Roughly 20,000 trademark applications land in China every day, and one of them could be uncomfortably close to yours. Part Two of this series is about what to do before that happens. Register your English and Chinese marks early, keep ownership in your own name rather than your distributor's, and draft contracts with enforcement on the ground in China in mind. If someone has already taken your mark, the first move is evidence, not angry WeChat messages.

Does your China plan start with the registration or the flight?

Zespri and Rockit have both won judgments in Chinese courts in recent years, and Chinese prosecutors brought more than 9,000 criminal IP cases in 2025 alone. The old line that you can't enforce IP in China no longer fits the evidence.

Still assuming your IP is unprotectable in China? In this two-part article, we discuss China and its changing IP landscape. Part One traces how the system moved from trademark squatting to punitive damages, and why China now needs enforcement for its own EV, battery and robotics industries.

New Zealand's food and beverage trade with China tends to be measured in billions. Dairy alone exceeded NZ$10 billion in FY2026, with meat and horticulture adding billions more.  Then there are beverages.  At around NZ$130 million, beverages remain a relatively small part of New Zealand's China export basket. But the latest numbers contain a surprisingly interesting story.

In the year to 30 June 2026, beverage exports to China grew 17%, making China New Zealand's fifth-largest beverage export destination and accounting for around 5% of our global beverage exports. Scratch beneath that headline and four very different stories emerge. Wine is accelerating after years of relatively modest growth. Water may finally be demonstrating the value of investment made a decade ago. Juice is small but growing rapidly, with an excellent New Zealand success story behind it. And beer? Well, beer is keeping everyone humble.

For much of the New Zealand–China trade relationship, the familiar story has been New Zealand sending food, fibre and other high-quality products north, while importing manufactured goods and increasingly sophisticated technology south.

Clean energy is already part of that relationship. New Zealand sources solar equipment and other renewable-energy technology from China, reflecting China's position at the centre of global clean-tech manufacturing. 

Plug-in solar could be a logical next step: taking technology already proven internationally and adapting it to provide a simpler entry point into household solar for New Zealand consumers.  On 17 August, the Government confirmed it will progress the recommendations of its Solar Regulatory Review, including legalising plug-in solar. The final technical and safety settings remain to be worked through, but the policy direction is now clear.  That potentially makes plug-in solar an opportunity worth watching for 2027 and beyond.