Naisi Chen (, born February 1994) is a New Zealand politician. She served as a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party from 2020 to 2023.

Early life and career

Chen was born in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, China and moved to New Zealand at age five. Her father is a Christian pastor and her mother is a doctor of

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

. She attended

Westlake Girls High School Westlake Girls High School () is a state girls secondary school, located to the west of Lake Pupuke in Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand. The school was established in 1957 as a coeducational school, changing to girls only in 1962 when Westlake B ...

in Auckland before studying at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 2017. She worked as president of the New Zealand Chinese Students' Association and as a director of a business consultancy firm. She was appointed to the board of Foundation North in 2019. A musician who learned piano, flute, double bass and tuba, she also sat on the board of the

Auckland Philharmonia The Auckland Philharmonia (formerly Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, APO) is a symphony orchestra based in Auckland, New Zealand. Its principal concert venue is the Auckland Town Hall, and it is also the accompanying ensemble for Auckland stage ...

Political career

Chen was asked to run as a Labour candidate at the 2017 general election by Raymond Huo. She was selected as a list candidate, ranked 50, then additionally selected for the

East Coast Bays East Coast Bays is an urban area along the east coast of the North Shore, New Zealand, North Shore in New Zealand. First established as independent borough during the 1950s, East Coast Bays became contiguous with the Auckland urban area and wa ...

electorate after the previous Labour candidate withdrew. She was defeated in the electorate contest by

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Erica Stanford Erica Louise Stanford (née Poppelbaum; born 1978) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party. She currently serves as the 49th Minister of Education and the 60th Minister of Im ...

and not ranked high enough to be elected as a list MP. She stood again at the and was ranked 38 on the Labour Party list. Chen also contested the electorate. Despite losing the Botany electorate to

Christopher Luxon Christopher Mark Luxon (; born 19 July 1970) is a New Zealand politician and former business executive who has served as the 42nd prime minister of New Zealand since 2023 and as leader of the National Party since 2021. He previously served ...

by a margin of 3,999 votes, she was ranked high enough on the Labour list to get into Parliament. In parliament, Chen sat on the governance and administration committee and was deputy chair (from 2020 to 2023) and chair (2023) of the economic development, science and innovation committee. Ahead of the , she sought the Labour Party nomination for Auckland Central but was unsuccessful. Instead, she contested

for a second time. Stanford retained the seat and, despite her improved list rank of 33, the party did not poll well enough for Chen to be re-elected. Due to her low ranking on the party list, she was not re-elected to Parliament.

Alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party

In September 2017, New Zealand

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

and

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

political scientist Anne-Marie Brady alleged in a conference paper that Chen had "close ��connections" to the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

, a network of groups and individuals and strategy the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP) uses to advance its agenda. Brady cited Chen's leadership of New Zealand Chinese Students' Association, a "united front-related organization", as evidence. Chen said she felt "hurt" by the accusations. Prior to the 2020 election, members of the group New Zealand Values Alliance distributed flyers in Auckland alleging that Chen was a "CCP agent".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Naisi 1994 births Living people Chinese emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand Labour Party MPs New Zealand people of Chinese descent New Zealand list MPs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 2023 New Zealand general election