Audrey Young: Key raises a glass to China friendship

John Key offers a toast to good relations between New Zealand and Guangzhou at the China Southern Airlines HQ yesterday. Photo / Audrey Young

Prime Minister John Key begins his Shanghai schedule today where chicken is likely to be off the menu.

A scare over a new strain of avian flu, H7N9, which has killed nine people, has closed live chicken markets and halted the slaughter of chickens.

Mr Key spent yesterday visiting Guangzhou, the biggest city in Guangdong province. With a GDP of more than US$650 million ($770 million) it is the wealthiest in China.

He attended a New Zealand promotion event last night at China Southern Air, which flies into Auckland daily. Immigration has signed a deal to extend the visa arrangement it has with its frequent flyers to New Zealand - allowing it to speed up their visas.

The arrangement was criticised by NZ First leader Winston Peters in Parliament last year.

Mr Key yesterday paid tribute to the airline for its second anniversary of flying daily to New Zealand. Chinese tourists to the year to February reached a record 200,000.

He said if President Xi Jinping's estimate of 400,000 million outbound Chinese tourists a year happened, New Zealand might expect a million of them -similar to the number of tourists from Australia.

The kapa haka group Tumunako performed ahead of Mr Key's speech.