The Country 13/05/26: Hunter McGregor talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Shanghai-based correspondent discusses Trump's visit, China's domestic economy and the Football World Cup. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He is our guy in Shanghai, a Kiwi selling a
red meat and venison to the Chinese. His name is
Hunter McGregor. Hunter. You have Donald Trump arriving in China,
as he would put it, a later today your time.
Are you excited? Is the nation excited?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. I look, with any presidential visit
from the US, it's a big deal and it'll be
interesting to see how things play out. He's here for
a full day tomorrow was the fourteenth, and then he
will be leaving on the fifteenth in the afternoon or evening.
So short visit. But you know, it's important to have

(00:40):
a dialogue and it's good to see that both countries
are talking to each other.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
It'll be interesting to see what the optics are around
his meeting with President She because I put it to you,
President She is perhaps positioning himself to become the leader
of the world, not the free world, the world. He's
just sitting back at the moment while Trump gets bogged
down in the Middle East.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, no, you did right about that. And the one
thing about China is they are being quite consistent and
playing the long game. So let's see how things play out.
Because you know, Trump, you know, usually makes decisions on
a dime and changes his mind and things like that.
So who knows what's going to happen in the next

(01:26):
couple of days. Your guess is as good as mine.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Every time we chat Hunter McGregor, I ask you how
the Chinese economy is going. The government is making moves
to improve consumer demand. Are they working well?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
You know, it's interesting that the thing about here in
China is that the economy is going, is sticking along going. Okay,
it could be a lot better, but there's always some challenges.
And consumer demand is you know, people just don't spend money,
but don't pick up things on credit cards like that.

(02:00):
So one of the things that the government's doing is
trying to put some subsidies in and try to create
demand and houseware and whiteware and things like that. So,
you know, I haven't really thought too much about it
in the past, but the other day my hot water
jug decided to pack sad after about ten years of service.
So we jumped online to gin Dong dot com, which

(02:24):
is a massive platform up here, and brought a new jug,
and you know, it was pretty impressive. It should was
listed for about fifty dollars in New Zealand, got at
dis camp about twenty nine dollars in New Zealand. The
whole interesting thing is that we ordered it and within
an hour it was delivered, so with no delivery fees

(02:46):
and stuff like that. So you know, I don't know
if it was the subsidies or just competition in the market,
but it was pretty cheap and you know, it was
quite easy to replace a jug up here. So hopefully
it does another good ten years of service.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Jing Doong, I hope I got that right. Dot Com
the equivalent Chinese equivalent of Amazon.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Oh yes, yeah, yeah, so it has got their own
distribution network. Yeah, they're massive, and you know that last
year they turned over nearly three hundred to three hundred
and fifteen billion New Zealand dollars. So yeah, no, it
is like Amazon. They got their own drivers everywhere, their
own distribution So yeah, it's a big platform. It's one

(03:29):
of the many up here, and they deliver things pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, about the same size as the New Zealand economy.
Let's just finish on the soccer World Cup. I noticed
that China hasn't got a team in there. The viewing
times with it being in the USA, Canada and Mexico
aren't very good either for the Chinese. And as it
stands at the moment, the Chinese have ignored FIFA's offer
of about a quarter of a billion dollars for TV. Right,

(03:56):
so will the Chinese, you included, be able to watch
the world's biggest sporting event behind the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, as you said, the viewing times or you know,
most games kick off about two am in the morning
to about ten am, so it's going to I'm not
really a big soccer fan now, more of a Highland
is a long suffering Highlands and supporter. But at the
moment there is no deal for free to or for
any TV deal for the rights yet negotiating negotiating one

(04:27):
at the moment. So but yeah, FIFA just want too
much for the rights. The timing's not doesn't work that well.
But there is a lot of soccer fans in China,
so there'll be a lot of demand for people to
watch it. But you know, usually what happens is they
watch it online and social media and clips and things
like that. So to see what happens in the next
few days, because it's June eleventh things kick off, so

(04:49):
it's not too far away. So yeah, watch this space,
I suppose.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Hey, Hunter McGregor out of Shanghai. Thanks for your time
and enjoyed Trump's visit.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Cheers, Thanks, Jeremy