Part Nine: NZ Businesses with United Front Links

• Part One: Magic Weapons
• Part Two: Leninist tactic
• Part Three: Soft Power
• Part Four: Making NZ Serve China
• Part Five: Why NZ is of interest to China
• Part Six: China’s relationship with the National Party
• Part Seven: China’s Influence on NZ Politics
• Part Eight: National & Labour Party links to China

Gao Wei has been a major donor to the National Party in recent years, via his company Alpha Group Holdings. Alpha Group Holdings donated $112,000 to National in 2017; and $50,000 in 2014. Gao has very close links with senior New Zealand and senior Chinese political figures. Gao Wei is chair of the Fujian Overseas Chinese Business Association, Deputy-head of the New Zealand-China Association for the Promotion of Economy and Science, Deputy president of the Standing Committee of the New Zealand Fujian Chamber of Commerce, Deputy president of the New Zealand Fujian Association, Executive president of the Third World Assembly of Youth, Chairman of the Jilin Province Overseas Chinese Businessmen Association, Chair of the Guilin Overseas Chinese Business Association, and a member of the China Returned Overseas Chinese Association, all of which are united front-related organizations.

The chairman of the board of directors of Alpha Group Holdings, Dr Gao Yihuai, is also a senior leader in China’s overseas Chinese activities. The General Manager of Alpha Group Holdings, Maggie Chen who was for many years the chief editor of the New Zeland Chinese Herald is the Deputy-President of the Song Qingling Foundation of New Zealand, which retains close links to the CCP in New Zealand as well as China. The foundation is a CCP united front organization that among other activities, arranges camps for Overseas Chinese youth, to ensure they
maintain close links with China and Chinese culture. Through the Chinese Herald Ms Chen organized many charity campaigns for causes in New Zealand and China, which is both worthy, and brings overseas Chinese communities together as desired by the United Front Work Department.

In 2011 Shi Deyi (also known as Stone Shi) donated $56,500 (via Oravida NZ) to National and secured a game of golf with John Key in return. The photo of the match is still used in Oravida publicity. Shi donated a further $30,000 via Oravida in 2013,177 in 2016 he gave $50,000, and then a further $50,000 in 2017.

Shi, is CEO of Shanghai Jiacheng Investment Management, but in New Zealand he is most well known as the director of the milk products company Oravida. Shi also bought Ardmore airport, Auckland’s second airport, in 2016. In 2005 Shi was involved in a fraud case in China; his business partner got life in prison, while he was sentenced to pay debts and compensation. Stone Shi is now a rotating chair of a Red Capitalists organization, the Shanghai Entrepreneurs Association. This is a grouping of 2000 of the most powerful companies in China, and is under the supervision of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce as well as the United Front Work Department. The Shanghai Entrepreneurs Association is a channel for public-private partnerships in China. It currently has a MOU with the New Zealand China Trade Association.

Shi bought Oravida in 2010 under its former name Kiwi Dairy, from Terry Lee; a businessman associated with Shanghai Pengxin. Former New Zealand National PM Jenny Shipley is a director of Oravida, as, for almost five years until 2017, was David Wong-Tung, the husband of National MP Judith Collins. Collins’ relationship with Oravida attracted media scrutiny when she attended a private dinner with a Chinese customs official and Shi when Oravida were having difficulty exporting their products to China. The National government later gave Oravida $6000 to help it to overcome border issues.

In 2013 Ms Fan Xiaomiao donated $62,132.18 to the National Party, and in 2011 she and her husband Zhang Yaxun donated $43,526.41.190 Zhang and his wife own Henan Province Zhou Fan Investment Company and have seven companies in New Zealand, mostly involved in agriculture. Zhang Yaxun is the chair of the Henan Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand and is a member of the Henan Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. The Henan Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand is a united front organization.

GMP Dairy Ltd, run by Karl Ye, also known as Ye Qing, donated NZ$25,338 to the New Zealand National Party in 2015. GMP Dairy Ltd is 51 percent owned by Sunlight Property Development (purchased from Evergrande in 2016) and 49 percent owned by Ye via his company GMP Pharmaceuticals. The directors of GMP Pharmaceutical are Ye and another family member, and, since April 2017 Conor English, brother of New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English. Ye also owns GMP Nutrition Ltd, and his company Australian Infinity Pacific Holdings owns several other food and nutrition-related companies in New Zealand.

Karl Ye is founder of the Australia-New Zealand China Health Industry Forum, a group that links PRC State sector organizations and the health sector in New Zealand and Australia and he was involved with united front groups such as the Chinese Student and Scholars Association in Australia where he initially migrated to in the early 1990s, and which he still uses as his home address in company listings.

In 2012, GMP Dairy subsidiary Cowala used a photo of PM John Key posing with its products in advertising in China; Key had opened GMP Dairy’s Auckland factory
that year. Senior National MPs Steven Joyce and Bill English have attended product launches for GMP, as has National Party President Peter Goodfellow. GMP paid for two National MPs, Jamie-Lee Ross and Stuart Smith to visit China in 2016.

In 2017 Lang Lin, owner of Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry (NZ) Ltd donated $150,000 to National. Lang’s company is backed by the Chinese government investment firm CITIC (China International Trust and Investment Company), who are sponsoring his bid to expand China’s racing industry through importing New Zealand racehorses. CITIC was set up under United Front Work Department auspices.

During his successful campaign for the Auckland mayoralty, in 2016, former Labour leader and MP, Phil Goff received $366,115 from a charity auction and dinner for the Chinese community. The event was organized by Labour MP Raymond Huo. Tables sold for $1680 each. Because it was a charity auction Goff was not required to state who had given him donations, but one item hit the headlines. A signed copy of the Selected Works of Xi Jinping was sold to a bidder from China for $150,000. A participant at the fundraiser said the reason why so many people attended and had bid strongly for items was because they believed Goff would be the next mayor.

In individual donations, Goff’s largest donor, giving $50,000, was Fuwah New Zealand Ltd, a Chinese-owned company building a 5-star hotel on Auckland’s waterfront and working closely with the New Zealand One Belt One Road Promotion Council.

Making the foreign serve China

The CCP has long had a policy of developing party-to-party links, but this has expanded even more intensely under the Xi administration which is determined to improve China’s international image and legitimacy and a New Zealand government that appears to have interpreted getting the “political relationship right” with China very literally. The New Zealand Prime Minister (from 2008-2016 John Key, then from 2016- Bill English), National Party President Peter Goodfellow, and Yang Jian are the key point figures on this strategy, and their names feature heavily in Chinese media reports on New Zealand-China relations. Interestingly, Goodfellow and Yang (until the recent controversy) seldom feature in English language reports on New Zealand China relations, whereas the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Defence Minister are prominently featured discussing New Zealand-China relations.

To read the submission in full you can download it below.