The High Court in Auckland has awarded $225,000 damages to former Auckland councillor for Howick, Paul Young, following what his legal counsel describes as a “sustained online defamation campaign”.
Last Friday, December 5, the High Court delivered its judgment in case Young v Xiao [2025] NZHC 3697, a defamation proceeding brought by Young, a businessman and east Auckland resident, against online commentator Morgan Xiao.
Young says the judgment represents “vindication after more than three years of litigation”.
“The court has confirmed what I have maintained throughout: the allegations made against me were false and defamatory.
“I hope this outcome sends a clear message that New Zealand’s legal system provides effective remedies for those whose reputations are attacked through sustained online campaigns,” Young says.
In the judgement, Justice Tracey Walker found that Xiao had defamed Young in 13 separate posts published on WeChat and related platforms between August 2021 and July 2023.
The court has ordered Xiao to pay general damages of $225,000, including aggravated damages, to compensate Young for injury to his reputation.
The court found that Xiao’s publications contained imputations of dishonesty, disloyalty, corruption, unfitness for public office, and misuse of court proceedings against Young.
The court rejected Xiao’s defences of truth, honest opinion, and responsible communication on a matter of public interest.
In assessing the publications, Justice Walker observed that they fell “well short of responsible communications” and constituted a “campaign of vilification bearing no hallmarks of a responsible communication”.
The court further found that Xiao’s evidence was “unsatisfactory on many aspects of his defence” and rejected the suggestion that his statements represented genuine opinions based on verified facts.
In addition to the damages award, the court made more orders.
Xiao is ordered to remove 11 of the defamatory posts from his WeChat account and to request in writing that any third-party platforms hosting them do likewise.
Xiao is also permanently restrained from repeating the defamatory imputations, including allegations of disloyalty, dishonesty, lack of fitness for public office, corruption, foreign influence, and misuse of court proceedings.
Young is a Taiwan-born New Zealand citizen who arrived in this country in 1989.
He’s well-known in east Auckland having run a business at Meadowlands for many years.
He’s been a prominent member of Auckland’s Chinese community for more than 35 years and in 2018 he became the first Asian councillor after winning the Howick ward by-election.
Young was re-elected to the Auckland Council for Howick a year later but subsequently has been unsuccessful in triennial polls in 2022 and 2025 to regain his seat.
Xiao’s defamatory publications were made in the Mandarin Chinese language and disseminated primarily through WeChat, the social media platform widely used by New Zealand Chinese community members.
