Belligerent, Assertive, Threatening Beijing

"As with many Canadians with family in authoritarian states, I long ago deliberately made the decision not to communicate with [extended family members in Hong Kong] them. I don't know what's happened to them." 

"Clearly Mr. Zhao [Chinese diplomat in Consulate in Toronto] and representatives of the [People's Republic of China] in Canada have been coercively and corruptly targeting MPs on both sides of the aisle, to put pressure on MPs [Members of Parliament] with respect to foreign policy."

"It's clear that the prime minister [Justin Trudeau] failed to architect the machinery of government in a way that would ensure that information flowed to MPs and to the House of Commons."

"It became clear that this was an authoritarian, much more authoritarian state that was using threat activities as a way to promulgate its authoritarian model governments around the world."

"I don't think the foreign interference threat activities on Canadian soil were nearly as intense [during the previous government's tenure] as they have become in the last five years."

"Canada needs to catch up and emulate the best practices of peer jurisdictions to ensure that critical national security and intelligence issues do not become bottle-necked within the bureaucracy and the executive."

Conservative Member of Canadian Parliament, Michael Chong

Conservative MP for Wellington-Halton Hills Michael Chong prepares to appear as a witness at the standing committee on procedure and House affairs (PROC) on foreign election interference in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

MP Michael Chong, a strong opponent of Beijing's policies and a vocal critic of its interference in Canadian life, has revealed to a parliamentary committee that he has personally received threats emanating from the Chinese government. It is his belief that his extended family living in Hong Kong has been targeted for harassment as a fall-out of his criticism of Beijing's Chinese Communist Party -- as a group punishment for his outspokenness. 

The large Chinese diaspora in Canada, living as Canadian citizens are divided between mainland China and Hong Kong derivation. Those from the mainland mostly retain their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party ruling their country of origin, and are supportive of controversial steps taken by Beijing, including the revocation of Hong Kong's state of semi-autonomy. Hong Kong-derived Chinese-Canadians on the other hand, tend to be critical of China's autocratic excesses and treatment of minorities.

The long arm of Chinese interference abroad in the affairs of ethnic Chinese who are citizens of other countries harasses those who are vocally critical of China, and it is no different in Canada. Chinese interference in Canadian elections have had a deleterious effect on the election and re-election outcomes of Chinese-Canadian political figures in that newspapers published for the Chinese community in Canada largely support the CCP regime, influencing voters not to cast their ballots in favour of critics.

Chinese-Canadians who have been outspoken in their condemnation of Beijing have been personally threatened, and given to understand that their relatives back in China will suffer consequences of their Chinese-Canadian relatives' 'indiscretions'. China has been allowed to open what are 'police stations' in countries across the globe where there are large expatriate communities of Chinese living as citizens elsewhere than in China. Chinese intelligence representatives are known to persuade critics to return to China to face the justice of a punishing authority.

Testifying before the House of Commons committee on procedure and House affairs, Mr. Chong chose to withhold details of the threats he had been exposed to. "I don't think the details of the threats are useful for the committee", he stated. The Speaker of the House had ruled that Mr. Chong's parliamentary privilege, his rights as an MP had been violated by foreign interference, leading to his invitation to appear before the committee.

He explained that he had met with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 2021 and was briefed generally about Chinese interference in Canada, but was never informed of the targeting of his family. When the issue was reported in an expose published in the Globe and Mail newspaper on May1, it was the first time he had heard -- indirectly or directly -- of those threats. He had no idea what has occurred to his Hong Kong family since China undertook direct control, bringing in national security legislation.

The Chinese consular official who had spearheaded the investigation into Mr. Chong's affairs was finally expelled from Canada for having been engaged in hostile, undiplomatic activities potentially harmful to the security of Canadians and Canada more generally. The committee was informed by Mr. Chong that he has personally received threats, a situation he conveyed to CSIS in 2021 and 2022 in meetings. China, asserted Mr. Chong, has become increasingly hostile to the outside world over the past five years.

It was his recommendation to the committee that they push the government to provide a full accounting of who was sent documents indicating there were threats directed to him and possibly other MPs. For the prime minister's office and the prime minister himself denied having ever been advised of such threats, the reason they failed to be conveyed to Mr. Chong. A public inquiry into foreign interference was also recommended by Mr. Chong, and that government seek ways to ensure intelligence agencies share more information with Parliament.

It was, in fact, leaks from within the intelligence community revealing the extent of the Chinese interference that brought much of it to public light. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's initial reaction was outrage that intelligence data was leaked by intelligence sources unauthorized to do so. Mr. Trudeau emphasized the need to investigate the situation and identify those who made the secret information available to news sources for publication, and not that Mr. Chong had been left oblivious of the potential danger he and his family were being exposed to.

Mr. Chong viewed the situation of the leaks from another perspective; one that verified that the intelligence agencies had been exposed by insiders for their failure to adequately ensure the safety and security of Canadians and of Canadian Members of Parliament were fully known and appreciated -- including conveying that information to the very people directly involved.

"These releases are injurious to national security and diminish the confidence Five Eyes allies have in the security of Canada's intelligence agencies."

"These releases are a symptom of a national security and intelligence system that is not working, a system that is not conveying information to Parliament."

Conservative MP Michael Chong

Unspoken but reverberating on the tense atmosphere was the other side of the situation, that the prime minister had failed to properly assess the situation with China's interference and its threats against the well-being of Chinese-Canadian citizens. Mr. Trudeau chose to do nothing, say nothing, reveal nothing rather than once again risk alienating Beijing even further from Canada as a vaunted trading partner, a concern always uppermost in the prime minister's mind.

Zhao Wei, pictured here, reportedly played a role in attempts to gather information on Chong's family in Hong Kong in 2021 following the MP's condemnation of Beijing's conduct in the Xinjiang region as genocide. (Easy Media/Easyca.ca)