Chinese Canadians Say CCP’s Brazen Threat Against MP’s Family Means Even Greater Risk to Theirs

Conservative MP Michael Chong rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 2, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Recent news that a Chinese diplomat had threatened a Canadian MP’s family in Hong Kong highlights the potential for more severe actions against the general Chinese Canadian population and dissidents by the Chinese Communist Party, warns the leader of a rights advocacy group.

Conservative MP Michael Chong said on Twitter on May 1 that he was “profoundly disappointed” to have learned about threats against his relatives in Hong Kong from the media and not from the Canadian government or Canadian security agencies.

According to a Globe and Mail article citing a 2021 top-secret report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), China’s intelligence service took actions to target Canadian MPs involved in a parliamentary motion that condemned Beijing’s abuse of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang Province. This included seeking information about one MP’s relatives in China. A national security source told the Globe that the MP being targeted was Chong.

Meanwhile, Zhao Wei, the Chinese diplomat who allegedly made the threats, has remained an accredited officer with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto.

“This is extraordinarily appalling to us because if the Chinese Consulate officials in Toronto dared to threaten the Official Opposition party’s foreign critic, they could have done much worse to ordinary citizens of Canada,” Gloria Fung, chair of the Canada-Hong Kong Link, told The Epoch Times.

“The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has been exploiting the fact that Canadians of Chinese ethnic background still have their relatives and family members in China or Hong Kong, and that’s why they could use them as hostages in exerting pressure on Canadians,” she said.

“At the same time, I’m quite sure the magnitude and extent of intimidation, harassment, will be much more severe than what they do to other Canadians.”

The CCP seeks to control all individuals of Chinese origin, regardless of where they live or what nationality they hold, Fung said, pointing to a remark by former Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi that people of Chinese origin are “first and foremost Chinese.” Wang made the comment in 2016 in response to concerns raised about the detention of Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo, who holds British citizenship.

“We are Canadians and we do not consider ourselves a Chinese citizen. Therefore, I think this is a very misleading and wrong application of the concept of ‘Chinese national,’” Fung said.

Threats Against Diaspora

A Chinese Canadian resident of Toronto who has experienced the CCP’s intimidation tactics says it has caused significant distress to her family in China. As a Falun Gong practitioner, Huang Hua was forced to remain in Canada as a refugee because of the severe persecution she would encounter if she returned to China.

Huang Hua, a Falun Gong adherent, speaks at a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto on April 25, 2023. Huang said her family members in China face ongoing harassment and intimidation from the communist authorities. Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times

Huang’s father and sister still live in China, and she said local police have repeatedly harassed them as part of their intimidation tactics against her.

Her father, who lives in Zhejiang Province, has received warnings from local police for trying to contact her, Huang told The Epoch Times. In October 2019, police raided his home, presumably searching for evidence to convict him for practising Falun Gong.

When Huang’s father moved to Sichuan Province to stay with her sister during the COVID-19 pandemic, local police continued to harass the family and to attempt to coerce them to renounce their beliefs, Huang said. In September 2022, when Huang decided to bring her father to Canada, they discovered that his life savings of 700,000 Chinese yuan (approximately C$138,000) had mysteriously disappeared from his bank account.

“As an individual [in China], it’s impossible to get away when the government targets you. You will always lose,” Huang said, noting that the family gave up trying to secure a lawyer. “In China, the rule of law does not exist.”

Even in Canada, Huang said she has been followed to her home by a stranger—a Chinese man who appears to be monitoring the activities at the location where she and others practise the meditative exercises of Falun Gong.

Calls for Countermeasures

In his statement posted on Twitter, Chong said that when the Liberal government learned that he was being targeted by a foreign intimidation campaign, they should have declared the Chinese diplomat persona non grata and expelled him from Canada, in addition to warning Chong about the threat.

“The fact that the government neither informed me nor took any action is indicative of its ongoing laissez-faire attitude toward the PRC’s intimidation tactics,” he wrote.

The Epoch Times reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment on whether Zhao Wei will be expelled, but didn’t hear back.

Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian in Toronto and longtime democracy advocate, echoes Chong’s position that Wei should have been expelled.

“There should be a countermeasure in response to the role that the Chinese diplomat in Canada has played in this incident. [Canada] should deliver diplomatic démarche and expel this person,” Sheng told The Epoch Times.

“Such action is a blatant challenge towards Canadian sovereignty. But it is not just a matter of sovereignty, it is also [an act] that extends China’s transnational repression in Canada.”

She noted that one legislative tool to tackle such situations would be a foreign influence registry, which would require individuals or groups working on behalf of a foreign entity to register with the federal government.

“This is a very basic and much-needed policy,” Sheng said. “This law wouldn’t just target the CCP, but any foreign entity that seeks to interact with Canada. It would be unfair and unjust for Canadians if any engagement is done through a covert, disguised, deceptive method.”

Public Safety Canada is currently conducting public consultations on the merits of implementing a foreign agent registry but has not offered a timeline for its creation. The department works with CSIS and four other agencies and three review bodies to carry out its mandate to “keep Canadians safe from a range of risks such as natural disasters, crime and terrorism.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on May 2 that, following release of the Globe report, he has reached out to Chong to “reassure him” that Canada’s national security agencies previously took measures to protect MPs who were on the radar of foreign threat actors. However, he denied having knowledge of the threats to Chong’s family back in 2021.