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The Straits Times (13 March 2025)

China’s embassy in New Zealand on March 13 accused Wellington’s top spy of “spreading false information” after the intelligence chief warned of security risks posed by Beijing’s growing influence in the Pacific.

In a speech in Wellington last week, New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service director-general Andrew Hampton said the focus of Pacific nations on economic and transnational crime issues had opened the door for China to sign strategic deals with them that linked “economic and security cooperation”.

The top spy’s comments are “completely baseless, all fabrication”, a statement released by the Chinese Embassy in Wellington said. It urged Mr Hampton to stop “mirroring” China with “Cold War thinking and zero-sum mentality”.

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