[10][11] It is alleged that New Zealand has been used as a "training ground" for other operations – it is a developed, English-speaking country, but was seen as less dangerous than more major targets.
He was observed on several occasions meeting Dmitri Razgovorov, a Soviet diplomat, and in 1974, the SIS accused Sutch of passing information.
[19] Another New Zealander accused of working for the Soviets was Paddy Costello, a senior diplomat – information from the Mitrokhin papers is the primary source of the allegations.
[28][29][27][30] Huo and Yang subsequently resigned prior to the 2020 New Zealand general election after intelligence agencies raised concerns about the two MPs' connections to the Chinese Government with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the-then National Party leader Todd Muller.
[31][32][33] In November 2020, reporting by The New Zealand Herald revealed an individual known as "Mr H" who been sent to New Zealand in 1996 by Chinese public security bureau authorities to monitor Taiwanese and Falun Gong dissidents had failed to gain residency after having his application rejected after continuous attempts at gaining permanent residency for the past 23 years.
[34] In mid September 2020, the NZSIS confirmed that it was evaluating the "potential risks and security concerns" of the Chinese intelligence firm Zhenhua Data's "Overseas Key Individuals Database."
Zhenhua's database had been leaked to the American academic and China expert Professor Chris Balding, who passed the information to Australian cyber security firm Internet 2.0.
The data leak was covered by several international media including the Australian Financial Review, the Washington Post, the Indian Express, the Globe and Mail, and Il Foglio.
Brady claimed that the spy had been working for China, stating that "foreign interference in New Zealand almost always means the activities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
[39] On 20 July 2021, Andrew Little, the Minister in charge of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), confirmed that the signals intelligence agency had established links between Chinese state-sponsored actors known as "Advanced Persistent Threat 40" (APT40) and malicious cyber activity in New Zealand.
The NZSIS asserted that the husband and wife had "almost certainly" assisted Chinese intelligence services namely, China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) and deliberately concealed the amount of contact they had maintained with them.
[22][23] In July 2024, Christopher Luxon stated that he would publicly disclose cases of Chinese espionage in the country as part of a strategy to boost awareness of the security threat.
"[48] In 1982 a group of exiled Albanians living in New Zealand, Italy and the USA attempted to infiltrate the Iron Curtain country of Albania.
The Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was questioned by the media when the story leaked that New Zealand citizens were involved.
[citation needed] In 1985, agents of the DGSE, the primary foreign intelligence agency of France, bombed the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour.
[9][49] In 2004, two Israeli citizens pleaded guilty to an illegal attempt to acquire a New Zealand passport, in a case similar to that of the Soviet Anvar Kadyrov.
[53] The Linton–based soldier is a member of white nationalist group Action Zealandia, and expressed support for the Christchurch mosque shooter.