An article in The Epoch Times, a news outlet associated with Falun Gong, quoted Chung as saying he had \u201cnever seen such skilful dancing before\u201d after attending a Shen Yun show at Wellington\u2019s St. James Theatre on April 13, 2023.<\/p>\n
Chung was appalled to hear the group were forbidden to perform in China, the article states.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s terrible. I think that to actually ban performances like this is just really shocking, terrible,\u201d Chung is quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
Chung did not wish to comment on his meeting with Chinese Embassy officials or his comments to New Zealand\u2019s spy agency when contacted by the Herald.<\/p>\n
An online article quotes Chung as attending a Shen Yun show at Wellington\u2019s St. James Theatre in 2023.<\/p>\n
An NZSIS spokesperson confirmed the service had \u201cengaged directly with elected members of Wellington City Council,\u201d but said it did so in-confidence, and would not comment on specific issues raised.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NZSIS engages with a wide range of sectors, including local government, to raise awareness of national security risks to New Zealand such as foreign interference,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNZSIS engagement is also about ensuring participants are aware of the information and resources we provide to enable them to undertake their own risk assessments and due diligence in their roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unclassified NZSIS guidance for MPs and local government politicians warns elected representatives may be targeted by foreign interference because of their influence over public decision-making. <\/p>\n
It advises them to report suspicious or unusual approaches by foreign officials and other foreign state-linked actors.<\/p>\n
Mayor Andrew Little, who previously served as NZSIS and GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) Minister, said the recent session was held to give councillors \u201cawareness about the threats they might face, get practical tips and guides for keeping themselves and council information safe, and know confidential ways to speak up\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t confirm any contributions by councillors attending the session,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n
The Chinese Embassy did not respond to requests for comment about the alleged meeting with Chung.<\/p>\n
The Embassy of the People\u2019s Republic of China is based on Glenmore St in Wellington. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
NZSIS director-general Andrew Hampton told the Herald last October local government was seen by interference actors as a softer target<\/a>, and mayors, councillors and staff would need to be on high alert for hidden espionage threats.<\/p>\n In its most recent threat environment report, the NZSIS said China is the \u201cmost active\u201d state undertaking foreign interference in New Zealand<\/a><\/p>\n The Chinese Embassy has repeatedly rejected this, hitting out at an earlier threat report as \u201centirely baseless<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An article in The Epoch Times, a news outlet associated with Falun Gong, quoted Chung as saying he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,3041,259188,21500,4444,63947,2199,10039,38290,2006,26950,10938,16718,111,43,139,69,140603,10711,4762,6777,14904,22393,216606,6642,6859,10939,52,259187,2963],"class_list":["post-523417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-agency","tag-anticommunist","tag-attending","tag-chinese","tag-chung","tag-city","tag-controversial","tag-councillor","tag-dance","tag-embassy","tag-herald","tag-him","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzsis","tag-officials","tag-party","tag-performance","tag-questioned","tag-ray","tag-shen","tag-tells","tag-told","tag-understands","tag-wellington","tag-yun","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}