You’d think National would be a bit more circumspect with their sucking up to Chinese donors. One of those charged by the SFO was featured over a year in a Newsroom article:
On Tuesday, National Party president Peter Goodfellow said Zheng was a member of the candidate college and would be considered as a candidate for the 2020 election. Goodfellow said he knew Zheng, and had personally encouraged him to sign up for the programme.
I wonder whether or not it is still the case that Colin Zheng is being considered as a candidate for this election. Someone should ask Mr Goodfellow, the answer would be amusing.
Meanwhile, the sucking up to the Chinese continues unabated. The photos below were taken at the National Party organised Chinese New Year event at East Auckland BMW:
These are not chance encounters, it was a National Party event with invites sent to those in attendance, including those connected to Chao Shan. How appropriate then that it was celebrating the Year of the Rat.
Chris Luxon is into the Chinese in a big way. He will be wanting to carry on the tradition of Botany electorate providing more than a third of National’s donations in any given year. The only problem with that is most of it comes from Chinese connections and more often than not promoters of Chinese Communist Party policy and initiatives.
Luxon seems really pally with the PRC consulate official:
Next up is John Hong. He stood at last year’s local body elections for Mayor of Auckland.
Newsroom has dug into his background too:
Hong migrated to New Zealand from Fujian province in 2003. He is well-connected in Auckland’s Chinese community, chairing the New Zealand promotion committee for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the global economic and diplomatic play by which China invests in ports, roads, tourism and other infrastructure.
He is seen as a personable and “professional gentleman” and if his political ambitions do run past the Bombay Hills and Wellsford, Hong has associates with the wherewithal to help him succeed.
One of his other current roles, listed under the Chinese name Hong Cheng Chen, is as a government relations adviser for the Chao San General Association of New Zealand.
This 1000-member organisation was founded and chaired by Zhang Yikun. Zhang was thrust into national prominence last year when identified by former National MP Jami-Lee Ross as having provided a $100,000 donation to that party, which Ross said was subsequently divided into smaller amounts within National to avoid campaign finance declarations.
Zhang, a successful Auckland businessman who came to New Zealand in 2000, is seen as a leading force in the work of the United Front, the Chinese Communist Party’s movement for overseas promotion and involvement with expatriate Chinese communities.
RNZ reported he owns multiple companies involved in land development, construction and real estate, and is well-known in New Zealand Chinese and government circles.
The United Front is said to work with talented individuals to succeed in the open political systems of Western countries.
Hong’s role in Chao San is not mentioned on his mayoral campaign site, where he lists membership of the executive of the NZ-China Trade Association.
Newsroom
And all those people link back to Simon Bridges:
National won’t admit it, but they have a Chinese problem. For all intents and purposes they have direct personal and financial links to the top Chinese Communist Party proxies in New Zealand. National has by far the lion’s share of Chinese money and we know that that money is being used to ensure key people become elected as National party MPs. They already have one “talented individual” as an MP, Jiang Yang, and Colin Zheng was supposed to be the other one.
National is awash with Chinese cash and it looks like they’ve sold out the party and its members to assist in pushing a Chinese government agenda. Once members realise just how badly the hierarchy from Peter Goodfellow down has sold out the party then there will be blood in the water.
National may continue to deny that they know anything, but the evidence is mounting that, sadly, a purportedly conservative party is actually a pimp for Chinese policy.
It looks like they’ve caught the Chinese Donorvirus.