Beijing's Meddling in Canadian Affairs

Dr. Qiu had been a trusted and brilliant infectious-disease researcher whose work on an Ebola treatment won her recognition with a Governor General's innovation award. Her husband was employed as a biologist working in her lab. They also brought into the lab Chinese students who were attending Canadian universities. Investigative reporters went beyond the government's silence on the matter, revealing that Dr. Qiu had close connections to China.

"I'd say there is no political will to have a serious investigation here. I don't have confidence that when it comes to sensitive investigations involving China that could possibly drag in the political elite in this country [Canada], the government really has an interest in getting these types of investigations over the line."

"They [Canadian federal police force, RCMP] don't have the capability, capacity, skill sets or resources to run this complex an investigation. This is not an organization that can be counted on to perform for Canadians when Canadians need it."

"The dysfunction within the RCMP seems to work to the benefit of a [Liberal government of Justin Trudeau] government that would probably rather not have certain stones turned over."

Christian Leuprecht, national security authority, Royal Military College

"National security criminal investigations are often complex, multijurisdictional and resource-intensive and can take several years to complete." 

Cpl. Kim Chamberland, spokeswoman, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, a prominent virologist at the forefront of an ongoing RCMP investigation, is seen in an undated screengrab at the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Laboratory. She was fired from her post in January, but officials won't say why. (CBC)

 

The issue at hand is the ongoing investigation of two scientists who four years ago were ejected from the Canadian infectious disease laboratory in Winnipeg. The incident gave rise to debate on whether the force is capable of investigating the activities of the two, much less whether the Liberal government is committed to seeing the potentially embarrassing case through to completion.

The two scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng, a married pair, have long since left Canada to return to their native China. Both held positions of high trust at the Winnipeg laboratory as skilled scientists in pathogen research. It is the links that were revealed existing between the two researchers and China that gave rise to growing concern relating to the interference in Canada's affairs by Beijing.

There were no accusations of criminal acts levelled against the duo; the case on the other hand, might be viewed as a "canary in the coal mine", with the potential of exposing details of Chinese covert operations in Canada. Should charges eventually be laid, the possibility looms of an opportunity to deter further covert actions by Beijing in Canada's affairs.

The lag in the initiation of the investigation and the nowhere position the RCMP is at now, appears fully indicative that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no more interested in getting to the bottom of this mystery in Chinese surveillance than it has been in other similar incidents of Chinese actions in Canada. Similarly, a Chinese citizen working on a confidential lithium-battery project at Hydro Quebec was arrested in November on charges of spying for Beijing. 

 

A special committee comprised of Members of Parliament is slated to receive documents from the Public Health Agency of Canada to explain the background of the husband-wife team in Winnipeg's dismissal. This is explanatory information that the Liberal government fought in Parliament against releasing the records to a Parliamentary committee. 

After escorting the pair out of the National Micriobiology Laboratory in Winnipeg under mysterious circumstances, the Public Health Agency referred the matter for investigation of Qiu and Cheng to the RCMP. The husband and wife research scientists were later fired, but everything about the issue was kept firmly under wraps, despite repeated demands in Parliament that documents to explain the situation be released for scrutiny.

 

In China, Dr. Qiu was connected to the very laboratory in Wuhan that later became infamous in controversial speculation about the origins of COVID-19. Dr. Qiu had arranged the shipment of samples of two dangerous pathogens -- Ebola and henipaviruses while she was employed with the Winnipeg lab, to be sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab. She made a number of trips to Wuhan with the intention of training the lab's staff.

 

Collaboration with military scientists in China was another item linking Dr. Qiu with hr colleagues abroad. She had also arranged to have a scientific researcher employed by the People's Liberation Army Academy of Scientists arrive in Canada to work with her at the Winnipeg lab. 

 

The withholding of information relating to this file by the Liberal government is of a piece with its more recent refusal to launch an independent inquiry into Chinese interference in Canadian elections, despite repeated warning from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. It was only the shrewd investigative work by journalists with Canadian news media that revealed the extent to which the government of Canada prefers to ignore the destabilizing tactics of the Chinese Communist Party in Canadian affairs; from looting data belonging to a high security laboratory, to directly influencing the outcome of federal elections through meddling meant to influence votes. 

 

When asked about the case during a daily briefing in Beijing, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: 'China and Canada have some scientific co-operation, which is quite normal and should not be politicized.' (Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press)