Posts by Dennis Frank
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Bernard Hickey advises the PM to take the initiative: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@politics/2018/10/17/280568/follow-the-money-and-the-influence
"We need to take a hard look at who is donating money to our politicians and why. And we need to stop pussy-footing around the elephant in the room that is China's influence on New Zealand politics. We need inquiries into both the transparency of our Electoral Finance Act and the activities of the Chinese Government in New Zealand public life. Our Australian partners and colleagues were not afraid to do both. We should follow suit."
"Stuff reported last year that 83 per cent ($8.7m over six years) of the money donated to National was from anonymous donors, and 80 per cent ($2.8m) of that donated to Labour was done anonymously."
"Jian Yang's continued presence in Parliament without any critical public comment by all of the political establishment is still stunning."
"Newsroom reported in a joint investigation with the FT in September last year on his training in Chinese military intelligence for more than a decade and his still very close links to the Chinese Government. At one point he was the Chair of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Select Committee and a close adviser to then-Prime Minister John Key during negotiations with President Xi Jingping. WInston Peters called for an inquiry into Yang's background before the election, but he has been much more circumspect to the point of silence since then. However he admitted to NPR earlier this month that the MP's continued presence in Parliament was concerning New Zealand's allies."
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Further to that, there's this: "An academic who specialises in studying China's political influence in New Zealand says politicians need to upskill to prevent foreign government interference." https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/369008/academic-warns-against-interference-after-national-revelations
""The real threat that I'm paying attention to in this story is the failure of our political parties to prevent foreign government interference into our democratic political processes. The matters we need to look into is the connection of some of these donors, not all of them... to the Chinese party state. The Chinese Communist Party is an elite party and they have a tactic, which was set by Lenin... and it's called the United Front. It's a way to influence non-party members and in the case of foreign policy, foreigners."
And this: "On Tuesday evening, University of Canterbury professor and well-known China expert, Anne-Marie Brady said Zhang was a leader in the Chinese Government’s United Front work activities. The United Front is the Chinese Government’s department that helps keep unity and promote the party’s values in China and among the Chinese diaspora. Brady has written extensively about Chinese influence in New Zealand in her paper Magic Weapons, which was published last year, and has since been cited by China experts around the world."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/16/279660/zhang-yikun-and-the-alleged-100k-donationFortunately, communist infiltration of NZ is okay if the agent used fronts as a capitalist. The old `wolf in sheep's clothing' strategy. You can see our governor-general awarding the agent this country's second-highest honour - photo in the newsroom report. That honour was created "to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity."
Zhang was apparently recommended for the honour by our recent National government, and this was mandated by the current coalition government. So it's official, folks. We have a multi-party consensus support for chinese communist infiltration of Aotearoa, provided that the agents used operate as capitalists. This capitalist/socialist collusion ought to warm the hearts of kiwis everywhere. No longer any need for the fake competition between the left & right!
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to mark taslov,
Thanks for that, Mark. An excellent perspective on the situation! "Tze Ming Mok is a writer and social researcher specialising in race and ethnicity, whose parents are from Singapore and Malaysia." I'll include a key section here:
"This chilling effect is harming Chinese people in New Zealand. Many people cannot differentiate Chinese people from the actions of the CCP (I mean hey, many people can't tell a Chinese from a Korean), but this is made worse when hardly any authorities on the topic will address the issue openly. Concerns can only erupt as xenophobia against the Chinese and "Asian" population."
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It's the old Jekyll & Hyde thing. Can't use either/or logic because both are part of him. Physicists use wavicle as a conceptual reframe of the particle/wave dichotomy, as a result of experiments showing both aspects of electrons are real and you can prove both (depending which experimental design you use).
That was a century ago, almost, and a slow leakage of both/and logic into culture since informs us that holism works better than reductionism as a general rule. Studying computing in '69, I got taught how to use both/and logic in electronic circuit design. Binary thinking is such a mental trap. We must encourage folks to transcend it.
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A comprehensive political analysis of the Bridges/Ross taped conversation with implications re the Chinese communist infiltration strategy has just been posted here: https://thestandard.org.nz/no-smoking-gun-but-plenty-of-sunlight-from-bridges-tape/
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Conspiracy requires a group. JLR has been collaborating with Lusk - didn't he say so the other day? But no suggestion of any other Nat player working with them yet. Bridges has been pushing the lone wolf scenario, as if to suggest that Lusk is irrelevant. Brave, stupid, or delusional?
Caucus unanimity proves factions, if they exist, are currently covert. United in seeing JLR as expendable. So his confidence derives from something else.
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Excellent report, thanks Russell. I'm waiting to see who will be driving the design of the referendum, how the parties in parliament will collaborate on that design (or not), how public input will be called for, etc.
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Hard to imagine a world that had no drugs, eh? No alcohol industry, no pharmaceutical industry. I doubt the UN or Trump were seriously committing themselves to any such goal. Just pretending to do so. But did floating the delusion even achieve anything?? Obviously not, so why the waste of effort?
Use of drugs for self-healing or achieving altered states of consciousness has been part of the human condition throughout evolutionary history. Some other species do it too. Public policy ought to be based on human nature, which derives from nature. Any other kind of public policy has a warping effect and produces sociopathic governance.
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A fascinating Jim Mora interview here with Amanda Jones PhD, MSc, the kiwi ex-pat entrepreneur at the leading edge of the medicinal cannabis industry in California: https://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018661684
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Graeme, one of the contributors to the Standard has compiled a comprehensive report on how the Bill has been processed through the select committee: https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-22-08-2018/#comment-1516730
I hope you will examine it and comment here on any points you consider relevant. I commented onsite there from the perspective of someone surprised that MMP could deliver such an inappropriate process!