WELLINGTON \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s security agency said it disrupted an attempt by a Chinese state-linked observatory to install satellite-tracking infrastructure in the country, highlighting the \u200bcase in its annual assessment of an increasingly dangerous espionage environment.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand Security \u200cIntelligence Service (NZSIS) \u200csaid Purple Mountain Observatory, an organization based in China with close ties \u200bto the government in Beijing, had sought to install ground-based space infrastructure through a local company that was likely unaware that the equipment could collect intelligence of military value. The agency \u2060did not identify the New Zealand company or detail how the plans was disrupted.<\/p>\n
The warning appeared in \u2060the agency\u2019s Security Threat Environment 2026 assessment, released on Thursday, which said China was the only country New Zealand had detected conducting espionage \u201cat scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur last report \u200bdescribed the threat environment as being the \u2060most challenging of recent times,\u201d NZSIS Director-General Andrew Hampton said. \u201cThe kinds of malign behaviours and activities we have seen over the past \u206012 months are proving \u200beven more threatening for a country like New Zealand given \u200bits size and location in the South Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chinese Embassy in New Zealand \u200bhas not \u200cresponded to a request for comment and the observatory did not respond to an emailed request for comment.<\/p>\n
NZSIS said China\u2019s intelligence services were the most active espionage threat it faced, while cautioning that the finding should not prevent New Zealand organizations from trading \u200cor collaborating with Chinese entities. It urged an \u201ceyes wide open\u201d approach to overseas business and research ties.<\/p>\n
The agency said Beijing\u2019s national security laws could compel Chinese individuals and organizations to comply with intelligence-service requests, including by handing over data, intellectual property or system access. In the Purple Mountain case, NZSIS \u200bassessed \u200bthat any data collected would have been passed to the Chinese government \u200bwillingly.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s location in the South Pacific makes it attractive for ground-based systems that track \u2060satellites, space debris and other scientific data, NZSIS said. It is also a member of the \u201cFive Eyes\u201d security grouping which includes the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n
NZSIS said foreign states were targeting New Zealand government agencies, companies, universities and researchers for non-public information, innovative \u200btechnology and intellectual property. Methods included cyber intrusions, recruitment of insiders, academic partnerships, front companies and commercial intermediaries.<\/p>\n
It said geopolitical rivalry, competition over technology and supply chains, foreign interference targeting diaspora communities, and the use of artificial intelligence to spread polarizing or deceptive content were compounding risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WELLINGTON \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s security agency said it disrupted an attempt by a Chinese state-linked observatory to install…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[607,5766,111,279520,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-567702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-china","tag-espionage","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-security-intelligence-service","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567702","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=567702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}