Advertise on podcast: New Zealand China Council Podcast

This podcast with business leader Wu Zhen (Magna International), in collaboration with the Asia New Zealand Foundation, is for anyone interested in sustainability trends in the China market in 2026: from marketing EVs in China to wider consumer tastes and trends, tips for NZ exporters, and renewable energy evolution, it’s a chance to hear from a leader at the heart of China’s remarkable ongoing transformation. Thank you to ANZF’s Ethan Jones for facilitating.

It can be hard making sense of a spectrum of economic indicators in China these days: is the economy firing or spluttering, and what’s the mood amongst New Zealand companies in the thick of things? Each year the NZ Business Roundtable in China (NZBRiC) conducts a survey of kiwi business mood, performance and outlook in China. In this podcast NZBRiC executive director Nick Caldwell walks us through the latest survey data, and the recommendations that have flowed from the results. Nothing beats boots-on-the-ground insights!

China has made a firm decision to prioritise the development and implementation of AI, as a core tech pillar for its next stage of socio-economic development. But we hear very little about China’s advancements, achievements and challenges. In June 2026 our Council joined with AI Forum New Zealand and Tech New Zealand for a one-week, deep-dive visit to four cities in China, to look at AI and robotics under development and in daily use. In this podcast, delegation members Blake Harkness, Ernestynne Walsh and Michael Murphy share their visit impressions, reflections and surprises with our executive director Alistair Crozier.

Currently over 33% of New Zealand’s international students are from China, totaling almost 30,000 students in 2024. The lifelong connections these links create have helped to fuel the bilateral relationship in many other ways. But it’s also a challenging sector: Evolving Chinese student preferences and choices, an increased focus on complex in-China education delivery, risk vs opportunity calculations for research collaboration, and a huge imbalance in the number of kiwi students heading to China (and support New Zealand offers to them) are amongst many sectoral issues worth deeper reflection. In March 2026 our Council released a comprehensive research report on NZ-China education relationship, titled Learning to Make a Difference. This podcast is a recording of the online event to launch the report, featuring author Rebecca Needham and a panel of senior international education experts. The report itself, with two smaller companion reports, is also available on our website under the ‘Initiatives’ -> ‘Publications’ tab.

The Schwarzman Scholars Programme offers an unparalleled chance to study global affairs for a year at Tsinghua University in Beijing, taught by and studying alongside some of the world’s best and brightest. Yet few New Zealanders have participated. Jamie Wood is one who has. In this podcast Jamie talks about her experiences, and the windows into China and the world opened through the programme; as well as her next career move, with an AI and robotics-focused Chinese investment fund.

What does it take to build a food brand in one of the world’s fastest-changing markets? What food trends are shaping Chinese consumer choices in 2025? How are consumers responding to sustainability when it comes to food? And do Kiwi exporters need to keep up with “China speed”? In this episode, Kiwi entrepreneur Christiana Zhu 朱佳慧 talks to the Council’s Summer Xia about her journey as Founder-CEO of Marvelous Foods—the company behind Yeyo, China’s first dairy-free coconut yogurt—along with insights from her other diverse experiences in and with China. Whether you’re curious about the China market, passionate about sustainability, or love a good founder story, this episode is packed with insights worth exploring.

Are China’s annual ‘Two Sessions’ (known in Chinese as ‘lianghui’) in early March the world’s largest political meetings you didn’t hear about? We’re back again for a discussion of these critical political meetings in 2025, hosting our returning contributor Associate Professor Jason Young, Director of the Contemporary China Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington, talking with our Council’s Executive Director Alistair Crozier (For those new to the 'lianghui’ you can also check out our previous video explainer on our 'INSIGHT' page for a quick introduction.) As Beijing outlines its priorities for socio-economic growth, innovation, green development, foreign policy and much more, these meetings hold important clues for New Zealand's relationship with our largest trading partner.

In February 2025, we launched our latest research report: Te hono a te ao Māori ki a Haina: Māori approaches to engagement with China past, present, future. Hear from the report authors and other rangatira involved in the relationship, to understand this unique partnership and the future opportunities and prosperity it offers.

This September in Aotearoa New Zealand, we celebrate two special weeks: Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (14–21 Sept), marking the 52nd anniversary of the Māori Language Petition on Saturday 14th, and New Zealand Chinese Language Week (22–28 Sept). Both initiatives promote language learning in New Zealand by raising awareness, sharing cultural stories, and connecting communities. Languages bridge cultures, fostering understanding and appreciation. With this inspiration in mind, our latest podcast features @EThan Jones, @Laura Oh, and @Luke Qin, who join our Council’s Assistant Director @Summer Xia to discuss their journeys of learning Te Reo Māori and Chinese languages, exploring linguistic and cultural connections and sharing some fun stories along the way (some were very surprising).

Like New Zealand, Australia is also tracking China’s economy closely, as well as grappling with increasingly complex regional geopolitics. It’s always helpful for us to swap notes, especially with an acknowledged Australia-China expert. Professor James Laurenceson is Director of the Australia China Research Institute (ACRI), Australia’s first and only research centre focused exclusively on the bilateral relationship. In this podcast he and New Zealand China Council Executive Director Alistair Crozier explore a range of current China-related issues that are important on both sides of the Tasman, given their implications for our prosperity and security.

China is New Zealand’s largest source of imports, whether ready for consumption under NZ or increasingly well-known Chinese brands, or providing materials and components for our domestic manufacturing outputs. Does this leave us exposed - are there particular products from China we can’t do without, and what would happen if supply was interrupted? Should New Zealand be looking at diversification strategies? And what are the exciting new opportunities that Chinese imports offer to our economy? In June 2024, we commissioned Sense Partners to research the scale and profile of New Zealand’s imports from China. This podcast is a recording of the report launch webinar on 26 June. Tune in to listen to the report author’s summary of key findings and an industry experts’ discussion, co-hosted with the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence.

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