New Zealand seems to be doing its best to sour its healthy relationship with China by exporting tainted milk products to its biggest dairy product market. Hardly a smart move after the island nation just signed a free trade agreement with Taiwan in July; it’s not like food safety and diplomatic relations are sensitive topics within the Zhongnanhai compound.
Beijing immediately stopped all dairy imports from New Zealand, forcing the country’s milkmaids to put on a song and dance about their remorse to Chinese leaders. Officials must have been impressed by the charm of these buxom lasses as the CEO of Fonterra announced a few days later that the curbs could be lifted soon. But this may be too late. What with milk product consumption surging on a potential increase in the number of spoiled brats birthed in the country, the Chinese government has realized the potential of turning China into a global leader in dairy – its latest strategic emerging industry – and is seizing the moment.
Sources said the recent suspension of a landmark free trade zone in Shanghai under the pretext of a “legal review” is actually a ploy to reassign the land to build a massive dairy farm on the outskirts of the financial juggernaut. In exchange for continued participation in the domestic dairy market, foreign firms will need to agree to a bovine technology transfer. (This shouldn’t be a problem for the Oceanic nation: it has a human to cow population ratio of about 1:1.4.)
The plans don’t stop there. Shanghai is also the nation’s largest port and officials are eyeing future dairy exports, using China’s newly acquired ports in Sri Lanka and Pakistan as stopping points for shipments to Europe. This flourishing global dairy trade could trigger a resurgence in piracy in Asia, as evidenced by recent naval fleet additions in Japan and the Philippines, said an international relations professor, who declined to be named because of the absurdity of his claim.