If agents of China are trying to intimidate an academic critic in Christchurch, they are being very foolish. But the most important word in that previous sentence is "if". The police are still investigating burglaries of the home and office of Professor Anne-Marie Brady and the alleged tampering with her car. It is too easy to jump to conclusions from the fact that the target of the break-ins were her computers and valuables were untouched. The suspected car tampering involved letting air out of her tyres, which she did not notice until she put the car in for servicing.
If somebody is trying to intimidate her, they are succeeding only in giving added credibility to her suspicions of China, which could point the finger in the opposite direction. Whether the culprits are agents of China or enemies of China, or have a different motive entirely, conjecture is pointless. The incidents should have no influence on this country's dealings with China.
Brady and other scholars in the West have become concerned that China's ruling Communist Party seeks to project the country's interests through aid to underdeveloped countries and sponsorship of friendly associations in developed countries, often led by prominent public figures in those countries. Western countries, including New Zealand, share their concern that China's aid to small and vulnerable nations such as those in the Pacific might involve debts and diplomatic obligations to China.
But they have produced no evidence yet that this "soft power" is any different from the good will and support any donor country hopes to receive from the recipients of development aid or sponsorship of public figures, journalists, scholars and other "cultural ambassadors". The United States, Britain and other Western powers have been no less keen to generate good will and support with travel grants and sponsorships of this sort. It is up to the recipients to accept these gestures in the same spirit but be free to criticise what they find.
New Zealand is trying to maintain good relations with both the China and the US at a time of tension between them. The current leadership of both superpowers gives other countries cause for concern. China's President Xi is running an authoritarian regime even less tolerant of internal criticism than those he succeeded, and his influence appears to be felt in expatriate organisations and their publications. The US President, meanwhile, has started a tariff war with China and his criticisms of China's unfair internal business practices have some validity. But those practices have begun to hurt China's economy which is slowing with industrial overcapacity and a heavy national debt.
