The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its media outlets have repeatedly targeted well-known individuals for expressing their views opposing its dictatorial regime. As a result, a New Zealand-born academician is now worried about her well-being for researching the activities of the CCP and its allies. Anne-Marie Brady has spent many years studying the CCP’s activities, but now Bejing is targeting her, and she is worried.
Anne-Marie Brady is a Canterbury University professor and says she has been facing direct and veiled threats to her life. She has spent more than two decades researching the CCP. Things turned worse after her paper titled Magic Weapons was published in 2017. It focused on the extent of the Chinese influence in New Zealand.
After publishing it, she found her house was robbed, and the office was ransacked more than once. She feels that Chinese agents are spying on her continuously. She has also received threatening letters and anonymous phone calls several times.
Anne-Marie Brady experienced PTSD after the 2010 Christchurch earthquake, and she has used that experience to cope with this silent intimidation.
She says: “I have already protected myself in terms of all my information, and the rest is a mind game. It is meant to scare me… to cause mental illness or inhibit the kinds of things I write on — to silence me. So I win by not being afraid.”
Canterbury University, where she works, recently hired a security consultant to offer extra protection. They have set up encryption software, security cameras, and new locks.
Anne-Marie Brady is also concerned about the safety of her family
Anne-Marie Brady is not only worried about her safety. She has been thinking of the well-being of her spouse and their children.
She says: “New Zealanders have a deep sense of complacency about their security and feel that they’re very far away from the problems that we are seeing unfold in other parts of the world — that’s not true anymore. We are part of the international environment too, and what happened to me — having my home and workplace invaded — is a wake-up call for people.”
Anne-Marie Brady has studied the propaganda and intimidation tactics used by the CCP for a long, and it is ironic that they are using it to scare her now. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China academics across the globe are now being subjected to myriads of intimidation tactics.
Anne-Marie Brady and her husband refused several overseas job offers to stay in New Zealand and raise their children in a safe and liberal society. But recent developments have shaken their belief. New Zealand police have said that they have taken note of the continued attacks on her and they have stepped up their security level.
The matter is of grave concern for the New Zealand government too. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the prime minister is on the professor’s side. Anne-Marie Brady has been trying her best not to get scared by the covert intimidation tactics of the CCP. She relies on the motivational writing of George Orwell. She feels good that some government insiders have encouraged her to continue her research.
She adds: “I know our government values the research I do, and my courage in speaking up is also valued. But I am part of a changing geopolitical situation, and my family is. And I have to handle that at the same time as being a mum, an academic, a colleague, a person at the supermarket … I have to be normal as well.”
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