(PresidentialWire.com)- There have been rumors that a New Zealand citizen of Chinese descent working for the government was imprisoned on suspicion of espionage for the Chinese Communist Party, but the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) remains silent on the matter (CCP).
Senior analyst at the New Zealand Public Service Commission Yuan “Jason” Zhao claims he has been called an “internal threat.”
Zhao claimed he had been falsely accused of having “close personal contacts” with officials from a foreign country and offering “privileged insights” to the Chinese communist state.
He said he was “set up.”
An insider threat is any person who uses or intends to use their access to bring harm to New Zealand, accidentally or purposefully, through espionage.
Zhao claimed on another crowdfunding platform that the NZSIS held him and his family on their return from vacation to Wellington International Airport on October 20, 2022. He said his family felt “deprived of our human rights” since the agency had forbidden them from communicating with the outside world for many hours.
Allegedly, Zhao, his wife, and their children had their passports, baggage, and phones seized from them, as well as his son’s laptop computer. According to Zhao, he was brought to an interview room and given a document to sign to agree to an interview. He “felt compelled” to sign the document since his loved ones were in captivity.
The Public Service Commission promptly suspended him from duty after the interview.
The charges of spying surfaced the day before the unveiling of AUKUS, a trilateral pact that would equip Australia with a nuclear submarine capability to counter the rising threat from the Beijing dictatorship in the Indo-Pacific.
While New Zealand is not a member of the AUKUS, former Australian Major General Mick Ryan said it could not “sit on the sidelines” during any prospective war.
This isn’t simply a naval issue; it involves diplomacy, economics, and power. And New Zealand is a part of the story regarding all these areas of “competitiveness with China,” he said.
During his first trip to Australia, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins remarked at a press conference that China is an “extremely vital” commercial partner.
It doesn’t imply, though, that we won’t have disagreements. We will constantly want to improve our long-term relationship with China, but we will continue to be vocal about our disputes when they arise.
