169
6 “中華民族琉球特別自治区」の正体は . . . 中国共産党中央統一戦線工作部,” Japan+, November 10, 2015,
accessed October 11, 2018, http://japan-plus.net/952.
7 Daniel Moss, “As China Steps Up, Japan Isn’t Stepping Aside,” Bloomberg, July 10, 2018, accessed October 11,
2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-10/japan-reasserts-influence-as-china-rises.
NEW ZEALAND
The issue of Chinese influence operations in New Zealand began to attract significant
attention in September 2017 when Anne-Marie Brady, a professor at the University of
Canterbury, published a detailed assessment of that country’s experience in the weeks
prior to national elections.¹
China’s influence operations in New Zealand are rooted in the same set of policies
and institutions that guide its work globally, often proceeding outward from efforts
targeted at the diaspora community. As has been observed elsewhere, influence
operations in New Zealand have increased markedly since Xi Jinping became general
secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government considers New
Zealand an “exemplar of how it would like its relations to be with other states.”² One
unnamed Chinese diplomat even characterized relations between the two countries as
similar to China’s close ties with totalitarian Albania in the early 1960s.
New Zealand is of strategic interest to China for several reasons. As a claimant state in
Antarctica, the country is relevant to China’s growing ambitions in that territory. It
manages the defense and foreign affairs of three other territories in the South Pacific.
It is an ideal location for near-space research and has unexplored oil and gas resources.
Most critically, as a member of the “Five Eyes” security partnerships with the United
States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, New Zealand offers enormous
possibilities for Chinese espionage.
New Zealand is particularly vulnerable to Chinese influence because it is a small state
of 4.5 million people with strong trade ties to China. China is New Zealand’s second
largest trading partner and a critical market for two of its most important sectors,
tourism and milk products. It should be noted that New Zealand has historically
pursued closer ties with China than many other nations. What is changing is the
willfulness with which China appears ready to exploit this dynamic and to subvert
New Zealand’s continued ability to independently shape its policy priorities.
Examples of improper influence in New Zealand include revelations that a member of
Parliament concealed that he had been involved with Chinese military intelligence for
fifteen years prior to immigrating to New Zealand; a New Zealand company found to
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HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020628
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