Govt reveals Chinese hacking
The Government has decided that outing China’s hacking of New Zealand’s democratic institutions is in the “national interest”, risking the country’s most valuable trading relationship to line up with the United Kingdom and the United States.
Beijing’s malicious cyber attacks on New Zealand and elsewhere are no great revelation – the Government has previously been upfront about this occurring, and yesterday confirmed that China was a “significant” source of the more than 300 state-sponsored cyber events faced by nationally important institutions in the past year.
But the Government’s decision to point the finger at China for a specific 2021 attack on Parliament was a first – a political decision aimed at aligning New Zealand with partners often more strident over the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.
“We believe very strongly in the values of our democracy and, rather than just believing in them, when we actually see them being under attack, we actually call them out,” said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The British Government overnight Monday announced that it was sanctioning Chinese nationals and an organisation for a malicious cyber spying effort targeting MPs and the UK electoral commission, and that it would now declare China a threat to Britain’s national security.
The US similarly announced that it was charging seven Chinese nationals for their part in a 14-year global campaign targeting politicians, journalists and companies.
In New Zealand, the Government decided to follow suit. Intelligence Agencies Minister Judith Collins yesterday morning issued a statement supporting the UK and announcing that the New Zealand Parliament was also hacked in 2021 – an attack not previously made public.
However, there were distinct differences between what the UK and US were describing and New Zealand’s experience. While British and American lawmakers, particularly critics of the Chinese Communist Party who were members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), were targeted, such MPs in New Zealand knew of no such attempt at intruding on them.
Instead, the GCSB had identified a breach of the Parliamentary Service and Parliamentary Counsel Office by a different group of Chinese state-sponsored hackers, who obtained some information related to MPs, but it was technical data and not strategy or sensitive information.
The public airing of concerns about China extended further yesterday evening, when GCSB director-general Andrew Clark and SIS director-general Andrew Hampton appeared before Parliament’s Intelligence and Security select committee, and Hampton detailed the agencies’ concerns about seven New Zealand military-trained pilots who had helped to train Chinese army aviators.
“Such activity clearly poses a major national security risk, and it is not in New Zealand’s interests to have former military personnel
training another military who does not share the same values as our own,” Hampton said.
Throughout the day, the Government was asked repeatedly about the decision to make this public. Given that the cyber attack occurred in 2021, why now?
Clark, in laying out the various factors behind the decision made it clear that ultimately, it was a political decision. “The government of the day has to decide whether it is in the national interest to do so, and really, that’s the ultimate test.”
New Zealand governments, conscious of the country’s outsized economic reliance on the Chinese market, typically face hard choices about what to say about China, and when and how to do so.
The hack and New Zealand’s outrage were not raised in meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi when he visited Wellington last week, Luxon confirmed yesterday.
Instead, government officials raised China’s malicious cyber attacks with Chinese officials earlier in the month.
And the diplomatic action taken by the Government yesterday demonstrated how the severity of the intrusion on New Zealand’s democracy is assessed, and the different path New Zealand takes in handling such concerns.
There will be no sanctions in response – the Government lacks the laws to do so, and won’t legislate for this – and there will be no declaring China a threat to New Zealand’s national security.
Instead, Foreign Minister Winston Peters asked foreign affairs officials to get the Chinese Embassy on the phone to ensure the Government’s displeasure was conveyed.
The public response from the Chinese Embassy was typical of how Beijing responds to allegations of interfering in New Zealand or elsewhere, telling the Government it was “barking up the wrong tree”.
“We reject outright such groundless and irresponsible accusations and have lodged serious démarches [diplomatic protests] to New Zealand’s relevant authorities, expressing strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition.”
Peters said New Zealand would continue to speak out about concerning behaviours.