It seems that in New Zealand, the Chinese Communist Party can force critics and documenters of its foreign interference to go to court.
The right to notice such interference has been affirmed in at least one case, which perhaps will prevent similar assaults. The Free Speech Union (of New Zealand) has announced that a “journalist gagged for exposing Chinese Communist Party interference in NZ” is now ungagged (June 12, 2025).
CCP stooge
FSU chief executive Jonathan Ayling says that “CCP stooge Morgan Zhihong Xiao sought interim orders under the HDCA against Portia Mao, alleging online defamation and harassment. The initial orders (granted without notice!) required Portia to remove online commentary and apologise. With the FSU’s representation, Portia applied to be heard and have the orders discharged. Judge McIlraith ruled in Portia’s favour.”
A November 2024 FSU post explained the kind of thing that Portia Mao has been researching and writing about, including research for “a major exposé into the alarming rise of foreign interference in NZ by the CCP in a documentary released this year [2024] called The Long Game.”
Despite the risks, Portia’s research and reporting over many years has documented the experiences of a growing number of prominent pro-democracy dissidents from mainland China and Hong Kong as well as supporters of Taiwanese independence who have been the targets of blackmail, surveillance, asset seizure, hacking, and even violence and kidnapping, much of this occurring on NZ soil….
Politicians from both the National and Labour parties (and probably others, too) have been courted by suspected CCP proxies in an ongoing influence campaign. MPs from both parties have also been suspected of links to the CCP….
Portia’s opponents would therefore like nothing better than to discredit her, if not silence her for her work.
And then, shockingly, in July this year the District Court helped Portia’s critics do just that.
All it took was legal action. The complainant, a man running in local body elections in Howick, East Auckland (and someone Portia had investigated back in 2019) had been repeatedly attacking Portia on a Chinese chat forum for her involvement in the Stuff documentary.
For a time, she ignored the man’s many derogatory articles and posts about her. But when he accused the NZ Government of being a “lackey to the United States”, Portia decided she’d had enough and retorted that in fact it was he who was being a “lackey” for the CCP….
According to the complainant in his affidavit to the Court, receiving this label in a chat forum had caused him “serious emotional distress”.
“Portia’s victory is a huge step in pushing back on this flawed law,” Ayling says today. “It was also essential for ensuring criticising foreign powers remains a legal right in New Zealand. If governments, foreign or not, can twist our own law to stop us from exposing them, then we are not free.
“The Free Speech Union is embarking on extensive work to thoroughly review the HDCA, analysing all decisions ever made under it, and will present this to the Minister of Justice later in the year. We cannot stand by while individuals like Portia are unjustly silenced.”
Twisted how?
Is the harmful Harmful Digital Communications Act of 2015 really being “twisted,” though? The HDCA was instituted to “deter, prevent and mitigate harm caused to individuals by digital communications, and to provide victims of harmful digital communications with a quick and efficient means of redress.”
What counts as harm under the Act is “serious emotional distress,” not a demonstrable violation of rights such as is presumably already illegal in New Zealand.
If you’re an agent of the Chinese Communist Party eager to cause trouble in a foreign country, it is harmful to you and your cause if someone exposes what you’re doing. It’s inconvenient. It hurts. It hurts your plans but it also hurts your feelings. And if someone then also accurately describes you as a lackey, or stooge, whatever, of the CCP, oy the pain.
Even kidnappers and saboteurs have feelings. And here is a silly New Zealand law that lets you exploit nebulous concern about “harm” to attack a critic in a way that is “quick and efficient.”
A court has stopped this particular wielding of the law. But the HDCA itself is still on the books until FSU and others can get it scrapped.
Also see:
Stuff Circuit: “The Long Game”
“How the Chinese government carries out its influence and foreign interference in New Zealand—and what it means.”
