So our largest trading partner burgled an academic to intimidate her in our own country – are we allowed to discuss China’s influence over us yet?

ByMartyn Bradbury

So it’s official, China is the lead suspect in the burglary and intimidation of a NZ academic who highlighted the insidious influence of China in our political system…

NZSIS sweep for bugs in case of burgled professor
Electronic surveillance specialists from the Security Intelligence Service have carried out a search for listening devices at the University of Canterbury office of the professor revealed to be a possible target of Chinese espionage.

News of the sweep, confirmed by several university staff, comes as academic colleagues of Anne-Marie Brady came out in support of the China specialist who has suffered a string of break-ins she claims are in direct response to her work exposing China’s influence campaign in New Zealand.

The Herald understands a similar search for bugs by the Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) has also been conducted at Brady’s Christchurch home, the site of another suspicious burglary being investigated by authorities.

…it is extraordinary that this story isn’t leading our news and the main focus of public debate.

The best part of the Chinese spy inside NZ Government story from overseas news agencies is their shock it happened, followed by their shock that NZers are ‘meh’ about the revelation.

Unless it involves the All Blacks, MAFS or house renovation, we don’t care.

Kiwis would care if it turned out the Chinese were spying on the All Blacks.

Kiwis would care if Chinese TV in NZ bought the rights to MAFS and forced people to watch it on a Freeview channel higher than 13.

Kiwis would care if Chinese building materials for the Block were cheaper in Australia than here.

But would Kiwis care if the Chinese Government actually managed to get a spy into our own Caucus inside the National Party?

Our combination of general apathy, right wing media that look the other way when it comes to anything National do mixed with an impolite fear that you’re being xenophobic if you ever mention Chinese influence anywhere have combined to give a mighty, ‘meh’ from the masses.

The geopolitical cold war between China and America as they battle for dominance of the Pacific has begun to get hot. The trade war is on with Trump deciding to double down last week to penalise Chinese imports again, while the soft power China is using in Australia has become a National security issue inside Australia with an enormous inquiry into the power and influence of soft China power. 

The case against China is that as a totalitarian communist regime with a president for life, their long plan is to manipulate and dominate the political and economic landscape of host countries in the pacific for Chinese strategic interests.

Meanwhile, back in the sleepy shire, the Canadians are warning the other 5 Eye Allies that NZ is a plaything for Chinese interests and their dominance of our political establishment is so complete that maybe NZ should be poked in its 5th eye and remove us from the club because we leak like a Split Enz song.

Throw us out of your mass surveillance club? Honest? Promise?

Oh please Br’er Rabbit, don’t throw us in the Briar patch!

From a purely strategic point of view, one could genuinely argue from a pro-NZ perspective, that getting kicked out of the 5 Eyes club would mean we were no longer a target for Chinese influence, so actually that would be quite beneficial for us.

Unfortunately I don’t see us getting kicked out and the Canadians have been drinking too much maple syrup. There’s no question that the National Party have been bought and paid for, and that is a genuine concern and the total lack of focus or debate about that inside NZ is equally hilarious and dangerous at the same time.

There is some suggestion by the Canadians that Chinese money is inside Labour, while there certainly is, because the Chinese give money to everyone, the influence that comes with those donations is totally absent in policy. There just isn’t any policy  being promoted that benefits Chinese interests, in fact with the law to ban foreign domestic ownership, one would argue that those influences have not been successful if donations were made to influence them.

So what should we be doing?

I think our first allegiance is to NZ as an independent Pacific nation with its own independent foreign policy.

That should be our touchstone value in everything we do.

We do not want America expanding its military control or mass surveillance state powers into the Pacific anymore than we want China to.

China’s behaviour in the South Pacific over the ownership of reefs they have built into military bases defies claims that their rise to power and expansion of influence is not aggressive.

America’s ‘respect my authority’ positioning and trade wars aren’t alleviating tensions, they are ratcheting them up.

If we wish to maintain our Independence, we need to show leadership by openly criticising both sides and asking for a more peaceful, productive and collaborative co-operation in the Pacific, especially at a a time of climate change and increasing poverty across the Pacific.

I think we have a leader in Jacinda who could articulate this powerful vision and provide that leadership, because if we don’t make a radical departure now we are going to get sucked into the geopolitical vortex between these two and be forced to choose  a side that in’t in our true national interests.

 

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15 Comments

  1. “The Security Intelligence Service have carried out a search for listening devices at the University of Canterbury office of the professor revealed to be a possible target of Chinese espionage.”

    Well we need a royal comission into Chinese Government’s direct political interference in our country as an ‘act of aggression as seriousness as declaring war’!!!!!

    Why is the labour coalition Government doing nothing yet???????

    Firstly the Chinese embassy need to be closed, at the staff sent back to China as a direct clear response now.

          1. you over state yourself once again. The Chinese government does not sway to the whims of political premodonas on 3 or 4 year term holidays and especially not some lefty kiwi.

            In the west, thanks to succesive emperial powers the British and now the U.S, the opinions of these some 1 billion westerners have been elevated above the rest of the 6 billion other people on this planet. No that China has aircraft carriers those opinions are being rebalanced and some petulant people will take a little more getting used to it.

          3. No RED BUZZARD. Westerners will have to adjust themselves to fit in with the new big power player. We’ve always had America on our shoulders chewing gum. Now the other 6 billion others have China. Hardest hit will be the American middle class looney. See, when ever there’s a big fight with super powers, capital ships last one week. From the Spanish Armada that was lost on its maiden voyage to WW1 and WW2 saw the loss of the Bismark, Yamoto, Musashi, Prince of Wales, Texas. With in one week of combat almost all capital ships find Davy Jones locker.

            So those big Aircraft Carriers that keep western hegemony safe at night are nightmares waiting to happen. I’d ask for a transfer like right away. If not, quit. I still find it amazing how people can still fall in love with those aircraft carriers and not even realise it. Even one some one point blank says you’re in love with an Aicraft Carrier.

  2. Ownership of NZ Land Holdings should be looked at in depth so as to figure out who actually owns the Land Holdings here in NZ. We should have a National Foreign Land Holding Register with all Shareholders noted on the Register ?

    1. There is concern in Australia now of China trying to take over the elcectricty grid and could totally control Australia’s power and industry totally one day so we need to move to stop Chinese agression to take over now as our future generations expect this of us.

  3. They conducted a sweep? It would be news if the found something but this is just anti Chinese propaganda.
    Ownership of reefs in the South Pacific they have built into Military bases? The South China Sea is not the South Pacific.
    Sure China is flexing its muscles a bit with its defensive military posts in the South CHINA Sea, and a base in Djibouti probably with an eye to protecting its oil supplies from the mid-east but it is just not on the same scale as the 100’s of American bases placed aggressively around China and Russia and now throughout Africa.
    China and its One Belt One Road is one of the few economic bright spots in the world today and NZ should be getting on board.
    Harley Schlanger presents a point of view that I find hopefull for a brighter global future .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc6KV_MvCkQ&feature=em-lbcastemail

      1. China appears to me to be planning for a multi-polar world. Major powers like India, Russia the USA and the EU have all been invited to participate. Russia is definitely on board, the EU and India are dipping their toes in the water but the US/UK are resisting as they obviously fear the loss of their geopolitical/financial dominance. The article by Erik Britton strikes me as fear-mongering propaganda from the City of London. The Chinese offer money and aid to smaller countries and in return gets development contracts, resources and mutual trade. This is quite different from the IMF model of loan money to a usually corrupt government elite and when the promised returns failed to materialise to repay the loan, seize the countries assets, further enriching the western banks.
        “The most extensive global commercial military empire in history?
        Have you not seen the maps available on the internet of American military bases or the comparisons of military spending.
        I don’t want another global hegemon replacing the current one but if this was really a threat I do not believe the Russians would be cooperating so enthusiastically with China.
        I do want to see an end to the endless wars carried out in the name of democracy but really to gain resources or geopolitical advantage

  4. Well you know just like the US of A we have to tread carefully around these situations. It is disgusting they need to find and remove these shits. Personally I wouldn’t trust the SIS or GCSB – if they found one they would say there wasn’t anything there. I remember someone saying one of the problems is that the ‘international’ ‘indivual’ country spy agencies are a club on their own and don’t adhere to the rules of the country they are in much of the time.

  5. If the Indonesian and American spies operating in NZ during the ’10s were “declared” and got away doing what they did to NZ citizens with impunity (and their own citizens) then we have a UN of problems.

    The focus must be on counter-intel to protect NZ citizens of whatever stripe, along with foreign guests in NZ, and not transnational political and economic motives.

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