The Chinese Envoy was here

Last time we slagged off the Crafar farming family it received a good reaction, so let's see what happens with an update!

Readers will recall that the farms were up for sale, owing to the Crafars' inability to run a dairying operation without maltreating animals and polluting public waterways, and to the resulting cascade of court actions and bankruptcies. Now a couple of Government Minnysters have decided to accept advice from the Overseas Investment Office and turn down the favoured bid from a Chinese consortium* to buy the farms.

On the one hand, it did not help the bidders' cause when the local business-woman they chose as their agent to guide the deal through the corrupt and tenebreous labyrinth of the NZ legal system turned out to be an undischarged bankrupt herself. Eyebrows were further raised when it emerged that another of her companies had already bought four other Crafar farms without proper sign-off (intending to apply for retrospective approval and present the court with a fait accompli); the Serious Fraud Office is looking into that deal. Not to mention this can't-make-it-up business:

Ms Wang will reappear in the Auckland District Court on September 9 to face Companies Act charges brought by the Economic Development Ministry relating to Dynasty. She denies charges of failing to keep proper records, failing to provide information to the liquidator and leaving the country without telling the liquidator. [...]
Ms Wang did not appear in court. Her lawyer, Paul Sills, told the court that he would take a minimum of three weeks to prepare as his client was frequently out of the country.

Good Character Test: FAIL.

On the other hand, one of the money people actually funding the whole bid is a certain Jack Chen, currently resident in NZ rather than in China where his business activities were excessively murky even by their standards. And Mr Chen is a close business business partner of various National Party stalwarts, e.g. ex-Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, going as far as providing her with a place of residence. So there was going to be butthurt whether the Ministers accepted the bid or rejected it.

It is almost as if NZ and China are both divided into the massively wealthy and everyone else; and while the poor in both sides are expected to invest their loyalty in their separate countries, and to distrust and fear the poor from any other country, the elite recognise only wealth and status.

* The China Jin Hui Mining Corporation, changing its name to Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings.