While influence operations orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) happen federally in Canada, the Chinese regime’s political influence strategy is more often aimed at politicians at the provincial and municipal levels, the report “In Plain Sight: Beijing’s Unrestricted Network of Foreign Influence in Canada” by Alliance Canada Hong Kong notes.
“Local politicians are less likely to be concerned with foreign affairs matters, which is seen as a primarily federal issue,” the report reads.
It also notes that this gives the CCP the opportunity to capitalize on this lack of awareness to execute their plans, unbeknownst to political actors.
For instance, the CCP incentivized political actors at the provincial, territorial, and municipal levels with lucrative business deals and investment projects that benefit their local communities. However, accepting those offers has rendered them vulnerable to political influence as they become reliant on the communist regime.
As for elections, the report expounds on how the CCP provides incentives to Chinese and diasporic communities to elect politicians who favor engagement with Beijing. Often without the knowledge of the political candidates, their WeChat campaign groups are “quickly taken over by individuals and groups” with vested interests with or close ties to the Chinese regime.
However, the report states that these groups form a small minority and don’t represent the vast majority of the Chinese diaspora in Canada.
Another tactic used is “elite capture,” in which the CCP targets Canadian influential figures and decision-makers by first offering them something attractive that appeals to their personal, social, political, and professional interests, and then uses it against them later to force them into compliance with the regime’s request.
Examples cited in the report include all-expenses-paid trips to China, invitations to events that connect them to Chinese business opportunities, cultural event sponsorships, and cash-for-access events, among others.
The CCP also exerts its influence in Canadian academia in the name of “win-win collaboration.” The regime’s “Thousand Talents Plan” is the recruitment of an “overseas network of researchers, scientists, and scholars” for the purpose of transferring their knowledge to serve Beijing’s strategic goals, the report says. Likewise, the regime appeals to academics by offering them grants to support their research, but may request them to transfer their research findings upon renewal of the agreement.
To “tell China’s story,” Beijing is actively dismantling journalism by “creating a Chinese social media empire, grooming web warriors to steer online discourse, compromising social media influencers, and destroying the watchdog role journalists are meant to play,” according to the report.
Other areas of concern in the report include the CCP’s use of surveillance and intimidation against diaspora and dissident communities, national security threats such as the “debt-trap diplomacy” associated with its Belt and Road Initiative, and the United Front operations that aim to sway Canadians buying into the regime’s narratives.
“There have been notable incidents of China’s inappropriate and overreaching political influence documented in Canada and among allied countries,” the report reads. “But the CCP’s influence operations have largely gone unnoticed, if not ignored, by politicians, oversight bodies, the media, and the public.”
