No-one can doubt the importance of China to New Zealand. Last year, China passed Australia as this country's number one trading partner and, since the Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2008, exports to China have nearly trebled.
China is our largest source of overseas students and our second largest and fastest growing tourist market. It is a world superpower and, in many ways, the growth and growing influence of the country has been the international story of the past 30 years.
China has 330 times the population of New Zealand and many big private and state companies with money to invest. It also has many trillions of dollars in private wealth.
The managers of much of this will be looking for safe destinations outside China and the United States as China loosens its strict rules to allow more of its nationals to invest overseas.
New Zealand might, from a Chinese point of view, be tiny. But it does have a reasonably sized resident Chinese population and by world standards is open, ruled by consistent laws and is a producer of protein.
It is quite something when the president of China visits this country, as Xi Jinping has this week. His visit coincided with the chance yesterday to sign a memorandum of understanding between the heads of New Zealand and China's local government organisations.
It is hoped this will help encourage more trade, Chinese students and investment right across the country. There was also a film agreement signed this week which may prove a very big deal indeed.
As it happens, one of China's many billionaires visited Queenstown this week. Jiang Zhaobai is chairman of the Shanghai Pengxin Group, which bought the Crafar dairy farms and Lochinver Station.
The company is also the majority owner of dairy farm-owning company Synlait Farms and has bought the Hilton Queenstown. Another of Mr Jiang's companies is behind a $550 million redevelopment plan for Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
However, even with Shanghai Pengxin's purchases, Chinese investment in this country is still well behind that from Britain, the United States, Australia, Japan and Europe. That will, however, likely gradually change, given China's place in the world. And many of the investments will be important for New Zealand's economic prosperity.
Chinese ownership, though, will likely cause further and widespread disquiet among New Zealanders. Some of the suspicion may be described as racist because, for instance, Harvard fund managers buying Maniototo dairy farms or forests caused much less anxiety.
But there are legitimate concerns about China's political system, its lack of respect for human rights, and the levels of corruption in the country.
New Zealanders do feel more comfortable with fellow democracies. (If Russian oligarchs, for example, were buying up farms or investing in dairy companies, such concerns would be more acute.)Whether New Zealand likes it or not, this country needs foreign investment.
It spends overseas more than it earns. Internal savings are insufficient to fund many capital needs and foreign companies can bring in expertise, access to home markets and capital.
Fundamentally, too, much New Zealand business is already foreign owned.
Remember, as well, China's Haier came to the rescue of Fisher and Paykel Appliances. So far at least, it has been an enlightened owner with long-term horizons. Just look at the way it is boosting its research and design centres in Auckland and Dunedin.
Land ownership, of course, is most sensitive, especially because New Zealanders cannot buy land in China.
New Zealand does need some controls and the Overseas Investment Office does have various criteria that must be met.
It is an area, though, which needs to be monitored, and purchase made more difficult for non-New Zealanders should sales notably accelerate. Similarly, house buying in Auckland needs to be analysed because of the potential for a flood of money as controls on private money from China are relaxed.
New Zealand has a subtle balance to maintain. Investment needs to be in New Zealand's interests, and there needs to be clear investment criteria. After all, foreign investment - even in an open economy like New Zealand's - should be beneficial to both parties.
