Strange signals from China

Here’s an interesting question: What does China know, or think it knows, that the rest of us do not? In the past couple of months, our Big Red Neighbor has made some moves that are . . . interesting, to say the least. Should the 80 percent of the world that is not Chinese be concerned? Read on and judge for yourself.

Signal #1—The Milk Rush: At the end of October of last year, a fairly innocuous item in The New Zealand Herald reported that Fernbaby, an infant formula manufacturer founded by Chinese businessman Tianxi Shao in the wake of the 2008 milk-tainting scandal, will be a sponsor of the Vodafone Warriors rugby team beginning in 2014. Fernbaby is funding its sponsorship through the planned export of 80,000 to 100,000 cans of infant formula a month to China, where the product will sell for the equivalent of 78 NZD—about three times its retail price in New Zealand. Fernbaby is a relative newcomer to the New Zealand-to-China milk trade; Auckland’s Biopure Health began exporting infant formula in June, and has since been joined by dairy processor Synlait.