China has been caught spying on us. Forty billion dollars in trade might explain why it took three years and the support of two friends to announce.

Calling China out for its 'cyber attacks' on our Parliamentary services took nearly three years of careful 'i-dotting and t-crossing'.

Our biggest trading partner has tried to hack into our parliamentary network, and New Zealand has come out stronger than ever before with its condemnation.

We've heard words such as "totally unacceptable" (from our minister of spies, Judith Collins); "unacceptable" and "concerning behaviours" (Foreign Minister Winston Peters); and "malicious" (GCSB director-general Andrew Clark and the Prime Minister).

But those words about China are not as strong as the denials from our supposed friend.

They included saying the government statement held "groundless and irresponsible accusations", and saying accusing China of foreign interference is "completely barking up the wrong tree".

What played out next was a delicate dance along the constant tightrope that is weighing China's good ($40 billion in trade) and bad (spying, trade repercussions after international insults, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, repression in Xinjiang and against the Uyghur people).

Newsroom national affairs editor Sam Sachdeva literally wrote the book on this - it's called The China Tightrope.

Today on The Detail he draws out the nuance of what's happened, talks about what was stolen, and looks to potential future repercussions.

Sachdeva says even the way it was announced was classic New Zealand understated response to a notable situation.

There was no news conference, but an on-the-run statement from Judith Collins in the halls of Parliament about a state-sponsored cyber attack in 2021 that was aimed at Parliamentary service networks.

Sachdeva says it's no coincidence that it came on the heels of the UK and US making their own statements about such attacks, but New Zealand hasn't gone as far as they have in imposing sanctions and making arrests.

And the reason we're only hearing about it now comes down to a mix of "the technical and the political," he says.

The issue was ignored when then-PM Chris Hipkins visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing last year, and when Christopher Luxon met the Chinese Foreign Minister in Wellington last week. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details