Break-ins may have study link
A prominent Christchurch China watcher is neither surprised nor intimidated by multiple break-ins she believes are connected to her work exposing the emerging superpower’s influence campaigns.
Professor Anne-Marie Brady made waves last year with the release of her research paper Magic Weapons, detailing how New Zealand was becoming ‘‘saturated with . . . political influence activities’’.
The University of Canterbury academic’s home was broken into on Wednesday. Three laptops, including one on which she wrote the paper, two cellphones and an encrypted memory stick from her last trip to China were taken.
Brady also received a letter this week – since handed on to police, who were also investigating the break-in – warning her of ‘‘what was going on’’ and saying she would be attacked.
The two events came just two months after a break-in at her university office. Brady said she had ‘‘had a lot of incidents occur in China’’, but this was ‘‘the first time I’ve ever had anything in New Zealand’’.
‘‘I research this stuff, these are the tactics I study. I’m prepared for this, I am. And I’ve been taking the proper precautions. So I’m not surprised and I’m not intimidated,’’ she said.
Brady first linked the break-ins to her research on Thursday to the Australian Parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which is reviewing a bill on espionage and foreign interference.
She also brought up an instance in 2015 where she claimed Chinese officials placed pressure on the University of Canterbury, among other bodies, about her thenunpublished research, later released as the book China as a Polar Great Power.
Last year, she said associates in China had been brought in for questioning by the country’s Ministry of State Security. Stuff has approached the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Zealand for comment.
Brady said she became ‘‘very concerned’’ while researching Magic Weapons because of the ‘‘significance of the information I was discovering’’. It was then that she realised she had to take ‘‘precautions’’ to protect her data.
The paper outlined the ways in which China exerted ‘‘soft power’’ through a ‘‘united front’’ approach to influence nations like New Zealand and help it pursue what Brady described as an ‘‘ambitious foreign policy’’.
New Zealand was the first developed nation to sign a free trade agreement with China in 2008. The growing power is now our largest trading partner in goods, and second largest overall including trade in services.
‘‘China hasn’t had to pressure New Zealand to accept China’s soft power activities and political influence. The New Zealand government has actively courted it,’’ Brady found in the paper.
In her research, Brady sets out connections between former political figures and Chinese interests, including former National leader Dr Don Brash, former Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley and former Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker.
She said yesterday the ‘‘cone of silence’’ around Chinese influence abroad was breaking down, in part thanks to the efforts of the Australian Government, which was ‘‘calling it out’’.
‘‘[New Zealand] must and will continue to have constructive and wide-ranging relations with China and other nations that might want to influence our politics,’’ Brady said.
‘‘But we should always want to make sure that what happens in our country is decided by our people.’’
Police said they had ‘‘received a complaint from a member of the public regarding a burglary and other matters’’, but were unable to comment further while it was being investigated.