Hong Kong, August 20 : China invests much energy into portraying itself as a responsible and benign force for good in the world. Yet hiding behind this facade are the many-tentacled arms of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). And pulling their strings is Chairman Xi Jinping, whose dream is for China to be enthroned atop the pedestal of world influence.
One does not need to scratch very deep beneath the surface to see how wide and deep Chinese influence spreads around the globe. In fact, recent reports from opposite sides of the world have exposed malign Chinese activities in New Zealand and the USA, for instance.
In August, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) released its 2026 copy of New Zealand's Security Threat Environment, and it pulled no punches as to the gravest foreign threat to the Kiwi way of life. It stated, "There are several states that conduct espionage against New Zealand, but the People's Republic of China [PRC] is the only country we have detected doing it at scale."
It continued: "Some attempts at espionage will be made through legitimate channels such as open academic exchanges and commercial relationships, while others will use cyber infiltration, fake cover companies, or straight-out theft. All will try to obscure any link back to the foreign state. If the state is highly motivated to obtain a specific set of information or achieve a specific outcome, they will often use any means at their disposal." The SIS predicted that espionage activity would increase in frequency over the coming year.
Today, naivety in the West is rampant, since many do not realise that the Chinese national security law explicitly requires Chinese individuals and companies to comply with requests from Chinese security services. This could entail handing over data or intellectual property and giving access to systems, for example.
Academic exchanges, talent recruitment programs, and scholarships are commonplace, but the SIS report warned such methods "are used by some states to covertly and illicitly access intellectual property and technology. They also use them as a way to disguise military or intelligence agencies' involvement."
New Zealand's intelligence agency has uncovered foreign states attempting to deceptively obtain sensitive technology through international front companies and supply chain intermediaries too. One example is Purple Mountain Observatory, operated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the People's Liberation Army. It attempted to install ground-based space infrastructure in New Zealand, working with an unwitting local company. This Chinese equipment could have collected intelligence of military value for Beijing. Fortunately, this operation was shut down, but it was not the first time Purple Mountain Observatory had tried such a trick.
The SIS warned that even greater obfuscation is likely in the future. New Zealand also "identified individuals carrying out espionage and foreign interference activities in the Pacific on behalf of a foreign intelligence service. These activities seek to advance the foreign state's policy objectives through deceptive and corruptive means. These actions undermine the security and sovereignty of New Zealand and Pacific countries."
Andrew Hampton, the NZSIS Director General, said, "There have been instances in New Zealand over the last couple of years where individuals have unwittingly been pulled into engaging with what we now know as the PRC's military intelligence. That's a real concern in terms of espionage."
The SIS specifically warned about fake Chinese recruiters targeting former government and military officials. The normal modus operandi is first contact through job ads on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, followed by virtual interviews and an initial test using something like a trial report to ascertain levels of knowledge. The Chinese entity then moves to encrypted apps, where recruits are asked for more sensitive information. Payments are made, and the target is essentially hooked by then. With New Zealand being a Five Eyes alliance member, it makes an attractive target for Chinese espionage.
The Chinese Embassy in Wellington reacted angrily to the SIS report, declaring, "Its false allegations against China either smear normal exchanges and cooperation as so-called espionage or interference, or are entirely groundless and fabricated out of thin air." This boilerplate response is typical of Beijing when its nefarious activities are exposed, with "smear" being a favourite word of the CCP.
The embassy added, "That this report is released at this particular juncture is no coincidence - it forms part of a new wave of attacks, slander and vilification against China orchestrated by certain international forces, and may well itself be a product of foreign interference."
Getting more descriptive and creative, Chinese officials warned, "Manufacturing distractions in foreign relations will not solve New Zealand's own problems - it will only prove counterproductive. We urge these forces and individuals not to quench their thirst with poison, and not to lift a rock only to drop it on their own feet."
Incidentally, in a similar vein, there is an ongoing war of words between China and the Philippines. Despite Beijing's claims that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, this is patently a lie. China has been particularly abusive against Manila because it has stood up to Beijing's illegal territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Following one particular outburst from the Chinese Embassy in Manila, the Philippine Department of Defense responded on 16 August: "The Chinese Embassy's response does not contain any answers. Instead, it is full of questions and rhetoric. This is a classic example of evasiveness and a badge of deception. This is, in legal practice, an implied admission of culpability. They cannot hide behind their disingenuous misinformation."
Chinese officials also enjoy lambasting Japan. Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, recently threatened, "We urge the Japanese side to truly draw lessons from history and stop its retrogressive moves. If Japan insists on pursuing neo-militarism and becomes a source of instability and a threat to regional peace, it will once again face the judgement of justice and the reckoning of history."
Returning to New Zealand, despite China's vehement denials, the SIS also warned about political and societal interference: "Over the past twelve months, NZSIS has observed states deceptively and coercively engaging with community groups and attempting to suppress social and protest movements. The PRC continues to be the most active at conducting foreign interference in New Zealand."
With New Zealand going to the electoral polls later this year, the SIS expects such activities to intensify. "Co-optees, disguising their foreign state links, might also use donations, gifts and hospitality to build a relationship with a candidate that could be later leveraged, sometimes years later."
The SIS also shared that diaspora communities - and some 5.6% of New Zealand's population is ethnically Chinese - are "being unfairly targeted by foreign states and their proxies seeking to limit the democratic rights and freedoms they enjoy as New Zealanders".
Transnational repression includes the threat of legal and administrative action, as well as state-directed surveillance and harassment of family members back home.
It is also the case that Beijing attempts to control Chinese-language media in New Zealand. The aim is to manage what information these communities can access and to manipulate their views.
Turning to the USA next, a recent report entitled Compromised Independence: CCP Influence at Harvard University highlighted that "a joint investigation by the House Select Committee on China and the House Committee on Education and Workforce identified a system where deference to CCP interests overrides American economic, technological and national security interests".
This is particularly alarming, since Harvard is a premier research organisation that helps maintain the USA's scientific edge against China. Instead, it turns out numerous departments and research programs are in bed with China, even as university management shows ongoing deference to China.
The committee explained, "This is not confined to a single individual, but instead pervasively corrupts the organization's integrity." Harvard receives more money from China than any other American university, amounting to US$607.1 million last year.
Furthermore, "Harvard furthers the CCP's interests across multiple domains, including the CCP's technological and scientific aspirations. The committees identified a series of research relationships between Harvard-affiliated researchers and researchers at universities linked to China's defense research and industrial base. This research collaboration focused on areas that have clear civilian and military applications, such as robotics."
The report drew this lesson: "This evidence leads to a stark conclusion: Harvard's pattern of conduct suggests an institution that prioritises preserving lucrative financial ties to China over enforcing its own standards, American interests, and upholding its institutional responsibilities."
Harvard also egregiously failed to recognise and condemn China's human rights pogrom against Uighurs, and even likely funded Chinese officials - ones sanctioned by the US Treasury - to learn new skills that could assist in their ongoing oppression of Uighurs. These included people in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which has been sanctioned by the US government for human rights abuses since 2020.
Unfortunately, these types of collaborations with China are not exclusive to Harvard University. They occur in other American and Western academic institutes as well.
China's Thousand Talents Program, which was launched in 2008, is a CCP-directed effort to recruit talent from overseas. Many academics signed up, some out of hubris because of their visions of grandeur and winning Nobel prizes. Yet underlying it was China's deliberate policy of acquiring foreign technology, whether by recruiting overseas talent, espionage, academic collaboration and absorbing international research.
In reality, there is just one state-sponsored purpose: to advance China's strategic, technological, and military objectives. In other words, growing Chinese state power. Remember that Chinese academic and scientific institutions operate under and are dictated by centralised national planning.
The US report elaborated, "These directives are operationalised through state-run talent programs, research partnerships, professional appointments, defence-linked laboratories, and provincial and municipal innovation platforms. These platforms, in turn, systematically target Western universities, national laboratories, and researchers for access to expertise, intellectual property, data, and training. This plan implements a sustained state strategy to target foreign-funded research - particularly from the United States - to accelerate China's technological and military prowess."
Researchers affiliated with Harvard University co-authored more than 140 publications with researchers from Chinese institutes. Many of these were from the so-called "Seven Sons of National Defense", a group of Chinese universities invaluable to Chinese defense and military research.
One example of collaboration was biomimetic robots for deep-sea exploration. A Harvard researcher worked with a counterpart at Beihang University, one of the Seven Sons institutes, on research having potential military applications such as underwater detection.
Another instance saw American researchers cooperating with the National University of Defense Technology in China on the topic of magnetic materials. In an astonishing conflict of interest, that study was even partially funded by the US Army Research Office.
The US report warned, "When China engages with the global scientific community, it does so on its own terms. While China benefits from access to open research systems abroad, it restricts comparable access at home. Academic and scientific activity is tightly controlled by the CCP."
The threat of Chinese subterfuge - whether it is suppressing its own citizens overseas, stealing data, or advancing its industrial and military technology - is very real. In the counterintelligence section of its website, for example, the FBI warns, "The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the CCP are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States."
The FBI continued, "The threat comes from the programs and policies pursued by an authoritarian government. The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favourable to China. At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world's greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions."