Jian Yang (politician)

Jian Yang
杨建
Photograph of Yang in 2010
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for National
In office
26 November 2011 – 17 October 2020
Personal details
BornOctober 1962 (age 62)
Jiangxi, China
NationalityNew Zealand
China
Political partyNew Zealand National Party
Other political
affiliations		Chinese Communist Party[1]
OccupationAcademic, politician

Jian Yang (simplified Chinese: 杨健; traditional Chinese: 楊建; pinyin: Yáng Jiàn; born October 1962[2]) is a Chinese New Zealander international relations academic, politician and a former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. Before moving to New Zealand, he was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and worked for the People's Liberation Army, including training linguists to intercept foreign communications. He is a member of the National Party and was a National MP from 2011 until the 2020 general election, when he retired.

Several news outlets reported in 2021 that his retirement from Parliament came after intelligence agencies flagged concerns about his relationship with the Chinese Government, and was arranged as part of a deal between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Opposition Leader Todd Muller that also involved Labour MP Raymond Huo leaving Parliament for the same reason.[3][4][5]

Early life

Yang grew up in Jiangxi Province in southern China. He earned his MA and PhD in international relations from the Australian National University.[6]

In 1999 Yang joined the University of Auckland as a Senior Lecturer in Political Studies.[7] He was granted New Zealand citizenship on 14 June 2004.[8]

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2011–2014 50th List 36 National
2014–2017 51st List 33 National
2017–2020 52nd List 33 National

Yang was ranked at 36 on the National Party list for the 2011 New Zealand general election. He was the highest ranked new candidate on the list and was seen as a replacement for Pansy Wong, a Chinese MP who had resigned since the previous election.[6]

Yang was re-elected on the party list in 2014 and 2017. During his parliamentary career, Yang was the deputy chair of the Health select committee from 2013 to 2014, the chair of the Education and Science committee from 2014 to 2017 and the chair of Governance and Administration committee from 2017 to 2020. He was additionally appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities in 2017 and the National Party opposition spokesperson for statistics from 2017 to 2020.[9]

In 2019, it was reported that Yang organised a meeting between National Party leader Simon Bridges and Guo Shengkun, the head of the Chinese Communist Party secret police during a visit to China.[10]

While he was initially re-selected as a National Party list candidate in March 2020 for that year's general election,[11] Yang later announced his retirement from politics following renewed pressure from New Zealand First MP Winston Peters over his alleged links to Chinese military intelligence.[12][13][14]

It was later reported that his retirement from Parliament came as the result of a secret deal between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Opposition Leader Todd Muller after intelligence agencies raised concerns about his and Labour MP Raymond Huo's relationships with the Chinese Government. According to reports, the two leaders arranged for both Jian and Huo to leave Parliament at the 2020 election "with a minimum of fuss".[15][3][4][5]

Foreign agent allegations

See also: Chinese intelligence activity abroad and Foreign espionage in New Zealand

On 13 September 2017 accusations were raised in the media that Yang taught English to Chinese spies in the 1980s and 1990s.[16][17] Yang admitted he had a background as a civilian, or non-ranking, officer in the Chinese military. In response to the accusations, the National Party released a copy of Yang's CV from 2012, which mentioned his time at the Air Force Engineering College and Luoyang People's Liberation Army University of Foreign Languages.[1] The Financial Times says the Foreign Languages Institute is part of China's military intelligence apparatus run by the People's Liberation Army, training linguists to intercept foreign communications; Yang is also a graduate of this same institution. It was also reported that Yang attracted the attention of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service three years prior to these revelations.[18] Yang was a lecturer at the Foreign Language Institute and his immigration file shows he taught the English language and American studies. Yang claimed he taught his students to simply monitor communications, rather than carry out "the physical act of spying".[1] He conceded he could be seen as having taught spies.[19] The New Zealand Herald later reported that Yang did not disclose his links to the schools in his citizenship applications and instead substituted "partner" universities.[8][20]

Yang also confirmed that he had been a member of the Chinese Communist Party but claimed to be inactive since moving to New Zealand in 1994.[1][21]

In late June 2020, Yang came under further criticism from media and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for refusing to give English-language interviews since the spy allegations surfaced and only granting interviews to Chinese-language media.[22][23][24] He then announced his retirement from Parliament, reportedly as a result of a deal between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Opposition Leader Todd Muller after intelligence agencies raised concerns about his and Labour MP Raymond Huo's relationships with the Chinese Government.[3][4][5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "National MP Jian Yang taught English to Chinese spies but was not a spy himself". Stuff. 13 September 2017. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2017. I was a civilian officer, paid by the military but I had no rank. I was a lecturer.
  2. ^ "Roll of members of the New Zealand House of Representatives, 1854 onwards" (PDF). New Zealand Parliament. 24 May 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 September 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  3. ^ a b c McCulloch, Craig (27 May 2021). "Labour, National tight-lipped on former Kiwi-Chinese MPs' departure". RNZ. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Harman, Richard (26 May 2021). "The cooling of relations with China: Why two MPs retired last year". Politik. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Hooton, Matthew (26 May 2021). "Matthew Hooton: Chinese Government associates alleged to have infiltrated National and Labour". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  6. ^ a b Cheng, Derek (2 November 2011). "Looking beyond the 'token' tag". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Jian Yang, Department of Political Studies". University of Auckland. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  8. ^ a b Fisher, David; Nippert, Matt (21 September 2017). "Revealed: The citizenship file of spy trainer turned National MP Jian Yang". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  9. ^ "Yang, Jian – New Zealand Parliament". New Zealand Parliament. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  10. ^ "National MP Jian Yang organised Simon Bridges' controversial China trip, emails show". Stuff. 4 January 2020. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Controversial MP Jian Yang reselected by National". Newsroom. 5 March 2020. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  12. ^ "Jian Yang, the National MP who admitted to training Chinese spies, retiring". Stuff. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  13. ^ "National MP Jian Yang, who admitted to training Chinese spies, retires from politics". RNZ. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  14. ^ Pannett, Rachel (10 July 2020). "Lawmaker Who Once Taught Chinese Spies Drops Out of Race in New Zealand". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  15. ^ Vance, Andrea (2022). Blue Blood: The inside story of the National Party in crisis. Auckland: HarperCollins. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-7755-4215-5.
  16. ^ Graham-McLay, Charlotte (4 October 2017). "A New Zealand Lawmaker's Spy-Linked Past Raises Alarms on China's Reach". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  17. ^ Joske, Alex (October 2018). "Picking flowers, making honey". Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Archived from the original on 31 May 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  18. ^ Jennings, Mark (13 September 2017). "National MP trained by Chinese spies". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  19. ^ Nippert, Matt (30 October 2017). "Three unanswered questions about our spy-trainer MP". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 4 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  20. ^ Nippert, Matt (12 October 2017). "Jian Yang didn't disclose Chinese intelligence connections in citizenship application". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  21. ^ Schmitz, Rob (2 October 2018). "Australia And New Zealand Are Ground Zero For Chinese Influence". NPR. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  22. ^ Owen, Whena. "'Invisible man' National MP Jian Yang – A reporter's two-year attempt to get him to front". 1News. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  23. ^ "Peters challenges Muller over MP Jian Yang". Otago Daily Times. 30 June 2020. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  24. ^ McKay, Ben (30 June 2020). "NZ Chinese MP ducks questions, interviews". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 4 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.