By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand said on Tuesday that “China remains a complex intelligence concern” in New Zealand, but there are other states that undertake malicious activity in the country.
“A small number of illiberal foreign states engage in foreign interference against New Zealand as a tool for advancing their interests abroad,” the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) said in its yearly report into the country’s threat environment.
It noted it can be difficult to draw conclusive links between the interference activity and the foreign state.
“New Zealand is not alone in facing the threat of foreign interference. It is a challenge, countries face globally, including in our region, as illiberal states try to take advantage of others’ size or openness,” it said.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said China has consistently developed its relations with other countries on the basis of the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
“We never interfere in the internal affairs of any country, and we hope that New Zealand will uphold a rational and objective understanding of China to create favourable conditions for the healthy and stable development of China-New Zealand relations,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.
The report, titled “New Zealand’s Security Threat Environment”, was released as part of a government shift to better inform New Zealanders about risks the country faces, and comes as the government grapples with how to respond to a more complicated geopolitical environment.
Director-General of Security Andrew Hampton said the assessment is about being as upfront as we can about the reality of national security threats but not to alarm anyone.
The report added that strategic competition in the Indo- Pacific has for the past decade or so been largely framed as being between China and New Zealand and its traditional security partners but more recently it is becoming one where there are several centres of power and influence and include a range of countries including those with which New Zealand is growing its relationships such as India or those in Southeast Asia.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Additonal reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Christopher Cushing)
