The Canadian report claimed New Zealand’s business and political elite had all been targeted by China’s Communist party. Photograph: POOL New/Reuters
Globe And Mail: CSIS report warns of Chinese interference in New Zealand
Canada’s spy agency is being warned that New Zealand, one of this country’s closest military allies, has been deeply affected by a Chinese government campaign of foreign interference.
The new report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service cites “a curtailing of freedom of speech, religion and association for the ethnic Chinese community” in New Zealand and a “corrupting influence on the political system through the blurring of personal, political and economic interests.”
“The People’s Republic of China’s political influence activities in New Zealand have now reached a critical level,” according to the report made public this week, only a few days after Canada-China relations suffered a blow when the Trudeau cabinet blocked one of Beijing’s state-owned firms from buying Toronto-based Aecon Group on national-security grounds.
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Update #1: Chinese interference in New Zealand at 'critical' stage, says Canada spy report (The Guardian)
Update #2: China and Russia could be looking for a back door to Western intelligence through the ‘soft underbelly’ of New Zealand (Business Insider)
WNU Editor: If Canada is raising red flags, I can only imagine what the other members Five Eyes are saying.
Anyone know where i can read the full report?
ReplyDeleteChina has been around a lot longer than us and will be once we go the way of the dodo. You can thank our snowflake politics for that.
ReplyDeleteAmericanadian soldier,
ReplyDeleteYou raise an interesting point. Unless our leadership changes and changes fast we are in fact "screwed." Even if we do get better leadership much of the damage may have already been done and it may be to late. While DJT has made sound progress, it is but baby steps compared to what needs to be done.
Even if the United States does survive, the ability and the will of America and its people to project influences into far flung places around the globe is limited and is becoming more limited with each passing week. As such, it is going to be problematic at best to expect America to maintain a strong military presence in the region of the world where China an New Zealand are In contrast, China has been there for centuries and will be there for centuries more.
When faced with this reality, one would expect a small country like New Zealand to try and go along to get along so to speak with a major world power like China that is close to them and is going to be a major world power for the foreseeable future.
There are some who believe, based upon observation and assessment of the current situation, believe that Russia and China will surpass the US in terms of power assuming they have not already done so. If someone who believes this were in power in a country like the US, they would act based upon these conclusions and would work to position America to survive and prosper in a world dominated by those countries.
Perhaps things will not work out this way. We cannot "know" at this time. I can only imagine New Zealand is formulating policies based upon similar thought processes.
If Canada's intel wants to complain about who New Zealand is doing business with, perhaps they want to reach a contractual agreement with New Zealand to position large numbers of Canadian troops along with the appropriate weapons and weapons systems in New Zealand to help deter any Chinese actions. Somehow I don't think they are going to do this. As such, it might be a good idea for Canada to STAY OUT OF NEW ZEALAND'S POLICIES!!
America is routinely chastised for inserting itself into places that don't concern it, sometimes rightly so. Canada generally does not do such things. Canada should be like the Canada Americans admire, love, and wish we were and not adopt the bad habits that America's leaders seem to have.
Calm down. I live in NZ. There is zero, and I mean zero appetite for being ‘influenced’ by China.
ReplyDeleteI live in a weird microcosm of a neighbourhood that is 45% Chinese. They hate the idea of gong back and are suspicious of the CCP. That’s why they left.
Also, every day there are more calls to limit the influence of China. Only today there is a piece of legislation being tabled to limit international students (mostly from Asia). There are calls to limit investment (including housing).
China has few friends in NZ.
Crusader,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insights on NZ. I will assume you are truthful here. As someone who has had my integrity questioned on this website without cause, I can attest that it is not appreciated.
Questioning the merits of a position is reasonable. Questioning someone's loyalty or integrity without cause is not.
With that said, NZ is close to China, China is getting stronger, the US position is precarious and getting weaker, and if current trends hold this will only accelerate UNLESS DJT can turn all of this around this will only accelerate. On this point, DJT has made some progress but it is very slow.
Given this situation, it's not hard to understand why NZ might seek better relations with China. From your perspective, it seems Canadian Intelligence is inaccurate.
I assumed they were more competent than US (un)intelligence. Perhaps I was in error. Had this been US (un)intelligence who reached this conclusion I would have dismissed it and likely not bothered to comnent.
Mr Poster, I wasn’t having a crack at you, just speaking to the idea that NZ is under the influence of China.
ReplyDeleteNZs only concessions have been a FTA with China.
China has been outed trying to control the local Chinese free press.
The local Pacific Islamd community is aghast with the idea of China meddling in their home islands (Tonga, Cook Is, Fiji, Vanuatu etc).
NZers love American culture. They love Americans too.
One of the biggest factors also working against China in NZ is the pressure put on the government by local Iwi’s (tribes).
My missus is South Island Maori (Ngai Tahu), what her elders don’t want is (yet) another colonialist coming in and taking what was theirs.
So, when the Chinese turn up promising all sorts of things they’re usually faced with stiff opposition. This opposition translates into votes during elections. And none of the main political parties want to distance themselves from the Maori vote.