China's New Vassal

New Zealand particularly vulnerable to China: think tank report

By Matt Nippert
New Zealand's top Chinese mole: Jian Yang, left, with Senior Colonel Wang Liwei, defence attaché, at an event held at the Chinese embassy in Wellington to mark the 88th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army in 2015.

A US report into China's influence in New Zealand has highlighted concerns over government inaction and raised the possibility political considerations are blocking our intelligence agencies from investigating.
The Hoover Institution, a think-tank classed in the US as moderately conservative, released its "Chinese Influence & American Interest" report today with New Zealand presented as a case study.

"NEW ZEALAND HAS HISTORICALLY PURSUED CLOSER TIES WITH CHINA THAN MANY OTHER NATIONS" (p. 182)

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Although the report canvasses China's influence activities around the world, New Zealand is said to be particularly vulnerable due to its small size and China being a dominant market for dairy and tourism exports.
Drawing largely on research by University of Canterbury professor Anne-Marie Brady, the report said China's influence operations in New Zealand have ramped up since Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2013.
Adverse contrast is drawn between the relatively low-key response of New Zealand with the legislative programme implemented in Australia -- although the report appears to have been prepared prior to the last week's announcement that the GCSB had used national security grounds to block Chinese firm Huawei from building the latest generation of mobile phone infrastructure.
The continuing saga of National Party MP Yang Jian comes in for particularly scrutiny. 

The Herald, Newsroom and the Financial Times have reported on his selective disclosure when applying for jobs, residency, citizenship and National Party candidacy of his 15-year working relationship with China's military intelligence agencies.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters called for an investigation into Yang in late 2017, and in an interview with NPR earlier this year said concerns from traditional allies about the affair would shortly be addressed.
"One would be naive to think that a response would not be forthcoming," Peters said.

THE CASE OF YANG JIAN (p. 183)

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Peters' cryptic comments aside, the Hoover report raised the possibility political oversight of NZSIS investigations into "sensitive individuals" may be preventing local authorities from looking into matters of national security concern.
"New Zealand's intelligence service still cannot investigate cases of subversion and foreign influence inside its political parties without the approval of the service's minister, whose political calculations inhibit action," the report said.
The report said New Zealand's Chinese diaspora -- now 200,000 strong -- had maintained neutrality and independence during the Cold War, but in recent times local NGOs and Chinese-language newspapers had been drawn into China's orbit.
"Now, few activities are noticeably independent of Beijing," the report said, noting "the complete domination of local Chinese-language media by pro-PRC outlets."
The report said these local publishers all had co-operation agreements with the state-run Xinhua News Service, and "Chinese Communist Party officials have given direct editorial instruction to Chinese-language media in New Zealand".
The ongoing police and NZSIS investigation into an apparent campaign of criminal harassment directed at Brady is also reported as an example of how "China's representatives also put considerable pressure on New Zealanders who speak up critically on China-related issues".

UNDER PRESSURE (p. 185)

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China's influence operations in Australia are growing

• A migrant agent who advertises in an independent Chinese-language newspaper had officers from the country's security agency camp in his Beijing office for two weeks, harassing him to end his advertising.
• Other advertisers in Australia have been called into Chinese consulates to have hourslong 'tea chats' in efforts to cut funding for critical independent media.
• Obedient Apple requested its ads not run in two independent Australian newspapers for fear of angering China.

By Tara Francis Chan

Forget Russia.
Attempts by China's Communist Party to influence international politics and societies are increasingly causing alarm worldwide.
In Australia alone, a book critical of China's influence attempts struggled to get a publisher, the federal government drafted a bill making foreign interference and political donations illegal, and a former adviser to the prime minister even spoke on the matter with the US House Armed Services Committee.
While some of China's covert actions have been difficult to pinpoint publicly, Maree Ma, the general manager of Australia's Vision Times Media, recently described how the Chinese government is successfully interfering with the operations of Australian media companies.
Speaking at an event at the Lowy Institute attended by Business Insider, Ma said Chinese-language media in Australia faces unique pressures that other ethnic media don't. 

She then described one incident which illustrated how China is trying to silence independent Chinese-language news in Australia.
"We have a migration agent who has an office both here in Australia and also in Beijing. He is actually very close to us, he's been doing ads with us for quite a few years," Ma said.
"But since he's had his Beijing office — a couple of weeks before he pulled his ad contract from our newspaper — the Chinese State [Security] bureau was actually camping in his office for about two weeks, constantly harassing him to the point where he couldn't really do much work."
After describing the "pressures" he was facing from China's intelligence and security agency, the advertiser then pulled his ads "in our paper in Australia, all the way in Australia," Ma said.
Ma, who recently made a closed submission to the federal government with more examples of foreign interference, also described how advertisers based in Australia have been targeted.
"Some of our advertisers have been pulled into the Chinese consulate, I won't say which one, but [one advertiser] was grilled for three hours for a 'tea chat.' She was told not to tell anyone," Ma said.
Such actions by China's government appear to be a means of intimidating and cutting financial support for independent journalism, in the hope enough advertisers boycott a publication, forcing it to either close or accept state funding and editorial input.
They also serve as a warning, encouraging companies to self-censor their advertisements.
And it's a ploy that may have worked in the past.
For more than two years, telephone carriers have not advertised Apple products in two independent Australian Chinese-language newspapers, reportedly at Apple's request. 

Ma believes the newspapers have been blacklisted for political reasons as the tech giant wants to protect its business in China.