China claims New Zealand’s spy report is product of foreign interference

China’s embassy in Wellington has rejected New Zealand’s latest security assessment as the product of “foreign interference” and a “Cold War mentality”, as tension grows in a relationship already strained by geopolitical and security concerns.

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service’s annual threat report identified China as the only country conducting espionage “at scale”.

In the Thursday report, the agency’s Director General Andrew Hampton described the current threat environment as “the most challenging of recent times” and warned “the frequency of espionage activities [is expected] to increase over the next 12 months”.

The report also alleged that China was “the most active at conducting foreign interference in New Zealand”.

The Chinese embassy said the report “once again fabricates and hypes the so-called ‘China interference’ and ‘China threat’ narratives”.

“Its false allegations against China either smear normal exchanges and cooperation as so-called espionage or interference, or are entirely groundless and fabricated out of thin air. We firmly oppose this and will never accept it.”