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New Zealand Joins US, UK in Alleging it Was Targeted by China-backed Cyberespionage

The Chinese flag flies at the Chinese Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Jason Oxenham/New Zealand Herald via AP)
The Chinese flag flies at the Chinese Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Jason Oxenham/New Zealand Herald via AP)
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New Zealand Joins US, UK in Alleging it Was Targeted by China-backed Cyberespionage

The Chinese flag flies at the Chinese Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Jason Oxenham/New Zealand Herald via AP)
The Chinese flag flies at the Chinese Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Jason Oxenham/New Zealand Herald via AP)

Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a state-sponsored operation that targeted New Zealand's Parliament in 2021, the country's security minister said Tuesday.
New Zealand's allegation comes a day after American and British authorities announced a set of criminal charges and sanctions against seven hackers, all believed to be living in China, who targeted US officials, journalists, corporations and pro-democracy activists, as well as the UK’s election watchdog.
“The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Judith Collins, the defense minister responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau, said in a statement.
Collins said the agency had also established links between a state-sponsored entity linked to China and malicious cyber activity targeting parliamentary entities in New Zealand.
The bureau's National Cyber Security Centre "completed a robust technical assessment" following a compromise of the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Parliamentary Service in 2021, and has attributed this activity to a PRC (China) state-sponsored group known as APT40,” Collins said.
“Fortunately, in this instance, the NCSC worked with the impacted organizations to contain the activity and remove the actor shortly after they were able to access the network," she added.
Collins said New Zealand will not follow the US and UK in sanctioning China because New Zealand does not have a law allowing such penalties, nor were there plans to introduce legislation.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed New Zealand’s concerns had been conveyed to Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong.
“Foreign interference of this nature is unacceptable, and we have urged China to refrain from such activity in future,” Peters said in a statement Tuesday. “New Zealand will continue to speak out — consistently and predictably — where we see concerning behaviors like this.”
Peters met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on March 18, and said the countries share a “significant and complex relationship.”
“We cooperate with China in some areas for mutual benefit,” he said. "At the same time, we have also been consistent and clear that we will speak out on issues of concern.”
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian dismissed the allegations as “typical political manipulation" concocted by the US and UK, with whom it is in conflict over issues including Taiwan, the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and a wide range of trade disputes.
“For some time, the US, for geopolitical purposes, has encouraged the Five Eyes Alliance, the world’s largest intelligence organization dominated by the US, to fabricate and disseminate all kinds of disinformation about threats posed by Chinese hackers,” Lin said at a daily briefing Tuesday.

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NATO's Longtime Chief Hands over to Former Dutch Premier Mark Rutte

Jens Stoltenberg reacts as the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte uses a hammer at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Jens Stoltenberg reacts as the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte uses a hammer at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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NATO's Longtime Chief Hands over to Former Dutch Premier Mark Rutte

Jens Stoltenberg reacts as the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte uses a hammer at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Jens Stoltenberg reacts as the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte uses a hammer at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. (Reuters)

One of NATO’s longest serving top officials, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, stepped down on Tuesday, handing over the reins to former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the military alliance confronts some of the biggest challenges in its history.

The two men, who first sat together at NATO's table 14 years ago as the leaders of Norway and the Netherlands, greeted each other warmly outside the alliance's Brussels headquarters, before laying a wreath to fallen military personnel, surrounded by the flags of the 32 member countries.

"Mark has the perfect background to become a great secretary general," a visibly emotional Stoltenberg said as he ended a decade in office.

"He has served as prime minister for 14 years and led four different coalition governments, so therefore he knows how to make compromises, create consensus, and these are skills which are very much valued here at NATO," Stoltenberg said.

Rutte said that he "cannot wait to get to work." He said his priorities would be NATO's support for Ukraine, with the war now in its third year, increasing defense spending and strengthening partnerships that the alliance has established with other countries around the world, notably in Asia and the Middle East.

Rutte also underlined the importance of keeping the trans-Atlantic bond between the United States, Canada and Europe strong, and expressed confidence that he can work well with whoever is elected to the White House.

Surveys suggest the US election in November will be a close race. It could see the return of Donald Trump, whose bluster during his last term of office about low defense spending among European allies and Canada undermined trust of NATO member countries.

It became an existential challenge, as smaller members feared that the US under Trump would renege on NATO’s security pledge that all countries must to come to the rescue of any ally in trouble, the foundation stone the alliance is built on.

But Rutte said: "I know both candidates very well." He praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more and for toughening their approach toward China. He also hailed the "fantastic record" of Vice President Kamala Harris and described her as "a highly respected leader."

"I will be able to work with both. Whatever is the outcome of the election," Rutte said.

Stoltenberg, NATO’s 13th secretary-general, took over in 2014, the year that "little green men" from Russia infiltrated Ukraine. Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula, sparking a defense spending buildup at the world’s biggest security alliance that gathered pace over his term.

His tenure was surpassed only by Dutch diplomat Joseph Luns, who spent 12 years in charge of NATO.

NATO secretaries-general run the HQ, drive the alliance's working agenda and speak on behalf of the 32-nation organization with one unifying voice. Continuity is usually the key word when they take up office.

Rutte becomes NATO’s top civilian official as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches the 1,000-day mark.

Russian forces are making advances in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s army has a shaky hold on part of the Kursk region in Russia, which has provided a temporary morale boost, but as casualties mount it remains outmanned and outgunned.

Rutte will have to find new ways to encourage support for Ukraine among the allies, whose ranks have swelled to 32 countries since the invasion as Finland and Sweden joined to seek protection from Russia under NATO's security umbrella.

Trump has been critical of US aid to Ukraine, and he suggested last week that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should have made concessions to Russian leader Vladimir Putin before he launched his invasion in 2022.