Nothing to see here, move along citizen!

Wait, what?

Government officials unconcerned after probing claims of Chinese police station in NZ

National security officials appear unconcerned after investigating claims of a Chinese police station operating in New Zealand.

A Madrid-based human rights organisation, Safeguard Defenders, published a report late in 2021 listing countries that Chinese police authorities had claimed to maintain posts in, including New Zealand.

In December, national security officials said the Safeguard Defenders report would be reviewed, but the Government did not have any evidence suggesting such a police station operated in New Zealand.

This investigation has now concluded, but the outcome will not be made public.

…wait, wait – what?

You won’t make the report public?

Why not?

The accusation is that the Chinese are running a Police station on NZ soil, an accusation that has been levelled against them around the world after a major investigation…

Chinese ‘police centre’ in NZ tied to businessman

News that Chinese authorities are allegedly operating an overseas police centre in New Zealand has left officials here scrambling to find out more. Now, Newsroom can reveal the centre’s location, as well as its ties to a businessman with United Front ties – who says he is only a volunteer helping Chinese Kiwis

A clandestine Chinese police centre allegedly operating in New Zealand has links to a businessman who has rubbed shoulders with senior Kiwi politicians, a Newsroom investigation can reveal.

The man has denied working for Chinese police, saying he is merely an unpaid volunteer helping to connect Chinese New Zealanders in need of assistance with authorities back home.

The Government is currently carrying out a multi-agency probe into claims about the centre’s operations, first disclosed in a report by an international NGO earlier this month.

Newsroom has now uncovered further information about the alleged non-official police presence – including its apparent location at one point – from Chinese-language media and websites.

In 2020, a post on state-owned tech giant Tencent’s QQ platform by the Nantong Public Security Bureau, which is run through the Ministry of Public Security, openly advertised the presence of Chinese police activity in several nations, asking its readers to “please keep” a list of addresses of its overseas ‘service centres’ around the world. 

Among 29 addresses on the list, spanning multiple continents, is a location on Great South Road in the Auckland suburb of Epsom – within a five-minute drive of both the city’s Chinese consulate and the University of Auckland’s Epsom campus. It is unclear whether the centre is still operating from that address.

A mirror of the same piece, also attributed to a verified Nantong Public Security Bureau account, was found in a popular China-based news and information portal The Paper. 

The Epsom electorate has the fifth-highest Asian population among New Zealand’s 72 electorates, at 34.8 percent compared with 15.1 percent across the country as a whole according to the 2018 Census.

The Auckland site is linked to Chinese businessman Zhou Jiexiang, who holds a number of political roles in the country and appears to be tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s controversial United Front operations.

…like so many attempts to exert influence into NZ, it is a via the form of a Businessman…

‘Chinese investor very popular with govt in NZ’

A 2017 article from a Jiangsu TV station announced Nantong police had granted “coordinator certificates” for overseas branch centres in seven countries, including New Zealand. The piece shows a man resembling Zhou holding one such certificate in a group photograph commemorating the development.

Companies Office records name Zhou as the owner of a business at the same address as the police service centre in 2017; it remains the registered office address of a company in which Zhou owns a personal stake. The remaining shares are owned by Nantong Jinshi, a Chinese company.

In a 2019 post by a verified account of the CCP’s Nantong City Propaganda Department, Zhou was in the running to be named one of the most praiseworthy United Front figures with ties to Nantong prefecture, noting his work helping elderly members of the Overseas Chinese community, and his ties to the Nantong Jinshi company.

A 2020 profile of Zhou on an NZ Chinese-language news site lists his senior position in a host of United Front bodies, including as a Nantong and Haian committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2020 described the CPPCC, which officially acts as an advisory body and includes members of the eight legally permitted minor parties in China, as “the most important United Front forum” due to its role in controlling political representation in diaspora Chinese communities.

In October this year, Zhou authored a piece hosted on the Chinese website Meipian, celebrating the CCP’s 20th Congress and declaring that “overseas Chinese [will] continue to unite closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core”.

In 2016, he was pictured alongside Auckland Mayor Phil Goff at a ceremony to celebrate the launch of the Nantong Association of New Zealand, while a 2022 story on Zhou included a photograph with former prime minister Sir John Key.

A separate article in 2021 described Zhou as “a Chinese investor who is very popular with the government in New Zealand”, further noting he had been invited to a “small private dinner” hosted by Key while he was still prime minister “to discuss investment in New Zealand.”

…right, so despite all this, the Officials have ‘investigated’ and found that our largest trading partner isn’t operating a Police station on NZ soil, because if it had found a Police station on NZ soil, that would represent the most serious diplomatic crisis between NZ and China ever.

Was there a Station and the Chinese closed it down under an agreement we wouldn’t comment publicly and embarrass them?

Did they threaten trade if we said anything publicly?

Is the Station there but you have 5 Eyes on it and are using it as an Intelligence spying operation?

What we have here is an enormous amount of smoke and Officials assuring us that there is no fire at all.

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