 crisis while choking off medical supply exports from early Jan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Vh9yqu5Qo
Next you’ll believe what the CIA tell you?
I thought you were more ‘onto it m8’
but you get a second chance.
NO FRIENDS IN POLITICS -Bill Rowling
AND FEWER IN BUSINSS – Ross Meurant
The CCP is evil and dangerous. It can’t be trusted. All nations should be rallying against it.
Apparently the human rights commission received 250 complaints relating to Covid, only 82 were race related and 30% of that was about Chinese/Asians (about 24 people in total), therefore A special task force is being set up for Chinese/Asian to collect data of experiences of racism during the crisis in response to the dearth of evidence.
(OK then so the other 168 complaints about race are less important?)
Apparently, there is a death of evidence about the racism complaints to Chinese/Asian so they are setting up a special task force to create some!
Pity about the other 226 human rights complaints. We don’t get to know what the majority of complaints are about and a special taskforce made available for them.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12329199
I guess the PRC propaganda machine needs to get into full mode in NZ as the victims of everything using racism as part of political propaganda for them around the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/eu-watered-down-report-on-chinese-disinformation-about-covid-19
Quite frankly NZ never stops the woke reporting of hard done by Chinese subjected to xenophobic racism in NZ like a coffee receipt with Asian on it to Chinese ladies who lunch, or the RNZ reporter …”a proud New Zealand-born Chinese woman and I understood xenophobia from a young age. When I was eight-years-old, a group of Pākehā teenagers yelled the classic phrase at me, “Go back to your own country!” It’s a type of memory that sticks with you.”
Lets concentrate and put more media and resources on these poor women’s tragic past (sarcasm)… while other teenagers human rights situations are ignored, like Dimetrius Pairama who was murdered and tortured and body found by police in a metal drum at a vacant Housing New Zealand property in Māngere……https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/398171/auckland-teen-was-kidnapped-and-tortured-court-hears
Another great use of woke privilege at work in NZ! A special task force might be better spent on the human rights and experiences and bullying of children in care in NZ whose outcomes are not good.
Instead the woke siphon off more and more of NZ’s budget and media attention onto themselves for those with the most privilege, and divert more and more money into special task forces and statistics based on political engineering to engineer more privilege to the least vulnerable!
Put aside all the posturing and phony narratives and fantasies. The day there is genuine conflict between the Western World and China is the day ‘everything comes to a stop’ in the Western World (NZ being a Western nation despite its position east and south of all others).
Western nations and Westernised nations) were all-too-happy to close factories in the homelands (US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, NZ, even Japan and Taiwan) in order to take advantage of the low pay rates and the low exchange rate of China. And to shift the pollution which is an inevitable consequence of making steel, copper, petrochemicals and plastics etc., to China.
Thus, visible pollution levels fell in Western nations, and governments claimed to be reducing CO2 emissions while simply transferring those emission to China: indeed, in many cases overall emissions increased since raw material were shipped to China, processed into finished goods (using coal-powered electricity) and shipped back to the same nation.
Less obvious was the vast increase in micro-pollution in ‘advanced’ nations, as people had greater access to cheap made-in-China goods and vehicles. Thus, there have been reports of micro-pollution the air in London frequently exceeding all health guidelines and unknown long term effects of micro-soot and even micro-plastics circulating in bloodstreams! And, of course, as well as the toxins there were mountains of trash, that were initially buried, then sent back to China, but now being dumped again, or burned -releasing more toxin into the air- as China refuses to take back the rubbish.
Those cheap made-in-China goods kept the populaces of Western nations reasonable content and passive, as they got access to all sorts of useful items, convenience items, trivial items and absolute crap (inflatable Santa Claus etc.) at ‘bargain’ prices -for the prices sure have been cheap if you take no account of the sweatshop conditions in factories, the monstrous levels of air pollution and the cost of disposing of the items when the purchaser tires of it, it become technologically redundant or the item fails because of poor design or inferior standard materials (built-in obsolescence?)
Thus, Western nations have got themselves into the unenviable position of being almost totally dependent on China for everything from plumbing supplies to footwear, everything from kitchen appliances to garden tools, everything from furniture to motor mowers. And, of course, vehicles, whereby even those with European marques are actually manufactured and assembled in China, and obviously Chinese brands become increasingly popular in NZ because China can make cars cheaper than anyone else (except perhaps India)..
Sure, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam etc. play subsidiary roles in keeping the flow of largely unnecessary consumer goods to NZ, and India and Bangladesh provide us with a portion of the cheap cotton goods available in the Western world, including what may be regarded as essentials like towels and clothing.
Take away Chinese-made products and see the shelves of companies like The Warehouse, Mitre 10, and Bunnings more than decimated (one in ten gone gone); see such companies lose 70, 80, 90% of their supplies, and look forward to not being able to replace a tap washer or a watering can. Look forward to not being able to buy a Western-brand-name electric drill to replace the one that has burned out. Look forward to the communications sector grinding to a halt as China-made computers, phones, modems televisions, radios etc. and all the bits that make them work become unavailable.
Expect the war of words from impotent idiots like Trump -a torrent of nonsense founded on ignorance and fantasy- to continue until the entire globalized system unravels anyway, due to continuing resource depletion and continually accumulating pollution, or due to meltdown of the international banksters Ponzi scheme.
Expect all sorts of trouble within China, as the tens of millions of workers [previously employed making goods for the world] are laid off as global demand plummets.
And expect the ‘financial wizards’ to continue to apply ‘fixes’ that make matters worse. It’s what they do.
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