Australian media have been reporting the Five Eyes alliance has broadened intelligence-sharing activities to Germany and Japan to combat China.
The increased cooperation by the alliance – Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – is said to be a sign of a broadening international front against Chinese influence operations and investments.
According to the media reports, the enhanced cooperation amounts to an informal expansion of the Five Eyes group on the specific issue of foreign interference.
Perhaps coincidentally, the agency in NZ which processes the intelligence from its partners, the GCSB, has identified “a significant security risk” associated with Spark NZ’s application for the deployment of Huawei 5G equipment in the planned 5G Radio Access Network (RAN).
GCSB Director-General Andrew Hampton told Spark he considers its proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in the RAN would, if implemented, raise significant national security risks.
As some commentators see it, NZ has at last woken up to the risks associated with China’s push into the Pacific. Foreign Minister Winston Peters has been at the forefront of pushing for a harder-nosed approach towards China (although at the same time he apparently is determined not to give an inch to his political opponents—hence his barb directed at National’s MP Dr Jian Yang, who in an earlier life admitted to training Chinese spies in English).
Peters said in an interview on RadioLive it would be “naive” to think general citizens are not being spied upon by foreign powers.
“At the moment the issue is that the problem is from whence it’s happening, but this isn’t limited to just one country,” he said.
To some, it is not surprising that Peters — and an increasing number of ministers – are becoming concerned at the inroads China is making into NZ affairs. NZ officials who follow these issues closely believe there is increasing evidence of offshore intervention – aka penetration – into this country.
Some think NZ may shortly have to confront the challenge head-on as recent activities have only reinforced the absolute value of intelligence NZ derives from its Five-Eyes and allied links.
Strangely, left-wingers like Chris Trotter and Mike Lee have been defending China. Trotter says angering China “can be extremely injurious to this nation’s economic health” . He argues that those wanting the Government to take strong action are being rather naive and foolish.
The puzzle here is why China commands such support, despite its growing influence, from champions who – a generation ago – held trenchant anti-US positions because of their concern about American influence.
It should be noted that the US at APEC was much readier to expose brutal Chinese tactics.
Perhaps Washington might be a better friend, despite the capricious nature of the current incumbent in the White House.
Point of Order 
Whatever one’s views of Trump the US is a vigorous democracy; China on the other hand is an increasingly oppressive dictatorship. Is there really a choice? Does having an “independent” foreign policy mean ignoring evil when it’s inconvenient to acknowledge its existence? Sad to see so many commentators this week attacking Prof Anne-Marie Brady for her revelations of Chinese Communist Party influence among our political and business elite through her peer-reviewed research paper “Magic Weapons” and follow-up. It almost looked like a coordinated campaign.
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The NZ political elite and MFAT have for to long been to enamoured with trade and China above all else. There is a very strong trade and only trade cabal within MFAT and that has been to the detriment of other aspects of NZ diplomacy which are equally valid. Yes trade is highly important but more so is NZ as an independent and free nation able to withstand unwelcome foreign interference and to freely associate with like minded nations on issues that matter. Hence our national security is very important to us and we have long standing beneficial relationships with our FEYES partners that are cornerstones of our national security and defence. We cannot allow our national security to be undermined and our FEYES relationship to be weakened which is a goal off China, Russia and a few other nations. NZ is seen as the weak link in the FEYES chain by these nations, and our politicians certainly don’t do anything to dissuade that perception, by weakening NZ security and defence forces through the allocation of totally insufficient funding and resourcing.
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