One New Zealand MP is calling for her country to establish a dedicated committee to deal with the issue of foreign interference.
The call comes following the latest report from human rights NGO, Safeguard Defenders, detailing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “policing” operations outside its borders.
The methods used include extradition, repatriation, and sometimes kidnapping. The data is sourced from official accounts by the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
It contains 283 individual accounts of extrajudicial returns from at least 56 countries and 2 territories (Hong Kong and Macao). In total, the CCP claims it has successfully returned more than 12,000 people using these methods since 2014.
Amongst them were 16 successful operations in Australia, and 10 in New Zealand, plus another three attempts in Australia which are said to have failed.
230,000 Succumbed to ‘Persuasion’
Added to these figures are around 230,000 people who have succumbed to “persuasion” to return, a method which—according to Safeguard Defenders—includes “extensive interrogation and repeated visits of and to family members in China; (collective) punishment of relatives in China; or direct threats, surveillance and harassment of the target abroad by (undeclared) PRC agents or their proxies.”It goes on: “A certain ‘faxiao’ team worked together to persuade Chen to return ... under pressure, Chen expressed his willingness to surrender to the Cixi Public Security Bureau through a lawyer. Not long ago, Chen returned to Changle, Fujian from Sydney, Australia, and surrendered to the Cixi Public Security Fugitive Team.”
Of the 10 returns from New Zealand, nine were under the “pressure to return” method.
In Australia, the AFP and immigration administration are listed as assisting in one case, while in New Zealand, local law enforcement assisted with two, including that of Yan Yongming.
China does not have an extradition agreement with New Zealand due to concerns about its judicial and prison systems.
But according to the CCDI “the New Zealand police sent personnel to Jilin Province seven times to investigate and collect evidence to learn about Yan Yongming’s suspected crimes.”
The Safeguard report has prompted the New Zealand co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Labour MP Ingrid Leary, to call for the establishment of a permanent select committee on foreign interference and protecting democracy.
Ms. Leary said it provided further evidence of New Zealand’s potential vulnerability to foreign interests and influences, following last month’s Beijing-linked cyber attacks.
“Taking a cross-party approach is the best way to take the politics out of it and safeguard our national interests.”
She suggests such a committee could gather evidence publicly or in secret and then make recommendations to other select committees, leaving them to adopt or reject any suggestions through the usual parliamentary process.
Ms. Leary is considering writing to Speaker Gerry Brownlee about the proposal and said other MPs were also discussing the idea.