New Zealand intelligence agencies named China: the only country found to have “large scale” espionage

The latest annual threat assessment of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service uses a judgement that China rarely appears in official government documents: China is the only country identified as “sizing” in the context of foreign espionage that New Zealand has discovered. The report also lists China as the country ' s most active foreign intervention actor.

The report was not about re-using political language like “China treat”, but about the fact that New Zealand intelligence agencies had turned China's activities on the ground into concrete ways of obtaining sensitive technology and information, finding internal people, influencing political and social discussions, exerting pressure on the overseas community and using agents and front-office organizations to implement foreign government objectives.

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service has previously publicly named the Central Command of the Communist Party. It noted that the Headquarters of the Military Command in New Zealand sought and nurtured influential individuals and organizations to advance the overseas objectives of the Government of the People ' s Republic of China; It was also made clear that some of these activities were deceptive, coercive or corrosive.

In June this year, the Five-Eights Alliance issued a joint security alert stating that China ' s military intelligence agencies were seeking out people with governmental, military and sensitive information powers through professional social networks and web-based recruitment platforms such as LinkedIn. It may be that it starts with a general report, followed by a gradual demand for more sensitive elements such as military, diplomatic decision-making.

Beijing denied New Zealand's latest assessment and accused the allegations of being “cold war thinking” and of being stigmatized as espionage for normal communication and cooperation.

But what is really interesting about the intelligence assessment is that it does not limit the risk to “spying Chinese diplomats”. The report presents a more decentralized operating model: government agencies, integrated war systems, agents, business or social relationships can all become nodes of influence and information gathering.

This has created an increasingly apparent contradiction in the new relationship. China remains one of New Zealand ' s largest trading partners, with a high level of economic interaction; At the same time, New Zealand intelligence services have defined Beijing as the most active source of foreign intervention and the only country found to be engaged in large-scale espionage.

Economic cooperation has not eliminated security risks.

Instead, it has given Beijing more access to social, commercial, scientific and political systems.