An ACT candidate has withdrawn from a new Wellington electorate race at November’s election, after failing to declare her previous membership of a Chinese political group linked to the country’s ruling communist party.
By Justin Wong of Local Democracy Reporting
After Local Democracy Reporting sent questions about Lyra Yan Zhang’s background on Monday, the party confirmed today the Kenepuru candidate had resigned – a week after her unveiling.
“All of our candidates are asked to disclose previous political party memberships. Ms Zhang did not disclose her previous connections, and [on Monday] she decided not to continue with her candidacy,” an ACT Party spokesperson said in a statement.
Online publications by the China Zhi Gong Party – a satellite party of the Chinese Communist Party — reveal Zhang was a member who sat on party committees in the province of Hunan.
Zhi Gong Party is one of eight “democratic” minor parties officially recognised in China’s one-party political system.
Researchers into China’s foreign influence operations say it is a “united front” organisation controlled by the CCP’s United Front Work Department to assert influence on overseas Chinese communities and mobilise them to promote Beijing’s foreign policy goals.
“Membership of the party demonstrates a close affiliation with the CCP,” said Geoff Wade, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“Members of the party, even nominally retired ones overseas, thus offer overt challenges to democratic societies through potential influence and coercion activities within the host society.”
Zhang also ran in last year’s local body elections in Porirua, coming 11th out of 15 candidates at the Onepoto General Ward.
Zhang told The Post at the time she was a Zhi Gong Party member from 2017 until 2020, when she resigned because of Covid-19, and was “not a current membership for declarations”. She didn’t run under the ACT banner.
ACT said it conducted “extensive vetting” of candidates, including independent social media and background checks, criminal record checks, and credit checks.
“This is alongside disclosure questions we ask prospective candidates, including previous party affiliations.”
Zhang, in a statement issued through ACT, said she remained supportive of the party.
The revelations are in the midst of New Zealand’s intelligence agency saying China is the “most active” country in conducting foreign interference and candidates being told to be wary of foreign interference, which could risk damage the reputation of the country, themselves or their party.
At the end of 2017, businessman Zhang Yikun, whose 2022 convictions over fraudulent political donations to the National Party were later quashed by the Court of Appeal, arranged for then Southland mayor Gary Tong to visit China in the name of the Zhi Gong Party’s central committee.
Zhang himself welcomed Zhi Gong leaders to New Zealand in 2017 and attended the party’s 90th anniversary in Beijing in 2015.
Lyra Yan Zhang moved from China to New Zealand in 2001 to study English and graduated from Massey University in 2006, according to a 2015 post on Chinese-language social media WeChat by her now-defunct export company that sells milk, honey and other health products to China.
In April 2017, a report by the provincial Zhi Gong Party in Hunan said Zhang was a member from its second branch in Lusong District of the city of Zhuzhou.
She played an “important role” in arranging a visit to Zhuzhou’s high-tech industrial parks from about 10 New Zealanders, it said.
By the end of the year, she became one of six deputy chairs of a new association made up by Zhi Gong Party members, who are young diaspora with roots in Zhuzhou, according to the website of the United Front Work Department of Hunan’s provincial CCP.
Zhang’s campaign for local office in Porirua, centring on upgrading local infrastructure and pledged to improve transparency on council spending, made no references to her previous political involvements in China.
ACT’s press release announcing its candidates did not include Zhang’s biography.
ACT leader David Seymour campaigned in 2023 on stopping foreign investment from China to build New Zealand roads: “We can’t just close our eyes and hope the CCP don’t take the opportunity to gain a foothold in New Zealand.”
Earlier this month, Beijing banned four New Zealand MPs from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau for a year over their visit to Taiwan, including National's Maureen Pugh, Labour's Duncan Webb, ACT's Laura McClure and NZ First's David Wilson.
– Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
SHARE ME