Loading the MV East Ambition, Port of Wellington

This photo shows a small part of a huge stack of pine logs being loaded onto the MV East Ambition, a Hong Kong flagged vessel. This is timber destined to feed China's insatiable construction industry.

You have to understand something of China's history to understand the irony here. In 1910, China was a weak and backward country, its coastal land fought over and divided up by predatory European powers and Japan. Fast forward one hundred years, and today China is an economic and political power in Asia and the Pacific, with regional economies and societies like New Zealand and Australia re-orientating towards it.

Once we were part of the glorious British empire, on which the sun never set, where we looked down on 'the yellow man', and were hellbent on exploiting China's raw materials. Now we kowtow towards the Middle Kingdom. Never mind the 'knowledge economy' - we just sell China our logs and minerals. How times change.