New Zealand China Council Podcast

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Apr 2026

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About the show

The New Zealand China Council is a NZ led and funded organisation which acts as a cross-sector, peak body for the New Zealand China relationship. The NZ China Council Podcast provides insight on the relationship, featuring perspectives from across the business, academic and political communities.

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36 recent

April 9, 202649 min

Learning to make a difference: The New Zealand-China education relationship and its impacts

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.

October 2, 202532 min

The Schwarzman Scholars Programme through NZ eyes

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.

July 15, 202551 min

Tastes of Two Worlds – China’s Food Sector from a kiwi entrepreneur’s perspective

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.

March 20, 202540 min

China’s ‘Two Sessions’ 2025 Signals to Watch

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.

March 6, 202550 min

Te hono a te ao Māori ki a Haina: Māori approaches to engagement with China past, present, future

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.

September 18, 202453 min

Bridging Cultures: Navigating the study of Chinese languages and Te Reo Māori

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).

August 15, 202444 min

The big China issues of 2024: An Australian perspective

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.

July 9, 202445 min

Sourcing from the world’s factory: Our import relationship with China

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.

March 19, 202433 min

Dissecting China’s ‘Two Sessions’ in 2024

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.

January 23, 20241 hr 3 min

Tasting The Future

‘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.