Opinion | How spies help New Zealand stay friendly with China
- Nicolas Groffman writes that most people outside New Zealand are unaware of the high professionalism of its security, intelligence and espionage services
- Its spies have helped it engage with China more energetically and efficiently than almost any other non-Asian country
When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets Xi Jinping on Monday in Beijing, she will have been advised by agents of one of the most efficient intelligence services in the world.
Most people outside New Zealand are unaware of how professional its security, intelligence and espionage services are, assuming the country has nothing but rugby, sheep and fresh air.
New Zealand’s spies have particular relevance to its relationship with China: the country has engaged with China more energetically and more efficiently than almost any other non-Asian country, setting out a template for other democratic countries to follow.
It has achieved this mainly through ordinary commercial and diplomatic means, but also through clever use of its intelligence services. New Zealand is, dollar for dollar, the most effective of the Five Eyes (an intelligence alliance that also includes the US, Britain, Canada and Australia).
New Zealand has pursued a robust offensive against both American and Chinese incursions into what it sees as its domain – the Southwest Pacific. At the same time, it has minimised fallout from that offensive, with no repercussions other than a recent Global Times-backed campaign to avoid tourism in New Zealand, which has already failed.
