The drip, drip, drip of corrosive information detailing the scope and scale of mass surveillance by the GCSB for the NSA continues and now we have clear evidence that the GCSB have been breaching international law by spying on China’s consulate…
The documents highlight a two-faced New Zealand government policy towards China and raise questions about whether the GCSB has violated international treaties that prohibit the interception of diplomatic communications.
Publicly, the government has declared a good relationship with China is crucial to New Zealand’s economic future. Key has talked about expanding links to grow trade and explore other opportunities with the North Asian economic powerhouse. Since the Free Trade Agreement was signed in Beijing in 2008 – after 15 rounds of talks over three years – two-way trade is worth $20 billion a year and rising.
But it is fragile. Scares such as the Fonterra botulism milk powder recall risk the relationship, and Australia has recently signed an FTA with China, prompting concern that could affect our existing deal.
At a Beijing meeting with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, in March last year, Key said: “This relationship has never been stronger.”
Xi Jinping visited New Zealand later that year, stating the China-New Zealand relationship was based on friendly co-operation and mutual respect, and “set a fine example for the pursuit of successful state-to-state relations”.
Key replied that he looked forward to “seeing how we can take our relationship to an even greater height”. The relationship was not “purely trading”, he said. “It is so much broader and much deeper than that.”
But, as minister in charge of the GCSB, Key was also overseeing the plot to spy on China, which included the top-secret planned operation against the Chinese consulate in Auckland.
…on the one hand we are selling all our milk powder to China while lazy immigration from there continues to prop up Auckland’s property bubble and on the other hand we are spying on China for America.
The price of our role in the 5 Eyes Club could be far higher if China decides to send our economy into a death spiral by cutting milk powder imports and open up more Government zero interest loans for their citizens to buy more residential land in Auckland.
Key and co obviously have no intention of curbing the property bubble as the banks cannot loose with the hand over fist inflation of property prices enriching the major banks with the escalation of money they issue on mortgage loans and bridging finance.
On top of that they get interest.
Get rid of the banker parasite.
It’s pretty simple to see NZ government has put NZ into an extremely dangerous position.
They are absolute MORONS. I mean we already knew that but it keeps getting worse.
They seem incapable of saying NO to either US or China and therefore fucking up the relationship with both and screwing our country up permanently. They also are in breach of international law, good will etc etc
The US have got where they have by War and getting others involved to do their dirty work , China has got where they have by Trade.
NZ is just a little bug in the middle run by a government who are as ignorant as they are corrupt, stupidly neoliberal and short sighted.
And Labour is not showing many signs of being better on the stupidity stakes.
Teflon Key has so much money, does not affect him, he can hang with his richer mates saying what an amazing job he did in NZ and it’s all turned to shit since he left.
Yep, right about the shit, but less so about the accountability for it.
they arent morons – it way seem that way to us – but they do know what theyre doing – its just that they arent working in our interests
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/18/new-zealand-china-gcsb-nsa-auckland-hack/
“But, as minister in charge of the GCSB, Key was also overseeing the plot to spy on China,…”
He was keen to hand over being head of GCSB to Finlayson (why?), so usual excuse, the usual style, “It wasn’t me, it was him”.
We were always on a tight rope between US and China, and Key instead of keeping us a friends with everyone, will have us friends with no-one.
+100%
instead of keeping us a friends with everyone, will have us friends with no-one.
People tend to remember the identities of the otherwise ineffectual types who cravenly stand behind the loudest bully.
You’ve summed up the NActs behaviour perfectly
“It wasn’t me, it was him”… The unprecedented divesting of his prime ministerial responsibilities has more to do with a recurring theme within the corporate raiders…. Changing the face changes the focus, and creates a lag in the attempts to force oversight onto the new minister…. findlayson will be the first to resign if this gets the traction it should…. then the director(current) of the gcsb.. Johnny the hateful clown will have to be voted out before any investigation does that for us…..
Despicable scum John Key PM of NZ, the well paid pimp and nark for the US!
He’s a slithering example of the filthiest of low life!
John Key can not ! refute anything that Snowden or Greenwald have affirmed so he stoops to grade 3 levels of childlike insults and embarrassing untrue judgments about two men who are light years ahead of him in most areas.
===== >>> They know what the words ethics and integrity mean.
The 5 eyes contract demands that John Key spy on its citizens. John Key has lied and will continue to lie about any surveillance both here and overseas. Would be nice to have a leader we could trust.
Didn’t he say he would resign if . . . . . Accountability ? ? ?
The National led govt has put us into a very horrendous position with growing fear and mistrust when we should be growing cooperation and healthy mature relations. John Key is way too close to the US and the UN and we need to grow our economic strength and healthy independence and take care of our country first and foremost.
We are presently on a downward slipper sloop into the same abyss that the US/Britain are sliding into and it ain’t the best hill to be sliding down.
Well said Blake,
GCSB (it appears) may have been into my registry and changed my email address’s it appears as we found several of our group have not received anything from us since weeks and we found toady a lot of our file of email address’s have been corrupted.
We are being placed in peril by this Government and they should have been held to account by Cheryl Gwyn by now over the Labour party computer hacking and we would never now have been targeted.
Good post thanks Martyn, key is loosing it entirely, and I think he will be rolled soon I am sure of this.
Where would we be without Mr Edward Snowdon and Nicky Hagar today?
They are traitors to us all.
Ah, FJK and his natfacts, again. (Natfact, a surprising new version of the truth, commonly known as lies). He did get it right when he said that “the relationship is much broader and deeper than that”. Yep, deep is right.
2008, 2011 and 2014 – After almost seven years of treachery, corruption and deceit, I’ve now come to the definite conclusion Kiwis didn’t elect John Key at all.
Wall St and Washington did, to do their filthy business in NZ, with the biggest sell out and threat to our sovereignty yet to come through the TPPA!
Then Key’s job would have been done!
Yet again the GCSB and the National government controlling them have been shown to be lying to the public. When a new revelation is released they first shoot the messenger, this time by repeating that the information is ‘stolen’ as if that means it’s less valid. Then they attempt to undermine the message by saying that it “could be fake”, again when there is no evidence of this and the US and UK governments have verified that the documents are genuine. Finally, they attempt to shut down the conversation by giving a generic, “we don’t comment on operational matters.”
That New Zealand has been spying on data from a Chinese consulate office is in breach of international law and will undermine our trade relationship with China. The acrobatic balancing act that National has been trying to pull off by being friends to both the US and China is turning into a circus freak-show.
I bet a chocolate fish that the ecoterrorist bullshit 1080 fonterra blar blar was the Nats trying to pin the dairy crash on the activists instead of taking the blame. They spied on China for America, that is why China will defriend and drop our products. I believe FJK is so low he would send innocent people to jail if he thought it would deflect the shit from sticking to him. Worm his way out of it with the ‘terrorist’ ticket.
@Ann Johns
Natfact, I love it:)
meh ..
@ John W . YES ! Finally !
It’s the Banks . The Banks are killing us off . Literally . The word ‘Mortgage’ translates into a ‘debt until death’ . Has anyone noticed just how much interest a Bank charges for lending you the right to bear debt on their behalf ? It’s an outrageous amount of your time ( I.E. money ) on this earth that you waste for their profit .
Who says a timid, humble little house comprising a few sticks , bits of glass , sheets of cheap-as tin and a small stack of timber is worth more than half a million dollars in silly little Auckland? OMG, one might say . What a rip ? I have friends in fancy places who own sections that they are told are worth more than the entire city of Paris . An absurdly small patch of grass and scrub worth $900,000 ? ! As an ex farmer I would wonder what could be grown on that small patch to justify such an outlandish ‘ value’ ? Cocaine ? Cannabis ? Human organ donors to the filthy rich yet sickly ?
The Banks know . They grow debt . Ask yankee doodle jonky-stien how it is that debt returns significant profits . But just for those few at the tip of the pyramid. The rest of us just get shit on from above .
The Banks engage head-fuck specialists like advertising agencies to sex-up taking on insurmountable debt that young people trying to have kids, fun and live a life into something like a religious fervour. To encumber one’s self with debt until one dies . WTF, one might ask?
Even more hilariously, the Banks have us SO head-fucked, they insist we pay to insure their debt while we get rorted by them . Until death . LOL !
Isn’t it interesting, that the legal cannabis business in Colorado can only use cash in their many transactions because the Banks will not bank cannabis grower or their customers’ cash money ? They tried to argue the morality of dope growing ! How’s that for fucking irony ?
The real reason, you might ask ? It’s because the banks have little in the way of the resources for processing cash, like , you know, more cash. Instead they prefer debt . It’s infinitely easier to manage . The touch of a button .
Wonder where the unemployed come from ? Bank debt . Wonder where your meagre discretionary income goes ? Bank debt .
Wonder why we use cards instead of cash money ? Because banks love debit/credit cards .
Wonder why you’re not planning a midnight tagger raid on your Bank ?
Head-fuckery .
Banks . Mostly foreign owned .
Banks . Made record profits from us last year .
Banks . Unnecessary to our day to day functioning . ( Think about it . )
This guy does a pretty good job of explaining it .
Finance
http://youtu.be/7WHTYTvFNRU
Bugger ! Posted under the wrong heading .
@ fappity foo
‘ Meh ‘ you write . There are more letters on a key pad . Look closer . If you can only find M,E and H no wonder you don’t have much to say . Poor lamb .
If one says “meh” over and over really fast, they can then sound like a motor scooter…. So you see… he was saying something….
Key should be arrested for breach of international law. Someone show me any groundings as to why Key cannot be arrested, and I’ll fight back with grounds to make an arrest.
Key has long ago overstepped his mark of irresponsibility. It’s time the law was brought in to hold Key accountable, because Key is not being held accountable in parliament, and that’s a fact.
Two people have got petitions running for Keys dismissal, between them, approximately 5000 signatures.
So come on folks, stop the bitching, start the action, sign the petitions.Ones under GoPetitions, the other is under Change.org.
How much more of this Key brutality do you want to put up with? Or are you just waiting for ink to paper on the TPPA?
Thanks Trevor, well written and so much truth and encouragement for getting off our backsides and taking action. We pay Jonkeys salary ! Parliament surely does not hold him accountable – I agree with you completely – parliament is a joke with so many games of denial ; rudeness and lies. The speaker is the most biased ; laughing stock we have known.
Breach of International Law is just one of his dirty politics. I am sure there are lots of skeletons to be exposed in his past and likely right now as well. It is a gut wrenching embarrassment to have the likes of he and Stephen Joyce having so much control over our country. Waiting for Labour to grow a pair is a waste and we the people have to do what needs to be done. Please sign the petitions and do whatever you can to help.
A little off the subject :
Consider check out the latest interview with Noam Chomsky this week on the show called – “Going Underground” on RT.com. Chomsky is one of the most brilliant minds of our times.
http://rt.com/shows/going-underground/250845-noam-chomsky-us-yemen/
If the MSM did their job properly, there would be 4 million and bit signatures on that petition. Gee this country is frustrating!
To be honest, the Chinese, Russians, British, French, certainly the USA and some others, may well be doing the very same thing. Welcome to the modern day world, where trust is something you will only read about in fairy tales. It is a world of mistrust, of dirty deals, of using tricks, spying, doing over and ripping off, and the oh so “holy” state of New Zealand is part of it all.
One of the “least corrupt” nations is so often proclaimed, well, that may mean, “corrupt” has a white washed meaning here, same as the once upon a time existing “rule of law”, the “fourth estate”, and what such “idealist” aspects a supposedly “democratic” society is meant to show.
This new Snowden revelation was to my knowledge only mentioned on the Radio NZ National news, but missing elsewhere, especially the TV channel news. We have “sanitised” news now, only up-beat and “patriotic” topics, all to ready us for the next great war ahead.
RIP democracry, integrity and transparency, welcome to “demockeracy” and the modern day, Orwellian, functioning authoritarian regime of the elite, where the common folks do not even notice anymore that they are massively manipulated and led down the wrong garden path.
New Zealand is safely tucked away in the large pocket of Uncle Sam, while Fiji seems to be in the pocket of the Mainland Chinese.
As long as Key allows foreigners to buy up farmland and houses and take our fresh water for FREE to be sold overseas, he will stay ok with them. Our trade with China is a double edged sword, and I expect any day soon there will be an announcement that the sale of Lochinver Station will have been approved and then you will be about to find out how much more of NZ that one organisation is after.
At least the Chinese understand the concept of nationalisation and confiscation. After all, they did it to all foreigners in China when Mao came to power after WWII, and they did it to their own citizens.
Many in NZ say once our land is sold its gone forever. To which I say bollocks. We can certainly change the law about non NZ residents or citizens owning land, and we can force the sale of land owned by non NZ residents or citizens to someone who is.
NZ just lacks the political willpower to do anything like this.
In fact, is there any party which has this as a policy? I don’t think even NZ First do.
Duplicity in foreign relations is the norm therefore the article and the responses are naïve at best.
What is of real concern is that in light of, the continuing mismanagement of the economy, erosion of rights and PR gaffs, the latest poll shows no significant diminishing of public support for John “You Don’t want To Be That Type” Key and his coteries of incompetent sycophants.
What the hell is needed to wake people up? One fervently wishes that we don’t have to suffer a absolute melt down! What ever is required to dent the apathy / thrall it is unlikely to be Andrew Little and it appears the Labour party as a whole no longer has what once made it a place where people looked for answers .
@ Martyn . You write … ” The price of our role in the 5 Eyes Club could be far higher if China decides to send our economy into a death spiral by cutting milk powder imports and open up more Government zero interest loans for their citizens to buy more residential land in Auckland. ”
… and yet you bag the piss out of the NZ farmer ??? Not ignoring the fact that cowsploiters are not farmers.
Having said that.
What bizarre brain block do people have when they refuse to see how vital a role NZ farmers play in our country’s entire socio economic infrastructure ?
Vastly more importantly is how that historic narrative has built this country up to one of the highest standards of living but is now foundering under debt and depression ?
Why not open up a discussion about that for fucks sake ? It’s so unbelievably important and yet you completely side step the issues that are the vast gaps between Farmers and non farmers having been divided then concurred by a small group of greedy , devious swine .
Nicky Hager wrote a book about political skulduggery . Let him research and write a book about the relationship between farmer money and the rest of the country . A relationship of denial and dirty deeds done dirt cheap .
You fucking wait . When milk powder is no longer in vogue where are the sheep , cattle, and grain farmers ? Oh fuck ! Yea, that’s right ! Converted to Dairy ‘ units ‘ .
I heard Mathew Hooton ranting on Radio NZ this morning about Snowden “stealing” those NSA documents. Hooton called Snowden a traitor several times,
Crap!
Those documents belong to us, the taxpayer, and not to some unaccountable secret cabal .
If Hooton cast aside his mindless obedience to Authority, for just a moment, he would understand that whistleblowers keep secret government in check.
I wonder what Hooton thinks of the Russians who defected from the former USSR and gave secrets to the USA and UK? Were they stealing as well? Were they traitors?
Double standards much, Mr Hooton??
Guys relax. China is not going to react to this. And do you people think that the Chinese don’t spy on us? This is just how the world works. People will always spy on each other. They have to, otherwise they will be at a disadvantage.
You don’t place sanctions on people for doing something that is accepted as common practice. So don’t worry, our trade with China will be fine.
Pretty sure China’s spying on us.
Doesn’t mean we have to do it too. There is that little thing of international law, not spying on the consulates of other countries is illegal.
And I’m not sure it is accepted as common practice.
Did you not read about how the US Embassy in Moscow was riddled with bugs during the height of the Cold War. I think people are mistaking an international convention with international law.
Considering that our American and Russian cuzzies had 50,000-plus atomic warheads pointed at each other, Gosman, I would suggest to you that bugging each other was probably a good thing, to avert a Final World War.
Anyway, aren’t you the one who keeps pedantry alive and kicking by constantly demanding, “but is it illegal”?
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