Jian Yang (politician) explained

Jian Yang
Constituency Mp:National
Parliament:New Zealand
Term Start:26 November 2011
Term End:17 October 2020
Birth Place:Jiangxi, China
Nationality:New Zealand
China
Party:New Zealand National Party
Otherparty:Chinese Communist Party
Occupation:Academic, politician

Jian Yang (; born October 1962[1]) 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.[2] [3] [4]

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.

In 1999 Yang joined the University of Auckland as a Senior Lecturer in Political Studies.[5] He was granted New Zealand citizenship on 14 June 2004.

Member of Parliament

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.[7]

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.[8]

While he was initially re-selected as a National Party list candidate in March 2020 for that year's general election,[9] 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.[10] [11] [12]

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".[13]

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.[14] [15] 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.[16] 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.[17] 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". He conceded he could be seen as having taught spies.[18] 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.[19] [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.[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.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Roll of members of the New Zealand House of Representatives, 1854 onwards . 24 May 2019 . New Zealand Parliament . 3 September 2020 . 3 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200903095934/https://www.parliament.nz/media/6305/roll-of-members-of-the-new-zealand-house-of-representatives-1854-onwards.pdf . live .
  2. Web site: McCulloch. Craig. 2021-05-27. Labour, National tight-lipped on former Kiwi-Chinese MPs' departure. live. 2021-05-29. RNZ. en-nz. 27 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210527012032/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/443477/labour-national-tight-lipped-on-former-kiwi-chinese-mps-departure.
  3. News: Harman. Richard . 26 May 2021. The cooling of relations with China: Why two MPs retired last year. Politik. live. 2021-05-29. en-NZ. 26 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210526094823/https://www.politik.co.nz/2021/05/26/the-cooling-of-relations-with-china-why-two-mps-retired-last-year/.
  4. News: Hooton. Matthew . 26 May 2021. Matthew Hooton: Chinese Government associates alleged to have infiltrated National and Labour. live. 2021-05-29. . en-NZ. 26 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210526104539/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/matthew-hooton-chinese-government-associates-alleged-to-have-infiltrated-national-and-labour/GPGATLMRORI4B4CCECKL7DRH3E/.
  5. Web site: Jian Yang, Department of Political Studies . . 9 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120425061112/http://artsfaculty.auckland.ac.nz/staff/?UPI=jyan024 . 25 April 2012.
  6. News: Cheng . Derek . Looking beyond the 'token' tag . 10 July 2020 . . 2 November 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062854/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10763276 . 4 March 2016.
  7. Web site: Yang, Jian – New Zealand Parliament. 2020-07-09. New Zealand Parliament. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20200710000858/https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/yang-jian/. 10 July 2020.
  8. Web site: 2020-01-04. National MP Jian Yang organised Simon Bridges' controversial China trip, emails show. 2020-07-09. Stuff. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20200625053911/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118419927/national-mp-jian-yang-organised-simon-bridges-controversial-china-trip-emails-show. 2020-06-25.
  9. Web site: 2020-03-05. Controversial MP Jian Yang reselected by National. 2020-07-09. Newsroom. en-AU. https://web.archive.org/web/20200710001211/https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/03/05/1066244?slug=controversial-mp-jian-yang-reselected-by-national. 10 July 2020. live.
  10. Web site: 10 July 2020. Jian Yang, the National MP who admitted to training Chinese spies, retiring. 10 July 2020. Stuff. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20200709235930/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122094310/jian-yang-the-national-mp-who-admitted-to-training-chinese-spies-retiring. 9 July 2020.
  11. Web site: National MP Jian Yang, who admitted to training Chinese spies, retires from politics . RNZ . 10 July 2020 . 10 July 2020 . 29 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210529162121/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/420913/national-mp-jian-yang-who-admitted-to-training-chinese-spies-retires-from-politics . live .
  12. News: Pannett. Rachel. 2020-07-10. Lawmaker Who Once Taught Chinese Spies Drops Out of Race in New Zealand. en-US. The Wall Street Journal. 2020-07-11. 0099-9660. 11 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200711061007/https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawmaker-who-once-taught-chinese-spies-drops-out-of-race-in-new-zealand-11594377783. live.
  13. Book: Vance, Andrea . Blue Blood: The inside story of the National Party in crisis . 2022 . HarperCollins . Auckland . 978-1-7755-4215-5 . 133 .
  14. News: A New Zealand Lawmaker's Spy-Linked Past Raises Alarms on China's Reach. Graham-McLay. Charlotte. 4 October 2017. The New York Times. 10 June 2019. en-US. 0362-4331. https://web.archive.org/web/20190609082822/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/world/asia/new-zealand-china-spy.html. 9 June 2019. live.
  15. Web site: Picking flowers, making honey.. Joske. Alex. October 2018. Australian Strategic Policy Institute. en. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200531154707/https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey. 31 May 2020. 2020-05-31.
  16. News: National MP Jian Yang taught English to Chinese spies but was not a spy himself . 13 September 2017 . . 14 September 2017 . I was a civilian officer, paid by the military but I had no rank. I was a lecturer. . https://web.archive.org/web/20190419073633/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96800358/national-mp-jian-yang-slams-defamatory-claim-he-was-trained-by-chinese-spies . 19 April 2019 . live .
  17. Web site: National MP trained by Chinese spies. Jennings. Mark. 13 September 2017. Newsroom. en-AU. 11 June 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20180205093639/https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@summer-newsroom/2017/09/12/46657?slug=newsroom-investigation-national-mp-trained-by-chinese-spies. 5 February 2018. live.
  18. News: Three unanswered questions about our spy-trainer MP . Matt . Nippert . . 30 October 2017 . 4 November 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171104090406/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11937380 . 4 November 2017 . live .
  19. News: Revealed: The citizenship file of spy trainer turned National MP Jian Yang . David . Fisher . Matt . Nippert . 21 September 2017 . . 31 October 2017 . en-NZ . 1170-0777 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190527082912/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924996 . 27 May 2019 . live .
  20. News: Jian Yang didn't disclose Chinese intelligence connections in citizenship application. Nippert. Matt. 12 October 2017. The New Zealand Herald. 31 October 2017. en-NZ. 1170-0777. https://web.archive.org/web/20190525071603/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11932407. 25 May 2019. live.
  21. Web site: Australia And New Zealand Are Ground Zero For Chinese Influence. Schmitz. Rob. 2 October 2018. NPR. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20181002221616/https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/627249909/australia-and-new-zealand-are-ground-zero-for-chinese-influence. 2 October 2018. 10 June 2019.
  22. News: Owen. Whena. 'Invisible man' National MP Jian Yang – A reporter's two-year attempt to get him to front. en-NZ. 1 News. live. 2020-07-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20200707223437/https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/invisible-man-national-mp-jian-yang-reporters-two-year-attempt-get-him-front. 7 July 2020.
  23. News: 2020-06-30. Peters challenges Muller over MP Jian Yang. 2020-07-09. . en. https://web.archive.org/web/20200710013507/https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-national/peters-challenges-muller-over-mp-jian-yang. 10 July 2020.
  24. News: McKay . Ben . NZ Chinese MP ducks questions, interviews . 10 July 2020 . . 30 June 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200704054321/https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/nz-chinese-mp-ducks-questions-interviews-20200630-p557nm.html . 4 July 2020 . live .

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