Q and A: Economist Rodney Jones interviewed by Corin Dann

No need to panic over China - Economist Rodney Jones.

Rodney Jones of Wigram Capital Advisors says, “we need to stop this panic about the Prime Minister not visiting Beijing. If you look at the People’s Daily there is very few photos these days of Xi Jinping meeting foreign leaders. They’ve got big domestic issues to deal with, he doesn’t spend the time with small countries that he used to.”

Rodney Jones told Corin Dann on TVNZ 1’s Q+A programme that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should wait when it comes to a China visit.

“I wouldn’t judge her on that but I would wait. Let’s get our ducks in a line and work out exactly what the narrative is and what our issues are with China, what’s the strengths of the relationship, what are things we have issues with and take it forward. There’s not a rush.”

He does say though that we need to get back to basics on foreign policy, “we’ve been a bit loose and goosey. We just need to get back to basics.”

He says the economic relationship is strong and really dynamic, but China has slowed that is why we are seeing fewer school students, it’s harder to get foreign exchange out of China and tourism has had a surge but goes in stops and starts. But he says the political relationship may need some work.

“If you look at who had the fastest growth in exports to China last year, it was Canada, Malaysia, Australia all of whom have had political problems with China in the last twelve months. We are seeing very clearly a separation of economics and politics.

Rodney Jones lived in Beijing until the end of last year and still has an office in Hong Kong, he says China has changed under Xi, “China’s changed a lot and there’s a reset too globally on how do we deal with a rising China, and a more authoritarian China.”

Please find the transcript attached and you can watch the interview here.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1902/Q__A_2019__Ep_1__Rodney_Jones.docx

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