A former Chinese spy has revealed new information about the Chinese regime’s targeting of a Chinese dissident who died in British Columbia in 2022.
While the RCMP says the death was not suspicious, it was raised as a warning last year to another exiled Chinese activist now living in Toronto. The warning was conveyed in a phone call between the activist and one of his friends in China, whom the activist said was under pressure from Chinese police and described the death as being “under mysterious circumstances.”
The 39-year-old said the missions were aimed at surveilling, abducting, and silencing members of the Chinese diaspora around the world.
One of Eric’s targets was Hua Yong, an artist and a longtime critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) originally from Beijing. Mr. Hua later died in Canada while kayaking on a cold autumn night, as officially reported by police.
‘Maybe He’d Been Killed’
Eric was given cover as the manager of a local hotel group with aspirations to overthrow the CCP. He and Mr. Hua bonded over this shared ideal and discussed setting up a pro-democracy group overseas, ABC News reported.
Eric’s handlers helped him carry out his idea of creating a fake anti-CCP online persona and making revolutionary videos in order to get closer to Mr. Hua.
Mr. Hua promoted the video on his Twitter and YouTube accounts.
In April 2021, Mr. Hua was granted a temporary protection visa by Canada, but he maintained close contact with Eric. Eric told ABC News that he subsequently provided a detailed intelligence report to his handler that included Mr. Hua’s phone number, address, places he went, and people he met.
Mr. Hua eventually went to live in Gibsons, a coastal community in southwestern B.C., a short 40-minute ferry ride from West Vancouver. Then one day in November 2022, over a year after arriving in Canada and four months after coming to Gibsons, Mr. Hua was found dead, having drowned in what Canadian authorities concluded was a kayaking accident.
Eric, for his part, told ABC News: “My first reaction was that maybe he'd been killed. But in fact, I couldn’t tell whether his death was just an accident or a murder, because I wasn’t part of it. I also knew little about it. All I could say is that Mr Hua had been a long-term target of the secret police.”
RCMP Staff Sergeant Kris Clark upholds the findings of the force’s investigation.
“Investigations are led by the evidence and I can assure you that a thorough investigation has been completed. There was nothing to suggest this death was suspicious, despite the concerns expressed by those who were not involved in the investigation,” he wrote in an email to The Epoch Times on May 17.
A Warning to Others
Chen Siming, a Chinese activist who fled to Canada last year, says Mr. Hua’s case was mentioned by a contact while conveying CCP threats against him.During the phone call, the friend advised Mr. Chen to moderate his criticism of the CCP and its leadership “so as not to end up like Hua Yong, dying under mysterious circumstances.”
In a new interview on May 17, Mr. Chen said he was unsure whether the mention of Mr. Hua’s death was also part of the threatening messages issued by the Chinese state security.
“If Chinese public security officials indeed had the intention to covey the case as a threat, it would be expressed in a nuanced way as they don’t want to leave any evidence behind,” he told The Epoch Times in Chinese.
Asked about the new information disclosed by Eric regarding the targeting of the deceased dissident, Mr. Chen expressed “mixed feelings” about the case. He said he is unable to fully believe that Mr. Hua’s death was an accident, yet he cannot challenge the RCMP’s conclusion.
Mr. Chen had obtained political asylum from Canada and arrived in early October 2023. However, his family in China continues to face harassment. He said that in the past month, police have harassed his sister in China to seek information about him.
“I do not recognize the legitimacy of the People’s Republic of China, whose foundation was backed by the Soviet Union. However, as a so-called ‘government,’ the regime’s use of such despicable measures—seeking to control, suppress, and silence dissenters abroad by threatening their family members back in China—is truly disgraceful,” he said on May 17.
