{"id":5395,"date":"2025-08-21T07:19:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T07:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/new-zealand-spy-service-warns-of-china-interference\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T07:19:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T07:19:31","slug":"new-zealand-spy-service-warns-of-china-interference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/new-zealand-spy-service-warns-of-china-interference\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand spy service warns of China interference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>\n\tSYDNEY: New Zealand&rsquo;s spy service warned Thursday that China is the most active power engaging in foreign interference in the country, sparking a sharp rebuke from Beijing.<br>New Zealand faces the &ldquo;most challenging national security environment of recent times,&rdquo; the country&rsquo;s intelligence agency said in an annual risk assessment.<br>Key drivers of the deteriorating threat environment were less stable relationships between states, deepening polarization and growing grievances.<br>Though several states seek to manipulate New Zealand&rsquo;s government and society, China remains the &ldquo;most active,&rdquo; the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service said.<br>China&rsquo;s embassy in Wellington accused the agency of sowing suspicion and &ldquo;poisoning the two countries&rsquo; relations.&rdquo;<br>&ldquo;The accusations sound very familiar as they rehash smears and slanders fabricated elsewhere, repackaged for the New Zealand audience,&rdquo; an embassy spokesperson said.<br>&ldquo;We have regarded, and are willing to continue to regard New Zealand as a friend and partner. But the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations depends on the joint efforts from both sides.&rdquo;<br>New Zealand&rsquo;s spy agency specifically accused China&rsquo;s United Front Work Department of engaging in foreign interference to build influence outside of China.<br>Not all of its activity amounted to foreign interference, and some could be beneficial, it said.<br>&ldquo;However, its activities are regularly deceptive, coercive and corruptive and come with risks for New Zealand organizations.&rdquo;<br>The agency cautioned New Zealand businesses that under China&rsquo;s national security legislation, individuals and organizations in China must comply with requests from the country&rsquo;s security services.<br>The Indo-Pacific region is a focal point for strategic competition between powers, the security service said.<br>China is a &ldquo;particularly assertive and powerful actor,&rdquo; seeking to extend and embed its influence across the region, the report said.<br>&ldquo;It has demonstrated both a willingness and capability to undertake intelligence activity that targets New Zealand&rsquo;s national interests.&rdquo;<br>Without naming countries, the intelligence service highlighted the routine use of &ldquo;transnational repression&rdquo; by foreign states, often by co-opting people to collect information about someone within their own diaspora living in New Zealand.<br>Looking at other risks, the agency said the most plausible extremist threat in New Zealand remained that of a lone actor, radicalized in an increasingly polarized, grievance-laden online world, who attacks without forewarning.<br>Young and vulnerable people were at the highest risk of radicalization, it said.<br>The intelligence organization said it was &ldquo;almost certain&rdquo; that some foreign espionage activity was going undetected.<br>Foreign countries were targeting critical organizations, infrastructure and technology &mdash; mostly through cyber exploitation, it said.<br>&ldquo;It is not just intelligence officers conducting this activity,&rdquo; the agency said.<br>&ldquo;Some governments take a &lsquo;whole of state approach&rsquo; to intelligence gathering, which includes utilising businesses, universities, think tanks, or cyber actors to act on their behalf.&rdquo;<br>Global competition and insecurity drive most of the espionage activity against New Zealand, it said.<br>The service cited &ldquo;multiple examples&rdquo; of states seeking covert access to information on government policy positions, security partnerships, technological innovations and research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                       <!-- \n                        \n\n<div id=\"POSTQUARE_WIDGET_122392\"><\/div>\n\n --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><sub>New Zealand spy service warns of China interference<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYDNEY: New Zealand&rsquo;s spy service warned Thursday that China is the most active power engaging in foreign interference in the country, sparking a sharp rebuke from Beijing.New Zealand faces the &ldquo;most challenging national security environment of recent times,&rdquo; the country&rsquo;s intelligence agency said in an annual risk assessment.Key drivers of the deteriorating threat environment were&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/new-zealand-spy-service-warns-of-china-interference\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;New Zealand spy service warns of China interference&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}