New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on Monday said his country had a very open relationship with China and he would welcome any discussion about the reported spying on Chinese consulate in Auckland with Chinese officials.
Asked if plans were underway to spy on Chinese communication, Key said in a television interview on 3News that "I'm not going to go into those details."
Asked if he could say that New Zealand was not spying on the Chinese, he replied, "Well, I'm not going to talk about any foreign intelligence that we gather about any country or any particular reason."
The Herald newspaper reported on Sunday that New Zealand and United States spy agencies planned to hack into a data link between Chinese government buildings in Auckland, citing a document it said released by U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Chinese embassy in New Zealand issued a statement Sunday, saying China was concerned about the report and attached great importance to the cyber security issue.
"We will firmly safeguard our security interests and continue to guarantee our cyber and information security with concrete measures," said the statement.
