How we work
MiDeer Observer is an English-language business publication about China, written for readers in New Zealand. This page explains where our information comes from, how an article is produced, and what we do when we get something wrong.
What we publish
We publish three kinds of content:
- Daily briefings — short articles on Chinese policy, regulation, trade data and company news, each linked to the public source it was compiled from.
- Research reports — longer pieces on a single question, with numbered citations and a note on how far each finding has been verified.
- Commentary — our own reading of what a development means for New Zealand importers, exporters and investors. Commentary is always labelled as commentary.
Where our information comes from
We prefer official and first-hand sources. In practice that means:
- Chinese government departments and regulators — customs (GACC), MOFCOM, market regulation (SAMR), provincial commerce departments;
- Chinese official statistics — customs and national statistics releases;
- Mainstream news media, and company announcements or filings.
We do not treat aggregator reposts, open-edited encyclopaedia pages or content-farm pages as sources. Where such material appears in older articles, we are replacing it as we review the archive.
Every source we use is listed at the end of the article and links to the original page.
How an article is produced
Most of our daily articles are compiled, not reported first-hand. Our publishing system collects material from the sources above, drafts the article in English and in Chinese with the help of AI language tools, and publishes it to a fixed structure: what happened, why it matters, and the same content in Chinese.
Because the source material is usually in Chinese, quotations and figures are translated. Where a translation or a figure is unclear, we leave it out rather than guess.
AI use and human review
Our articles are AI-assisted. This is how it works in practice:
- AI tools are used to draft, translate and summarise material taken from the sources we have selected. They are not used to invent facts, figures or quotations.
- The system is configured and its output reviewed by our editorial desk. Source selection, the article template and the standards on this page are set by a human editor, and published output is reviewed on an ongoing basis.
- Anything that goes beyond the source material is written as commentary and labelled as commentary.
- Research reports are written and checked by the Editor-in-Chief, with citations and a verification note.
We do not use AI to produce images that are presented as photographs. AI-generated illustrations are credited as such.
Corrections and feedback
If you think something we published is wrong, tell us at [email protected]. Include the article link and, if you can, the source that contradicts it. We check the claim against the source we used, and correct the article if it is wrong.
We do not delete articles to hide errors. We correct them and record the change on our corrections page. We aim to reply within five working days.