The National Party has received $200,000 from a wealthy Chinese New Zealand couple linked to the businessman behind the foreign bid for the Crafar dairy-farm empire.
The sum is one of a number of large donations to the party's campaign war chest, which has swelled by $355,000 in recent weeks.
Auckland woman Susan Chou donated $150,000 last month on top of $50,000 the month before.
Her husband, Zhaowu Shen, was until recently listed as an adviser to the Chinese Business Roundtable, founded by Jack Chen - the self-described "driving force" behind Natural Dairy NZ, the Hong Kong listed company seeking to buy the Crafar farms.
The Herald understands Ms Chou and her husband - who has business interests in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Vietnam - have also been long-time supporters of National Cabinet minister Pansy Wong.
Mr Shen and Ms Chou have a history of generous philanthropy.
In 2008, they gave $200,000 to fund relief efforts following the Sichuan earthquake and the same year, Mr Shen's company Contue Jinwan Enterprise Group was a major sponsor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's trip to perform at the Beijing Olympics.
No doubt this will fuel the cries from the left and from the crypt that New Zealand's policy is for sale, and that Beijing is the higest bidder. That, of course, is bollocks, but we'll wager that someone at The Standard will rail against it, as will Winston Peters.
The latter in particular would be delighted to receive a donation of that magnitude; he'd be able to pay his debt to the New Zealand taxpayer!
1 comments:
Mallard will be warming up now as he eats his porridge.
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