China’s embassy in Wellington condemned on Friday “groundless” claims by New Zealand’s spy agency that Beijing had stepped up espionage activities on its soil.

An annual report by New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service warned this week that China was conducting espionage against the country “at scale”.

In response, a spokesperson for Beijing’s embassy in Wellington accused the spy agency of being part of a wave of “attacks, slander and vilification” against China.

“Its false allegations against China either smear normal exchanges and cooperation as so-called espionage or interference, or are entirely groundless and fabricated out of thin air,” the spokesperson said.

“It also reflects the reluctance of certain forces, both within and outside New Zealand, to see the sound development of China-New Zealand relations.”

The statement comes just a few weeks after the embassy raised an official complaint in response to Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ telling a Chinese-born lawmaker to “go back to your own country”.

On Friday the embassy accused unnamed forces in New Zealand of “serving as a pawn for anti-China forces”.

“We urge these forces and individuals not to quench their thirst with poison, and not to lift a rock only to drop it on their own feet,” it said.

The spy agency also warned this week that Beijing’s spies were seeking to recruit citizens with access to state secrets on professional networking sites.

It said it had disrupted an attempt by the Chinese military-linked Purple Mountain Observatory to set up Ground Based Space Infrastructure (GBSI) covertly in New Zealand.

The local company involved — which it did not name — was likely not aware that the equipment would be able to collect intelligence of “military value”.

“It was not the first time this organisation has attempted to install its own GBSI in New Zealand and is unlikely to be the last,” the report warned.