Charming Beijing Captivates Liberal Loyalty

"[These comments] deeply offended, [demonstrating a] terrible lapse in judgement [however, the episode could serve as a] teachable moment."

"This is a person of integrity who served his community as a senior police officer for ... more than a quarter of [a] century. He's made a terrible lapse in judgement."

"He's made his apology. He's made it to the public, he's made it to the individual concerned, he's made it directly to me, and he's going to continue with his candidacy."

"He has my confidence." 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

 

"[The response by Mr. Carney is indeed a] teachable moment."

"It teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada."

"If Mark Carney won't stand up for a Canadian against this foreign hostile regime now, how could we ever expect  him to stand up for Canada after the election?"

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre

 

"He is a police officer, and he ought to know that when the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] went out and put a bounty on anybody, including Canadians, that cannot be acceptable."

"That is intimidation at its worst."

NDP MP Jenny Kwan

 

"What we saw was the news of the bounty was sort of re-upped, but we're just watching the open space for anything related to that." 

"That alone, I think, is a form of coercion."

"Spreading, again, the information about the bounty is precisely how malign foreign states seek to silence, harass and coerce."

Rapid Response Mechanism head Larisa Galadza, Global Affairs Canada

Paul Chiang is seeking re-election in Markham-Unionville, a riding he took from the Conservatives in 2021 by a margin of fewer than 2,500 votes. Justin Tang The Canadian Press file photo

"If  you can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward", advised Liberal electoral candidate Paul Chiang to an news conference comprised of Chinese-language media, in reference to Conservative candidate Joe Tay who had been charged under the Hong Kong national security law as a threat to Beijing for his Canada-based YouTube channel critical of the Beijing-dominated CCP government.

 

When the comment hit headlines in the legacy media in Canada, calls for the Liberal party to disown Mr. Chiang and remove him as a Liberal candidate for the April 28 federal election expressed the disgust of most Canadians. Derisory statements by opposing political party candidates are not uncommon during election campaigns, but seldom do they cross the line into currying to foreign interference in Canada's affairs and certainly never to the extent that one candidate incites to violence against another.

 

Pressure came fast and furious even within the Liberal party for Mr. Chaing to be removed as a candidate in view of his comments last week. The bounty in  question, in Hong Kong dollars $1 million, transcribes to $183,000 in Canadian currency. Any taker could be assured of earning themselves a reward for luring the Conservative candidate to appear at the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto where he would be spirited to China and imprisoned as a traitor to Beijing -- but certainly not to China.

 

Mr. Chaing informed the Chinese-language media that given Mr. Tay's position on China and Beijing's response, should Mr. Tay be elected to Parliament, the Hong King criminal charge would be a cause of "great controversy", according to the Ming Pao newspaper. And no doubt it would, since the Liberal Party goes out of its way to pacify Beijing, and continues to build on its relationship through trade, despite the assaults on Canadian sovereignty where Canadians have been falsely imprisoned, Canadians have received the death penalty in China, and Chinese interference in Canadian affairs is deeply troubling.

 

Liberal Leader Mark Carney says Paul Chiang will remain a candidate under his banner, despite calls to drop the Markham-Unionville incumbent for suggesting people turn in a Conservative candidate to the Chinese consulate and collect a bounty.   CBC News

Even so, even when Canadian Intelligence has warned government on many occasions through updated reports that China is among those countries -- foremost among those countries -- that have used their expatriate Chinese-Canadian community originally from Mainland China to act as agents for Beijing, as well as instructing all expats that it is their ancestral patriotic duty to infiltrate and capture whatever advances in technology, science, medicine, and military news helpful to be conveyed to China's possession.

 

Mr. Chiang himself saw fit to apologize soon after  his comments were publicized:

"The comments I made were deplorable and a complete lapse of judgement on the seriousness of the matter. I sincerely apologize and deeply regret my comments."

"I will always continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong in their fight to safeguard their human rights and freedoms."

 

And while unelected PM-incumbent Mark Carney is satisfied to let the matter lie there and continue to approve Mr. Chiang as a Liberal candidate, the man himself took the initiative to resign from the Liberal candidacy. Whether his apology is sincere is debatable. He still took the right course in apologizing and taking himself out of the election. There is no debate that Mr. Carney, on the other hand, has often engaged in dishonourable conduct. He has bent the truth to suit his fabricated explanations.

 

And on this occasion he has spectacularly failed to act with conscience and integrity. Canadians should hold him to account for this, yet another lapse in judgement on his part. On the other hand, government officials tasked with identifying and responding to foreign threats during the election period acknowledge they are monitoring the situation closely. Moreover, the RCMP has opened an investigation in the matter. While the man aspiring to be elected Prime Minister of Canada succumbed to his own lack of moral integrity.

 

Mr. Tay has been left uneasy and concerned over his safety, given the obvious nature of the threats against him posed by a foreign government whose record on human rights is abysmal. He has stated that the situation left him fearing for his safety. Spurring him to get in touch with the RCMP for his personal protection, and demanding that Carney fire Chiang. A demand that thirteen pro-democracy groups in Canada linked to Hong Kong produced a statement urging the Liberal Party to "send a clear message" in removing Chiang's candidacy, making it clear they cannot accept his "insincere apology".  

"I want to be clear: no apology is sufficient."

"Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada."

"And they are not just aimed at me. They are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance to Beijing's political goals."

Conservative federal election candidate Joe Tay 

"[Foreign interference, including instances of transnational repression, continue to be a] pervasive threat in Canada [and the federal police takes all reports and allegations seriously]."

"The RCMP is looking into the matter, however no specific details can be provided at this time."

"To ensure the integrity of our investigations, the RCMP typically does not disclose information relating to investigations unless criminal charges are laid, rendering it a matter of public record."

RCMP spokesperson Kristine Kelly 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, speaking in New Brunswick, says Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s decision to stand by candidate Paul Chiang, who called for people to turn in Conservative candidate Joe Tay for a Chinese bounty, ‘teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada.’ Poilievre added that he spoke to Tay and he is ‘very, very rattled.’   CBC

"It is a teachable moment. It teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada."

"The Chinese government literally wants to kill Joe Tay because he’s a political dissident. And this candidate said that that should happen."

"I have never in my life seen a prime minister unwilling to protect a Canadian citizen against a foreign government that wants to take his life through a bounty."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

Chinese Communist Party Funding Pro-Hamas Demonstrations

"SID4P [Shut It Down for Palestine] represents a significant evolution in networked influence and coordinated direct action aimed at disrupting critical infrastructure and inflaming protests across the U.S. and around the globe."

"[The activities of SID4P highlight a trend in which] the instruments of democracy are being exploited to undermine its foundations."

The National Contagion Research Institute 

"This is the moment we must all fight back -- by raising our voices in support of Palestinian armed resistance including the heroic and momentous operation, the Al-Asque Flood launched on October 7th, by calling for the removal of Palestinian and Arab resistance movements from so-called terror lists."

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

An anti-Israel tent encampment protesting the war in Gaza continues to stand at the University of Toronto campus in Toronto, Tuesday May 7, 2024 Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

The independent body launched to identify cyber threats to civil society -- The National Contagion Research Institute -- issued a new report revolving around the funding of the anti-Israel movement in North America. According to their research some left-wing groups have united under the Shut It Down for Palestine banner, linking to Beijing through Communist Party associates, Neville Roy Singham and wife Jodie Evans. Organizations operating under the umbrella of SID4P, are widely recognized as a conduit for Chinese Communist Party geopolitical influence.

The hashtag for the SID4P links to 11,874 Instagram posts, 8,000 tweets, 9,200 Facebook posts and 2,457 TikTok videos. The New York Times linked U.S. tech multimillionaire Singham who lives now in Shanghai, as controlling a financial network using North American non-profit groups to further Chinese propaganda worldwide. Singham, charges the NCRI, has seen investigations by the U.S., Canada and India for CCP-linked operations. His wife lists as a board member for the China People's Forum; she is a co-founder of Code Pink.

Loopholes in the U.S. non-profit system are used by SID4P to facilitate flow of American dollars to organization whose  function is stoking social unrest. SID4P convenors the report lists include the People's Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, the International People's Assembly, Al Awda NY, National Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestine Youth Movement, and the Palestinian American Community Centre. 

 

A statement issued on October 8, following the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel at the Gaza border, explained they were "mobilizing in the belly of the beast because we understand we have a unique role to play in combating material support for Zionism and weakening the handmaiden of U.S. global imperialism." According to Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada, the Revolutionary Communist Party, established as a new group to "prepare Canada for revolution" has a presence at almost every protest; they encourage student walkouts at high schools.

 

Groups active in the United States are similarly active in Canada; organized protests are advertised on the website of the SID4P. The Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the seven conveners for SID4P, has been active and visible in both Montreal and Toronto; planning a "No Rest Until Liberation" rally tomorrow in Montreal. Director of Samidoun, Charlotte Kates, is listed as an official of Al Awda, another SID4P convener. 

 

Arrested earlier in the month at a Vancouver protest held at the city's art gallery, she had shouted: "Long live October 7th", claiming Hamas is not a terrorist organization. "They are resistance fighters. They are our heroes", she claimed. Her husband, Khaled Barakat is an advocate for the violent destruction of Israel. Not only has Canada's Liberal-led government of Justin Trudeau been absent from action when it should have taken steps to shut down the hate rallies, their silent inaction has been taken by those involved in the rallies glorifying Hamas and excoriating Israel, as approval.

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds up a mock body as protestor confront police as they clear an encampment after students occupied the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall at the University of California, Irvine, in Irvine, California on May 15, 2025. (Image: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

"The People’s Forum, IPA, and ANSWER Coalition serve as the conduit through which CCP-affiliated entities have effectively co-opted pro-Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti-American, anti-democratic, and anti-capitalist agenda."

"These three far-left SID4P Convenors are part of a network linked by close financial, interpersonal, and ideological ties to Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans, a power couple within the global far-left movement with close ties to the CCP."

The National Contagion Research Institute 

Beijing's Global Strategy for Preeminence in Science, Technology and Academia

"China not only seeks influence at an institutional level but will also target individual academics who focus on China, seeking to ensure that they act in the CCP's best interests either through professional inducements or, if that doesn't work, by intimidation."

"China appears prepared to use levers, such as research funding and travel opportunities, to cultivate relationships with academics, and to encourage them to change their research direction or course content in line with CCP objectives."

"Pressure is exerted on institutions, academics and students to prevent engagement with topics that harm the positive narrative presented by the Chinese Communist Party."

"Once established in academic institutions, these students are in a position to identify and exfiltrate valuable information, data and intellectual property back to China."

"In its quest for economic advantage, China often acts in plain sight -- directing, funding and collaborating on academic research for its own ends."

British Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee

 

"China has been aggressive in its interference activities ... It has been particularly effective at using its money and influence to penetrate or buy academia in order to ensure its international narrative is advanced and criticism suppressed."

"This is particularly acute when it involves the so-called ‘Five Poisons’ [Taiwanese independence, Tibetan independence, Xinjiang separatists, the Chinese democracy movement and the Falun Gong]."

Julian Lewis, Committee Chair

"You say something they don't like, they deny you a visa."

"The student bodies are infiltrated. We know there are meetings through the middle of the night and the following morning some Chinese students can get rung up by somebody at the cultural and education section of the embassy to ask them: Why did you say that? Why did you do that?"

Professor Steve Tsang, School for Oriental and African Studies

Two students walk through Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to catch a chartered flight to Manchester in the UK. The plane will take 74 Chinese students to the UK. Photo: VCG

 

Evidence has been revealed of Chinese officials approaching academic lecturers in Britain, to promise them "professional inducements" in the form of research funding and travel opportunities, as part of the manner in which British universities had been "bought" by the Chinese Communist Party. The British Parliament's intelligence and security committee through their extensive investigation produced a 200-page report revealing details of Beijing's concentrated program to inveigle itself into British academia.

Beijing seeks out a prominent place in the global field of science and invention, seeking influence worldwide as a driver of both through a scheme of interdependence which links into its 21st century role as the world's production source of consumer products of every description and dimension. In the UK the report points out that its universities were "turning a blind eye to the risk" in becoming reliant on China for financial support. The University of Surrey accepted a $13-million donation from Huawei to find its 5G6G Innovation Centre.

Chinese state authorities are also evidently intimidating British academics and students by a Beijing directive to infiltrate and purloin research to benefit the People's Liberation Army. One witness interview of Professor Steve Tsang revealed that within six months of accepting his new status within the School for Oriental and African Studies, a political councillor from the Chinese embassy offered him anything he would like, for his 'cooperation'. "It is as blatant as that", he reported.

Access to visas is also being used as leverage, affirmed by Professor Tsang. "If you are an academic and specializing in China, and your entire academic life is focused on China, the threat of not being permitted to travel to the country of your academic focus becomes a very powerful threat." Years previously it was revealed that scientists at leading universities, including Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester, worked on projects with researchers at China's nuclear weapons research institution.

Dozens of scientific papers were published by British academics working alongside scientists from a Chinese institution on an American sanctions list, reflecting its research into developing Beijing's nuclear arsenal. Investigative journalism at The Telegraph uncovered that situation. There are over 90 Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) working out of the U.K. -- partially financed by the Chinese embassy -- monitoring the activities of Chinese students. A situation the committee recognized as resulting in a "culture of fear and suspicion among Chinese students in the U.K."

The largest overseas contingent of students on study visas in U.K. universities -- over 120,000 -- are Chinese students. A number greater than in the rest of Europe combined. Five times as many students are sent by China to the United Kingdom, as compared to the country that comes in second for its students studying abroad; India. In Canada, a similar situation prevails, with 60,000 student visas issued at last count, down substantially from the year before which stood at 90,000, as Chinese relations with Canada sour.

The Glasgow CSSA incited flash mobs to confront Hong Kong demonstrations. "There is Chinese embassy involvement in these demonstrations ... They surrounded us in a circle, waving Chinese flags, singing the national anthem and being hostile", one Hong Kong student narrated. The Joint Intelligence Committee chairman spoke of intimidation examples the Chinese authorities use: "sometimes with the vice-chancellor getting a phone call, sometimes at student body level, to try to discourage universities from allowing speakers on issues like Tibet or Xinjiang".

Beijing exploits research programs at British universities for the benefit of the Chinese military. The People's Liberation Army, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, sent approximately 500 military scientists to U.K. academic institutions in the decade up to 2017. "Once established in academic institutions, these students are in a position to identify and exfiltrate valuable information, data and intellectual property back to China", the committee pointed out.

 

People walk across a street near a large screen promoting the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing  Andy Wong/The Associated Press

"Beijing is using a 'workaround strategy' for postgraduate researchers to study cutting-edge technology at Canadian and U.S. universities after Washington began denying visas for some Chinese students on the grounds that they might steal intellectual property with military uses, according to a Canadian Security Intelligence Service report."

"The Dec. 21, 2021, report, labelled secret ...  said the strategy sends some scholarship students to Canada from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with the aim of gaining access to critical high tech."

"The Chinese government’s game plan includes training these Chinese citizens on how to avoid drawing too much attention when studying abroad."

"The CSIS report lays out how China is using students to obtain technology that could be of benefit to the Chinese military, such as quantum computing, big data and artificial intelligence. The report was shared across key government departments and with the CIA, FBI and Britain’s domestic intelligence service, M15, as well as Australian and New Zealand authorities."

The Globe and Mail, Toronto

Protesters march from Chater Garden to the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong on September 8, 2019. Photo by VIVEK PRAKASH /AFP/Getty Images

There's a Problem, and He's It!

"Amplifying and giving reasons, partisan reasons, to mistrust the outcome of an election, mistrust the experts at Elections Canada, and in our security services, and our top public servants, who are saying that the election integrity held, that's something that we have seen from elsewhere, is not a good path to go down for society or for democracy."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, said Thursday there were “many inaccuracies” about the CSIS reports, and that he “always” worries about national security.  PHOTO BY CHRISTINNE MUSCHI /Reuters

Question Justin Trudeau's lack of action, much less interest in the covert activity of Chinese agents during the last two general elections that confirmed Trudeau as prime minister of Canada and you're proving yourself Trumpian. Mr. Trudeau knows  how to categorize his critics. When legitimate protests came trundling by truck into downtown Ottawa, Trudeau knew they were up to no good, criticizing his government; they were scum, racists, white supremacists.

The 'Freedom Convoy' wanted to protest edicts mandated by their prime minister, that would refuse work to truckers who were not COVID-inoculated. They took umbrage at the government's lockdowns, isolation mandates, masking, vaccines and wanted their grievances to be heard, that they resented being labelled second-class citizens, racists and white supremacists, not the hard-working citizens that they were, exercising their Charter rights to protest in freedom of expression. 

As for Mr. Trudeau's suggestion that Canadians are losing trust in government and its agencies, it's hardly surprising. When one conflict-of-interest after another has been revealed, one instance after another of unethical behaviour by the prime minister himself, investigated by the parliamentary ethics officer who labelled them ethics breaches. From accepting the Aga Khan's island vacation retreat for his family, to applying pressure to the-then Minister of Justice to withdraw criminal charges against SNC Lavalin.

Moral breaches in groping a female reporter, then denying it, claiming that people 'see things differently'. For his personal vendetta against the former vice-chief of the defence staff, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman whom he accused of leaking confidential information to the press, when Trudeau was determined to bypass the need for a Canadian Navy supply vessel that Admiral Norman had negotiated for in his professional role. Admiral Norman was sued for breach of trust essentially by the prime minister and he was acquitted, but his career was in tatters.

Justin Trudeau's manipulations to award a 'charity' a munificent contract during the pandemic with no oversight or assurance that the We Charity could deliver organizationally on the details of the contract. The prime minister's personal involvement with the charity, its questionable practices, the fact that it paid hundreds of thousands to the prime minister's mother Margaret for promotional appearances, as well as his brother, a shabby performance overall.

“China-linked actors took an active role in seeking to influence the Sept. 20, 2021 parliamentary election in Canada, displaying signs of a coordinated campaign to influence behaviour among the Chinese diaspora.” 

Comprehensive November 2021 report by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

But it is Justin Trudeau's long love affair with Communist China, with a belligerent, aggressive Beijing, refusing to release details about why it was that two research scientists working at Canada's most biologically secure research station were suddenly escorted out of the complex, along with their close ties to the research arm of the Chinese Peoples Revolutionary Army. His trip to China even while Beijing was causing security alarm among its near neighbours, to have a trade agreement signed.

The list of his misdemeanors is endless. When Canada's federal police force, the RCMP and its signal intelligence security agency, CSIS, advised the prime minister and his office that Chinese agents were attempting to interfere in Canadian elections, nothing was done about it. Evidence was discovered that 

China had engaged in voter-suppression in areas of the country where the opposition Conservatives held seats. In British Columbia, Chinese-Canadians withheld their votes for fear that Chinese authorities would scrutinize voters lists.

More latterly, Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, and Global News television reported what was already suspected, that a Toronto-area Liberal MP benefited from assistance from the Chinese consulate. CSIS had warned the Liberals that Han Dong not be permitted to run under the Liberal label. It had already been revealed that Chinese language newspapers published in Canada influenced Chinese-Canadian voters to cast ballots for the Liberals, more friendly to China than the Conservative opposition. 

Evidence surfaced that eleven candidates for election were supplied with funding by China to aid their campaigns toward success. Although the Conservative Party won a majority of the votes, the Liberals won more riding seats, no small thanks to the Chinese Communist Party interference. While Mr. Trudeau has little option, given the evidence made public, but to agree there has been interference he contends it is limited and has not impeded Canadian democracy.

"In a free democracy it is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run [for election]."

"Han Dong is an outstanding member of our team and suggestions that he is somehow not loyal to Canada should not be entertained."

:We are extraordinarily lucky and happy to have a member of Parliament like Han Dong in our midst, serving his community, serving our country, alongside Chinese Canadian MPs from different parts of the country."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

The prime minister is not the least little bit concerned that other Chinese-Canadian Members of Parliament who ran under the Consrvative banner and who were opposed to China's influence in Canada went down to defeat as a result of the CCP's manipulation from within the Chinese-Canadian community. 

 

Kenny Chiu, the Conservative Party candidate for Steveston-Richmond, who says he lost his seat in 2021 due in part due to a wave of fake social media posts that may have been coordinated through People's Republic of China consulates. Photo by Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG

"It would be beyond outrageous if the prime minister of our country was made aware that one of his Liberal candidates was compromised by the Chinese Communist Party and outright refused to do the right thing."

"It is crucial for confidence in our democracy that we know what Justin Trudeau and his government knew, and when."

"[Trudeau and his government] cannot hide any longer."

Conservative MP Michael Cooper 

 

"[A public inquiry is the right] route [for the government to take]."

“It should be given a limited mandate so that they report … well before the next election. There should be an inquiry under the Inquiries Act so that they can … subpoena people and documents if need be,”

“I can’t see any compelling reason not to do it in the public interest except some partisan considerations.”

“I think in this case, the allegations are so serious they need to be looked into,”

“I think a public inquiry is really the route to go.”

 Richard Fadden, former head, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

China, Aspiring World Power

"China remains, as it has these 3,000 years, one of the world's most important nationalities, but it retains the unseemly disadvantages of a totalitarian power."

"No one can believe a word the Chinese government says on any subject or a number that it publishes."

"Hundreds of millions of Chinese essentially still live as they did a thousand years ago, the whole country is debt-ridden, prominent citizens not infrequently just disappear, and the government is thoroughly corrupt by Western standards."

"In the same measure that China should not be underestimated, nor should it be blindly cited as giving any indication of the way forward in policy terms for other states."

Conrad Black, National Post

Chinese President Xi Jinping, meets with representatives of the aircraft carrier unit and the manufacturer at a naval port in Sanya, south China's Hainan province Li Gang/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images

China, at one time in its past elevated to positions of power and influence in government and its civil service, individuals with outstanding intellectual achievements whose grasp of the elements of their special interests were recognized for their excellence and performative quality. It was merit and merit alone that qualified people for the positions they occupied. The wisdom of Chinese sages came from a place of experience and creative thought. 

It was a time before the ideological messages of totalitarian communism led its proponents to shed their pride in their heritage and the achievements of merit and intelligent reasoning. The creative arts and philosophical advances made by a once-great society were all sacrificed to the cutting block of shunning the old and bringing in the new. And with the 'Cultural Revolution' a great broom of mass sacrifice of humanity swept the stage clean for mass indoctrination.

The world now sees the results; a vast population living under a humanity- and human-rights-hostile regime of total command. Mind control, population control, control of adversarial proponents of human rights and liberties. The Chinese Communist Party heralds itself as having manipulated events to combat and conquer poverty and ignorance, raising its countless millions of indigent poor to a middle-class position.

Chinese aircraft carrier, Liaoning, arrives in Hong Kong waters ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Beijing lauds itself for becoming, through clever exploitation of the free world's willingness to trust that its openness to the vast world of communism that accommodated enterprise and capitalism under a veneer of open cooperation in trade and production, a world colossus of manufacturing and trade. Powerful enough that its cheap and abundant labour was able to shutter factories all over the world whose production, labour and transport costs resulted in consumer goods unmatched in scale and prominence.

Beijing's growing self-confidence in league with its contempt for open, democratic societies led to an inflation of its superiority complex to feed its hunger for greater global respect, a larger power base and a voracious territorial ambition. Its grasp for power and influence continues to surge. Its self-entitlement to great power status unabated, its long arms of espionage, military and commercial, continue unabated. 

The world now recognizes a China that several decades of accommodation has transformed immeasurably. A totalitarian government that exploits other nations' advances in science and technology, a government that victimizes its people into submission, a government that interferes in the internal affairs of other nations creating instability and hostility wherever it intrudes.

In this April 12, 2018, file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, speaks after he reviewed the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy fleet in the South China Sea. From Asia to Africa, London to Berlin, Chinese envoys have set off diplomatic firestorms with a combative defense whenever their country is accused of not acting quickly enough to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.  Li Gang/Xinhua/AP

Beijing's Zero-COVID Protests

"[It is necessary] to strengthen the management and service guarantee [of quarantine centres and field hospitals where people who test positive for COVID-19 or ha.cve been in close contact with an infected person are taken by police]."

"[Authorities must] further accelerate [their construction and] coordinate the allocation of space, facilities, materials, personnel and other resources."

Beijing city government spokesperson Xu Hejian

People sing slogans while gathering on a street in Shanghai. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

 

"On the second night of protests, 2,000 miles northwest of the Foxconn factory, a fire broke out in a residential compound in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region. Ten died. Neighbours videoed the inferno on their phones, triggering yet another wave of anger online. Some pointed out that the youngest victim was only three and had lived almost his entire life under zero Covid. Others speculated that doors had been sealed in the block as part of the lockdown, meaning victims couldn’t escape."

"Late on Friday night, the Urumqi authorities made things worse with a press conference which seemed to blame the victims for their ‘lack of survival know-how’. Fury, and protests, ensued."

"Whether the fire was made worse by lockdown or not, the tragedy and the callous official response confirmed what many already suspected: their lives are cheap in the name of pandemic control."

Cindy Yu, Assistant Editor, The Spectator, U.K.

 

In some parts of China's capital, residents began sweeping items off supermarket shelves, while the urgency of their demands were overwhelming delivery apps on Friday. The city government had ordered an urgent need to speed up construction of COVID-19 quarantine centres and field hospitals. China's Zero-COVID policy is not to be relaxed, its government has made it quite clear that it will not tolerate the spread of the pathogen, and a recent upsurge in cases has only increased its resolve.

 

Chinese citizens, beyond weary with the constant lockdowns and stern conditions that have compromised their quality of life for too long, are desperate to see an end to these unlivable conditions and the constant threat of isolation, impairing their ability to work, to attend school, to buy food, to acquire needed medications, in short, the ruination of normal life, being forced to live under abysmally unnatural circumstances. Deprived of normalcy.

 

The uncertainty and fear surrounding unconfirmed reports of lockdowns in some select districts in the capital fuelled a demand for food and other basic living supplies fuelling unusually large turnouts of shoppers in the northern suburbs of the city, resulting in market shelves emptying of products in quick order, in a city of 21 million people.

 

Across the country daily cases of COVID are reaching record numbers with Friday alone notching up 32,695 new cases, almost half of which were in Beijing, mostly asymptomatic. Field hospitals along with improvised quarantine centres have been thrown together in gymnasiums, exhibition centres, where large open indoor spaces have become synonymous with poor sanitation, scarce food supplies, overcrowding and lighting that remains bright for 24 hours a day.

 

Instructions not to leave compounds have gone out to most residents, watching themselves being fenced in, where workers in white hazmat suits stop unauthorized people to ensure residents have recent negative test results on cellphone health apps before they can gain entry. University campuses are closed, students shifted to online classes. Grocery delivery service is at full capacity. Some delivery personnel are  unable to appear for work at grocery deliveries, with their own compounds locked down. 

 

The World Health Organization has called for a change in operations from the zero-COVID strategy, a recommendation that the Chinese Communist Party rejects. Cases and death counts in China remain low in comparison to other parts of the world, yet Beijing insists on isolating every case to entirely eliminate the virus. Where other governments eased antivirus controls, relying on vaccinations and immunity from past infections to aid in death prevention and serious illness, China's President Xi Jinping is immovable in his conviction that China can tame Nature.

 

Confronting authorities in Shanghai, some protesters called for Chinese leader Xi

The Democratically Helpful Chinese Communist Party

"They are by and large an extension of the apparatus of Beijing."

"I definitely think this is an area where our security agencies or the police should pay close attention."

Karen Woods, founder, independent Canadian Chinese Political Affairs Committee

 

"This really is like an ideological invasion."

"I think that undermines our national security, our social security."

Jonathan Fon, Toronto paralegal

 

Deposit Photos

"{The Chinese Council for Western Ontario Elections'  goal is simply to] introduce Canadian democracy to the Chinese community, to help Chinese Canadians better understand Canadian elections, participate in the democratic process, and participate actively in elections."

"We support candidates of any race, as long as they oppose racial discrimination and support multiculturalism."

"We are willing to share our network resources with them to help them gain recognition and support from Chinese voters."

Toronto businessman Guo BaoZhang, executive president, Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association

The Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association building in Markham, Ontario. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post/File

Now that is really interesting. Chinese Canadians have a long history of residence and citizenship in Canada. A history that dates back to the 19th Century with the building of Canada's national railways. Chinese Canadians have established themselves in every facet of life in Canada, from little shop owners to the professions of law and medicine, to professorships in Canadian universities and to the ordinary-man-in-the-street or family-on-your street category.

As Canadian citizens, they know all about Canadian politics, they pay their taxes and they vote in all elections just like any other Canadians. Now, in the last few  years Beijing has turned its eyes on these Canadian citizens of Chinese extraction -- including many who have more recently arrived in Canada as immigrants or to study at Canadian universities, from both the mainland and Hong Kong. Beijing's United Front Work Department operates in tandem with Chinese diplomats assigned to Canada in Chinese consulates and embassy to impress on Chinese Canadians their obligations to China.

That obligation as ethnic Chinese, is to help promote China and China's interests broadly, within Canada. In the 2019 general election, Canadian Intelligence tracked the Chinese Communist Party's interference in promoting candidates of Chinese extraction suborned by China through ideological indoctrination and financial funding to election wins. It has also been revealed that political insiders defend and promote China's interests in various provincial and federal legislatures.

Now the introduction of a new organization whose goals on the surface are to assist Chinese Canadians in becoming more accomplished members of a democracy. Who might've thought? Yet another group has infiltrated Canada whose purpose is to further the interests of Beijing in a country that it is clearly at odds with, given fairly recent events, and a new, frosty relationship between China and Canada. China's growing aggressive tendencies are not limited to Canada, they surface elsewhere as well.

The website of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association identifies it as having been established under the guidance of the United Front Work Department, itself a branch of the Chinese Communist Party with a clear mission to expand Beijing's worldwide influence. Influence made its presence years ago with the endowment by China in Western university-based Confucius Institutes; established ostensibly to help the world know of the wisdom and culture of China.

Beijing is well known for its ulterior motives in relations with other countries; its constant espionage feelers out via Chinese-loyalists in relaying back to China industrial, military and political state secrets. It has latterly been revealed that Beijing operatives and police forces have opened 'police stations' in Canada as well as in other foreign countries to keep tabs on expatriate Chinese, and to 'persuade' those critical of Beijing to return to China, under the guise of giving them assistance in renewing passports and driver's licenses; the while subtly threatening the well-being of family members in China.

The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service saw fit to brief Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office in January regarding a Chinese program that funded 11 candidates sympathetic to China during the last federal electon; a member of the Ontario legislature and community groups were engaged as go-betweens. In a brief, unscheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 meeting in Indonesia, Trudeau claims to have raised the matter of Chinese political interference in Canada. Followed by Trudeau later denying he had ever been briefed.

Beijing's underhanded, interfering CCP-linked groups have not yet been challenged by the Government of Canada in a manner that would reflect the unwelcome nature of their organizational destabilization of the country. That Beijing is the least bit involved in promoting anti-discriminatory measures in Canada is beyond ironic, given its treatment of Tibetans and Muslim Uyghurs in Tibet and Xinjiang.

A multi-party committee in Ottawa has agreed to examine China's influence in Canada's elections following a Global News story citing a Beijing campaign to subvert Canadian democracy.

Chinese 'Service Stations' Tracking Dissidents Abroad

"We are Investigating the activities of three so-called police centres. Once there is more clarity on the matter we will decide on appropriate action."

"We have not been informed about these centres via diplomatic channels.":

"If the developments outlined in the report by Safeguard Defenders threatens to strengthen the feelings of intimidation and threats among the Dutch Chinese community, that is a bad thing, and the government is of the opinion that action should be taken against this."

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

 

"Due to the impact of COVID-19, many Chinese overseas cannot return to China in time to deal with matters like driver's licence renewal."

"In order to help them, relevant Chinese local governments have opened online service platforms, mainly assisting Chinese nationals in need in handling physical examinations and changes of driver's licences."

Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson

According to the Irish Times, this Fuzhou overseas police service station opened in Dublin earlier this year. The newspaper says the signage has since been removed. (Conor Gallagher/The Irish Times)

The news is finally emerging of China's establishment of dozens of "overseas police stations" around the world causing activists living in those countries as citizens who are critical of Beijing to fear they could be tracked and harassed as dissidents in China's crackdown on 'corruption'. The new Chinese legislation makes it lawful (for China) to arrest and charge with treason any critics of the Beijing government wherever they live. 

It has been revealed the cadres of the United Front Work Department installed alongside Chinese embassies and consulates abroad harass and intimidate Chinese who are citizens of other countries whom China suspects or has reason to believe agitate against China. The more recent appearance of these 'police stations' posing as helpful consular enclaves on foreign soil simply continue the work of the United Front going so far as to pressure Chinese living abroad to return to China to prevent harm coming to their relatives.

The outposts' presence coming to light reveals the growing concern relating to the ruling Chinese Communist Party's ongoing influence over its citizens and former citizens now living abroad. The other nations within which these groups operate view the activities as illegal, in the process devaluing democratic institutions while China's well-known and seasoned theft of economic and political secrets are accessed to benefit China.

The non-governmental group based in Spain, Safeguard Defenders, last month published a report titled "110 Overseas Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild", focusing on the stations. Three such police stations have been discovered in Toronto, registered as ;service stations' under operation of the Fuzhon Public Security Bureau, a police force esatblished in the Chinese metropolis of Fuzhon. 

In the Netherlands a virtual office in Amsterdam and another at a physical address in Rotterdam were being investigated by the Dutch government. Mao Ning, a spokesperson with the Chinese Foreign Ministry explained "Chinese public security authorities strictly observe the international law and fully respect the judicial sovereignty of other countries". And as Wang Wenbin, another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman observed, China is tracking down transnational crimes, their operation conducted fully in line with international law.

Getty Images

The Seditious Crime of Insulting China

"The activity that's being alleged [police stations] would be entirely illegal, totally inappropriate and would be the subject of very serious representations."

"[There is] growing evidence of foreign interference] in Canada by China."

"Evidence suggests that the largest source of foreign interference in Canada by state actors is coming from [People's Republic of China] sources [as per report from National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians]."

"It's really only in the last couple of years that the balance of conversation has shifted to them [Chinese-Canadian citizens] talking about how intimidated they feel within Canada, and the growing risk they feel for raising concerns, even within Canada."

"There is space for legitimate police liaison state to state, but the allegations reported in the press would fall well outside of that."

Weldon Epp, China specialist, Foreign Affairs Canada

 

"I don't think any of us are, to be honest, surprised."

"We've heard for a long time about people intimidated and threatened in this country."

Member of Parliament Heather McPherson Foreign Affairs critic, NDP

Police in the Chinese city of Fuzhou show off seized counterfeit money in this 2009 photo. Fuzhou security services have now set up at least three branch offices on Canadian soil. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images

In actual fact, it has not been merely the last couple of years that Beijing has infiltrated Canada at every level, from business, science, elected representatives in governments at different levels, academia, in a deeply concerted strategy to extract commercial and national secrets to advantage China. From the installation of scientists at the most elite level, at Canadian science laboratories and universities, top-level executives at Canadian industries, and elected representatives in provincial and federal legislatures.

From the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Laboratory, to Nortel Networks, from Confucius Institutes in Universities to sitting members of the Canadian Senate, Beijing has called upon its expatriate community to invest themselves in furthering the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. It is not only by cyberespionage at which China excels, but espionage and appropriation of classified information at every level. Known, and tolerated until Beijing became a trifle too aggressively predatory.

Complaints of harassment by Canadian citizens of Chinese heritage have been amplified just lately, but they have occurred for years, when agents of the Chinese mainland have intruded on people's lives and harassed and intimidated Canadian citizens who express opinions contrary to Beijing's script. China's installation of its intrusive United Front Works Department keeping notes on expatriate Chinese domiciled as citizens in Canada applies pressure for cooperation with Chinese consulate offices in Canada through threats of harm to family members back in China.

A year ago, Beijing made it a crime against the state to criticize China, a crime punishable no matter where Chinese lived and where they had citizenship; China regards them all as Chinese citizens, ignoring their citizenship consonant on where they choose to live, to escape Beijing's totalitarian government. A report surfaced in September issued by the human rights group Safeguard Defenders which detailed the presence of over 50 'service stations' in operation globally; three located in Canada.

 

The 'service stations' are manned by Chinese police, and their purpose is to keep an eye on Chinese living abroad. So that when Chinese 'dissidents' with citizenship in other countries make disparaging remarks and publicly air opinions contrary to Beijing's stated vision, they are contacted by these police, threatened and forced to 'voluntarily' return to China to face judgement in a Chinese court of law for having insulted China; stiff punishment of incarceration meted out, to silence adversarial critics.

 

It is Chinese security services that operate these 'service' stations, not Chinese diplomats helpfully giving assistance for mundane and routine issues such as driver's license renewals and visas for expatriate Chinese, as claimed. "The pandemic made international travels not easy and quite a few Chinese nationals found their Chinese ID cards and/or driver's licenses expired or about to expire, and yet they could not get the ID renewed back in China in time", was the helpful explanation given by the Chinese Embassy in Belfast.

 

"Involuntary return" has become a system through which China compels its expatriate population to return home to stand trial and face punishment for daring to violate Chinese law while abroad. Beijing, to demonstrate just how successful this initiative to control Chinese no longer living in China itself has been, boasted of 230,000 Chinese having been "persuaded to return" on a number of different charges. 

 

Canada, Professor Epp informed the parliamentary commission he spoke before, has failed to file a diplomatic complaint with Beijing over the presence of these stations on Canadian soil, although an RCMP investigation is taking place. Canada does in fact, have bilateral treaties with some nations such as the U.S. which established an intelligence post in Toronto linked to the New York City Police Department in the wake of 9/11. Postings agreed to by all concerned. Which is certainly not the case with China's intrusive police presence in Canada.

 

Aileen Calverley with Hong Kong Watch testifies before a House of Commons committee regarding reports that the People's Republic of China has opened three police stations around Toronto. "With the police stations, they can intimidate people like us," she said. Photo by Parliament of Canada

Infiltrate, Purloin, Recruit : Blueprint for Success

Ren Zhengfei, Huawei Founder

"We must turn the graduate schools of North America into a recruitment centre, looking at graduate theses, going out to find talent and drinking coffee."

"This is not just the heads of institutes but all levels of experts, attracting scientists, professionals, current students -- go have coffee with them, and while connecting develop a resonance." 

"We must hire some 'high noses' with 'foreign firepower' and within three to five years move steadily from the previous 'Eighth Route Army' towards globalization."

Ren Zhengfei, founder, Huawei Communications, China

"Canada is known around the world for its skilled, educated and diverse workforce. That's why we recruit here."

"Other companies may have cut back on hiring during the pandemic, but not us."

"We now have more than 1,500 employees in Canada, the highest in our 13-year history here."

Alykhan Velshi, Huawei spokesman in Canada

Huawei's idea of recruiting in Canada is partly a response to the U.S. issuing fewer student visas to Chinese citizens. Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images

"Canada is very much out of sync with our allies and I think China can use that as a wedge to try to weaken the western alliance and improve their own  position in Canada and internationally. It's a big worry."

"The U.S. administration of both Trump and Biden have said that if Canada does allow the Huawei 5G technology into [Canadian] telecommunications, this will imperil the ability of the U.S. to share intelligence in the Five Eyes [intelligence group; Canada, U.S., New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom], through which Canada is a net consumer of intelligence. This is very troubling. The idea that Canada might be seen as an unreliable partner for security related issues is distressing."

"The Chinese government treating Ms.Meng not simply as the chief financial officer of a large corporation but really as a key element in the regime, really underlines how integrated Huawei is into the Chinese communist Party regime."

"The fact that they so explicitly linked the two Michaels to Ms. Meng -- without even trying to hide that -- is really indicative of how integrated Huawei is in the Chinese military and security apparatus."

Charles Burton, senior fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, former counsellor, Canadian Embassy, Beijing

Huawei['s founder, Ren Zhengfei, saw fit to lecture his company's executive level employees on the merits of considering North American high-tech graduates as useful recruits to China's premier global telecommunications giant in its rush to storm the international communications market. By persuading North American graduates of the benefits of joining a world giant in communications the damage wrought by the U.S. in diminishing the number of student visas to Chinese students could be ameliorated.

Predicting an ongoing steady decrease in the number of talented Chinese returning from graduating at U.S. universities to China he emphasizes that Huawei is approaching a "critical moment for its survival and development". Odd, how history repeats itself. Chinese communications technology graduate students joined the workforce at Canada's premier, hugely successful Nortel Telecommunications giant with successful international connections. Many of those same students who had integrated into the Nortel workforce are now senior managers at Huawei.

 

Canada's Nortel was destroyed when its classified and secret strategies, technical advances and global connections were somehow infiltrated and the company was destroyed while its trade secrets and client base along with former communications engineers ended up working for a new Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei. Once again Huawei is engaged in what the Chinese seem to do best; seek out the visionary talent of various nations and their workers.

 

Of course Huawei is not alone in the international world of corporate interests, all of whom recruit worldwide. China's history of hiring scientific and technologically-inclined minds is exemplified by Huawei's presence in Canada where it established a large R&D operation. Jonathan Calof, University of Ottawa business professor, added that Huawei Wireless's chief technology officer Wen Tong, had been head of Nortel's network technology laboratories.

 

China's propensity and success in siphoning scientific expertise and knowledge away from the West is well established. A private company that is strategically vital to the Chinese Communist Party; as the CCP expands internationally, so too does Huawei. 

 

Visitors look at descriptions of Huawei products during an expo in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]