A Labour list candidate has lashed out at an expert on Chinese politics who accused her of having "close connections" to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Naisi Chen told the Justice Select Committee she felt "hurt" by being mentioned in Canterbury University Professor Anne-Marie Brady's Magic Weapons paper.

She told MPs on the committee: "You can't help but wonder how she managed to draw all these conclusions with sometimes no facts at all."

In it, Chen - who stood as a candidate for Labour in the 2017 election and is a member of the New Zealand China Council - was accused of having "close United Front connections" - an agency Brady described as promoting the ideals of the CCP to control outside forces.

"When I was named in that paper in 2017 - and when my loyalty to the country I grew up in and was completely schooled in and have represented very proudly, was put into question - to be honest, that was quite hurtful."

When asked to respond to Chen telling MPs she felt hurt, Brady told Newshub: "She's entitled to her feelings, and we heard her."

Brady attempted to highlight the policies of China's "expanded foreign influence activities" in the era of President Xi Jinping in her 2017 paper. It examines the extent to which New Zealand is "being targeted by China's new influence agenda".