CCP’s Political Interference in NZ continues
Four Kiwi MPs have just been blacklisted for one year by China. They should be commended by the New Zealand public for their courage. In affirming the democratic values of Taiwan and the moral right of the Taiwanese people to determine their own future, these four MPs are reasserting what NZ at its best represents as a liberal democracy.
We should also be encouraged that the four MPs come from a range of political parties - ACT, Labour, National and NZ First. This is a reminder that national security and support for fellow democracies should remain a non-partisan issue.
Just this week the NZSIS issued a warning about the Chinese government's sustained attempts at infiltrating and interfering in NZ civil society organisations.
Unfortunately, many other political representatives in Wellington remain unwilling to put their head above the parapet and take the kind of legislative steps needed to deter outright interference from China.
The political old guard in NZ seem especially ready to capitulate to China's regional hegemony, as if we were to believe it would be an improvement on American presence in the region. It’s remarkable to witness how Beijing enthusiasts contort logic and evidence to this end. Some refuse to abandon the twenty-year-old assumption about trade with the West liberalising China.
Helen Clark and Phil Goff largely belong in this camp. John Key and Don Brash, on the other hand, focus more on why maintaining trade with an authoritarian regime is better for NZ even if we have to muzzle our democratic conscience in the process.
In the past week alone, Goff and Brash have bent over backwards in their attempts to placate the Chinese government. All they had to do was not admit out loud a lot of inconvenient facts in the process. These two political retirees are obviously entitled to condemn anything they like (they especially love to castigate the Trump administration for its bombastic populist tactics), but it should be noted they casually gloss over the fact the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not answer to its citizens at all, but to a Politburo Standing Committee firmly under the control of Chairman Xi Jinping...
Brash even went so far in his latest blog to concede that if the free world needs to turn a blind eye to China's attempts to suffocate Taiwan's vibrant democracy, well, so be it!
Let Taiwan be eaten head first or from the toes up because, according to Brash, as long as war is avoided, everyone (other than the Taiwanese) will be fine in the long run.
He omitted to mention that if we ignore China’s bad behaviour he will be especially fine given the cushy seats he holds on the boards of major Chinese companies operating in NZ.
The absence of a foreign influence transparency law in New Zealand must be rectified urgently.
Transparency laws work by requiring individuals to declare influence activities and any foreign power for whom they work. While it might appear at first to be a naive request, such laws in the US, the UK and Australia have actually begun flushing a surprisingly large number of proxies out into the open. These laws also appear to be proving serious deterrents to those who were considering influence activities on behalf of foreign powers, demonstrating that reputational risk is a much greater factor in the mind of a would-be conspirator than we might first have assumed.
Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant.
New Zealand has chosen to ignore for too long the threat posed by foreign powers - whether China, Russia, Iran or elsewhere - and pass a foreign influence transparency law. Outward facing defence measures such as frigates, drones and cyber tools - all vital to our future - will ultimately count for nothing if we fail to gauge what’s really going on in our own backyard.
Help us as we continue to raise the alarm over foreign interference. NZ can no longer keep its head in the sand. At PILLAR we are pushing for a response that is both practical and principled.
Our proposed Foreign Influence Transparency Bill is exactly that.
As recently as yesterday, me and the team were meeting with MPs to advance discussions on the adoption of this bill, and we're optimistic that we'll have positive news to share in the near future! Thank you for standing with us, Friend.
