New video has emerged of Chinese police flying into Fiji to round up a group of 77 alleged online scammers.
The operation targeting Chinese nationals occurred in 2017.
But an expert in Pacific studies says such raids by China are happening globally and it raises serious concerns about sovereignty - not just for Fiji, but New Zealand too.
The video, published by 60 Minutes Australia, shows dozens of police officers in Beijing preparing to fly out for a special operation.
The footage then cuts to the officers on the ground in Suva forcing open doors and arresting Chinese nationals accused of being part of an internet scamming syndicate.
Those arrested were seen handcuffed and wearing black hoods before being marched onto a China Airlines plane.
Professor Steven Ratuva, director of the Macmillan Brown Center for Pacific Studies at Canterbury University, said it's deeply disturbing.
"It's against international laws, it's against local legal processes. It's very much against human dignity as well."
The heavy-handed extraction on show in the video has been allowed under a deal with China first signed in 2011.
It was suspended by Fiji's new Government but has just this month been re-instated.
Although Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka appeared unsure about China's endgame when discussing the battle for influence in the Pacific with 60 Minutes Australia.
"I feel stuck only because I understand Australia and America and I do not fully understand China's agenda," he said.
Rabuka said he didn't want to upset stability in the region, but was also looking to the future.
"We cannot afford to have big enemies," Rabuka said.
In the new video, published by 60 Minutes Australia, Fijian police are visible but don't appear to be actively involved in China's crackdown on Fijian soil.
Prof Ratuva said local laws also took a backseat during the mass deportation.
"It's significant in terms of undermining the local sovereignty as well as the legal institutions which should have been involved."
Prof Ratuva said there were similar raids in 2017 in Indonesia and Cambodia.
"It's happening globally, it's happening all over the world."
He said New Zealand should be concerned about what's happening in its neighbourhood.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told Newshub the matter is an internal one for Fiji and China.
"New Zealand is a strong supporter of the rule of law and due process - we continue to advocate for these principles in our engagements with foreign counterparts," he said.
Newshub asked the Chinese Embassy in Suva if China had undertaken any additional raids like this one in 2017. They're yet to respond.
