With British Columbians heading to the polls in a few weeks, security experts and Chinese diaspora groups are sounding a warning about potential interference by China, given its previous attempts to meddle in federal and municipal elections in the province.
“B.C. is the landing point of so many activities from the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] in collaboration with triads, in collaboration with tycoons as well,” Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former chief of the Asia-Pacific unit at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said in an interview.
There have been extensive reports about the CCP’s interference in politics at all levels in British Columbia.
The only MPs whose targeting by the CCP in the last two federal elections has been documented by the Foreign Interference Commission—with the exception of former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole—are B.C. MPs.
A former B.C. MLA revealed in 2019 that while he was in office, he was detained for eight hours during a trip to China, saying he believed it was because of his human rights activities.
Last year, the province’s premier demanded a CSIS briefing over reports of the Chinese regime’s interference in the 2022 municipal elections.
The CCP-fuelled opioid crisis and related money laundering operations in the province were the subject of a recent multi-year-long inquiry.
In his explosive remarks in 2010 to CBC that became a topic of national discussion, then-head of CSIS Richard Fadden singled out B.C. for having municipal politicians who are under the influence of a “foreign government.” He had mentioned that China is the most active among foreign powers when it comes to meddling in Canada’s affairs.
Evidence presented at the Foreign Interference Commission and intelligence leaks in the media show that the CCP’s interference can take several different forms when it comes to elections.
Lawyers enter the hearing room as the Public Inquiry into Foreign Election Interference resumes in Ottawa, on Sept. 16, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
One format could be for the CCP to favour a certain party over another if it deems it more favourable to its interests, or even attempting to bring about a certain overall election outcome.
The Foreign Interference Commission’s May 3 interim report documents how the Conservative Party and its then-leader Erin O’Toole were targeted by a campaign of disinformation by widely circulated Chinese-language articles and social media posts during the 2021 election campaign. In that campaign, O’Toole was strongly outspoken against Beijing’s aggressions and rights abuses, and his platform had an extensive section on how to counter China.
The report also cites a Feb. 17, 2023, article by The Globe and Mail based on intelligence documents saying that although Chinese diplomats weren’t happy that the Liberal government had recently become critical of China, they still preferred the Liberals over the Conservatives. The report says China’s aim was for a minority Liberal government, as a majority government could mean easy adoption of policies deemed unfavourable to Beijing.
Another format that the Chinese regime’s election interference could take is supporting the campaign of certain candidates.
Intelligence reports documented in the commission’s report say international students were bused in to the 2019 Liberal nomination contest of Toronto’s Don Valley North in support of then-candidate Han Dong. The report says the students were provided false documents by a proxy of China, and voted for Dong’s nomination under threat by the Chinese Consulate.
Dong went on to win the nomination, become MP in the Liberal stronghold riding in 2019, and get re-elected in 2021. He resigned from the Liberal caucus in 2023 to sit as an Independent amid media reporting about his interactions with the Chinese Consulate. Dong, who hasn’t responded to Epoch Times’ requests for comment, has denied any wrongdoing and has launched legal action against Global News for its reporting about him.
Yet another form the interference can take is Beijing’s targeting of candidates whose positions are injurious to the regime.
“Foreign interference by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is generally thought to be party-agnostic. The PRC does not support any particular party, but rather supports outcomes that it views as pro-PRC, regardless of the political affiliation of a particular candidate,” says the commission’s report.
The report details how Vancouver East NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who has been outspoken about China’s human rights abuses, was targeted in the 2019 and 2021 elections by the regime. This included being shut out of events in the Chinese community, and people exhibiting fear to vote for her out of concern for the safety of their families in China.
The report also documents the extensive targeting of former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, representing B.C.’s Steveston-Richmond East riding, during the 2021 election. Chiu wanted to bring in a foreign agent registry legislation, and was critical of China’s human rights infractions. The interference included false reports portraying him as being anti-Chinese and misrepresenting his proposed legislation. Chiu ultimately lost the 2021 election to the Liberal contender.
Jenny Kwan, the NDP MP for Vancouver East, appears as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on April 3, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu appears as a witness at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Ottawa on April 3, 2024. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
The Feb. 17, 2023, Globe article says classified reports show that China’s then-consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, boasted about helping defeat two Conservative MPs in the 2021 election.
Another form of interference could come from staffers and campaign volunteers.
A Sept. 8, 2021, intelligence document presented at the Foreign Interference Commission says that political staffers are a target for the CCP, because they are the ones who control the schedules of the politicians and can act as “gatekeepers” for their employers.
These “staff are thereby placed in positions where they can clandestinely and deceptively control and influence the activities of elected and appointed officials in ways that support PRC or CCP interests,” the CSIS document says.
In the United States in early September, an aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was arrested for allegedly acting as an agent of China. She is accused of blocking requests for meetings with representatives of the Taiwanese government and Chinese-persecuted groups, smuggling a Chinese Consulate official into a remotely held government conference call, and obtaining proclamations for a Chinese Consulate official, among others.
Rights activist Tong says the CCP’s tactics include targeting high-profile election candidates and arranging for its cronies to surround the candidate and become his volunteers and political staffers.
“They try to create relationships with them and help them,” she said.
If that high-profile candidate gets elected, they may even become a cabinet minister, and then they’ll be under the influence of the CCP, she says.
She says in the B.C. election, it’s important for politicians to pay attention to whom they hire as aids and volunteers, and also not to shy away from criticizing China’s aggressions due to fear of upsetting Beijing. As well, she says, they need to be clear that China uses the “racism” label to stifle criticism of its aggressions.
“Human rights and democracy, they’re our Canadian values. We should be standing by our values in whatever decision we’re making, and any policies we’re making,” she said.
Targeting Those in Power
In an interview with The Epoch Times, former MP Chiu said that when it comes to election interference, there are two key points to keep in mind.
The first point, he says, is that the CCP targets those who hold power, regardless of their party affiliation.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa, in a file photo. The Epoch Times
“The CCP is not Liberal or Conservative, or socialist or capitalist, they are attracted to power, and so they would be willing to approach from that perspective,” he said.
The second point Chiu stresses is that the CCP is “ethno-agnostic.”
“They don’t care if you’re Chinese, Korean, Japanese, white, Anglo-Saxon, French, Quebecois. They would approach, and they would at least analyze your accessibility according to the information they have on hand on you,” he said. “If the target can be a ‘useful idiot,’ they will use them.”
For voters to be able to discern which politician may be under the influence of the CCP, Chiu says, it’s important to observe what they say and the stances they take.
“What do the aspiring politicians think about the Tiananmen Square Massacre? What do they think about [China’s state-sanctioned] organ harvesting, persecution? … What do they think about Bill C-70 [legislation targeting foreign interference]? Do they say, just like many people who take the side of the CCP, this is anti-Asian racism?” he said.
“All these in a sense, are a litmus test for many of our citizens and friends and neighbours who are seeking public office, and I think it’s important for them to let us know where they stand on issues like that.”
2022 Municipal Elections
Last March, B.C. Premier David Eby said he was “very troubled” by news reports that China had interfered in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election.
His comments came in reaction to a March 16, 2023, article by The Globe and Mail citing intelligence records that the Chinese Consulate used diaspora community groups and groomed certain candidates for the election.
The intelligence reportedly said China wanted the incumbent Kennedy Stewart to lose. Stewart, who lost that election to Ken Sim, had been outspoken in support of Taiwan’s independence and condemnation of China’s human rights violations.
Sim, who did not return requests for comment, has pushed back against any questioning of the legitimacy of the election, saying if he “was a Caucasian male, we’re not having this conversation.”
Then-Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart speaks during a press conference in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, on July 28, 2021. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press
The Globe article also said China’s consul general had discussed supporting a candidate for council, with hopes of the candidate later moving on to provincial and federal politics.
The May 3 commission report talks about how foreign powers cultivate “deep, long-lasting” relationships with their targets, and how they target politicians at even lower levels of government, since a school board trustee today could move on to become an MP in the future.
Brad West, mayor of Port Coquitlam, B.C., said last year that he was informed by CSIS that the CCP tried to recruit a candidate to run against him in the 2022 municipal election in his city. CSIS had previously told West that he was “very much on the radar of the government of China” for fighting against its funding of the Union of BC Municipalities. West, who has been very critical of China’s rights abuses and interference in Canada, had said the scheme was effectively a “cash-for-access arrangement” for Chinese officials to mingle with municipal politicians.
In the aftermath of these news reports, Eby said while the federal government has most of the tools to combat foreign interference, he wants to know if there are other ways that his province could “close the gap.”
He also pushed for Ottawa to enable CSIS information-sharing with the province regarding foreign interference threats. This request was met with changes brought in by Bill C-70, an Act respecting countering foreign interference, which passed into law earlier this year.
“We’re always looking for ways to make sure our elections are free and fair,” Eby said on March 17, 2023.
The Epoch Times asked the B.C. NDP and Eby, who are now campaigning ahead of the Oct. 19 provincial election, if they have any additional comments on the issue of Beijing’s interference, but didn’t hear back by publication time.
John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of B.C., told The Epoch Times in June that people in the Chinese community should “be able to feel safe, they should have to be able to raise their families, they should be able to integrate into their communities in the way they want to, they should receive the services they need.”
Rustad received a CSIS briefing in early July, according to theBreaker.news. Rustad told the publication that the agency spoke to him for about an hour, but he didn’t disclose the topic of discussion. He added that he’s “quite concerned about foreign influence in elections, in particular in British Columbia, and not just from China.”
(Left) B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad speaks in Surrey on Sept. 23, 2024; (Right) B.C. NDP Leader David Eby speaks in North Vancouver on Sept. 22, 2024. The Canadian Press/Ethan Cairns
Attending Events
Former CSIS manager Juneau-Katsuya says one of the features of democracy is that candidates need to face re-election every few years, and this can be exploited by hostile regimes like the CCP.
“Candidates who want to be elected will seek that support in various communities. And where you’ve got money, where you’ve got concentration of certain ethnic groups, where you’ve got people with equal chances to win a position, you’re going to have a lot of people attempting to simply compromise and go and sign a deal with the devil, and that’s what’s currently happening in B.C.,” he says.
Activist Tong says politicians should be very vigilant about the circles they associate with and events they attend, especially those organized by the Chinese Consulate and groups associated with China’s United Front Work Department. According to research cited by Public Safety Canada, the United Front organization is the CCP’s primary foreign interference tool.
Some B.C. politicians frequently attend events featuring the Chinese Consulate and those organized by groups holding pro-Beijing positions.
Some others, even if they don’t attend regularly, raise eyebrows by attending such events due to the positions they hold.
Human rights and Hong Kong pro-democracy groups were greatly concerned when then-Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan attended a Sept. 22, 2019, event in Vancouver celebrating the founding of the CCP’s People’s Republic of China. His office later said he was attending in his capacity as a candidate in the upcoming election, not as a minister of the Crown.
Similar concerns were raised about the attendance of then-Minister of Small Business Mary Ng at a similar event in Toronto.
More recently, several B.C. MLAs were seen in a video standing alongside the Chinese consul-general to the playing of the CCP’s national anthem at a March 5, 2023, event marking International Women’s Day in Vancouver.
Among them was Teresa Wat, who left the B.C. United caucus in July to join the B.C. Conservatives. Wat, a former cabinet minister in the B.C. Liberal government of Christy Clark, has attended many events with Chinese consulate officials.
Last year, a theBreaker.news article said that while Eby had expressed concern about municipal elections interference attempts, a member of the NDP government’s Chinese-Canadian Community Advisory Committee offered a certain interpretation of Eby’s comments in a post on Chinese social media. The March 2023 post said Eby is “standing up” to request that CSIS provide proof of those allegations. The writer has penned a number of commentaries dismissing investigative news articles about politicians’ ties with CCP officials as being a “political witch hunt,” according to screenshots included in the theBreaker.news article.
A provincial election polling station is shown in Vancouver on Oct. 24, 2020. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck
‘Infiltrating Canada’
Brian Lee Crowley, founder of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, says recent revelations at the Foreign Interference Commission, and other recently revealed intelligence, show that foreign powers are targeting Canada to “disrupt” its democracy and make Canadians lose faith in their institutions.
“We should be extremely concerned about that, not just in British Columbia, although I think British Columbia is a province whose politics have been quite deeply infected by this,” he said in an interview.
“Canadians have to be vigilant, and they have to be demanding about the connections that exist between their politicians and people who might, wittingly or unwittingly, be the instruments of foreign governments.”
Tong says over the past few decades, the diaspora communities have been witnessing extensive interference and subversion efforts by the CCP, and what has been covered in the media and the commission hearings are just the “tip of the iceberg.”
“The CCP is infiltrating Canada using the United Front Work Department,” she says. “It’s been a long time that things have been happening, but nobody really pays attention, and so it’s been normalized.”
CSIS told The Epoch Times that it has observed foreign interference activities at all levels of government across Canada and across party lines, adding that it takes all allegations of such activities very seriously.
“CSIS is committed to equipping elected officials to identify foreign interference threats and take measures to address and counter foreign interference, including by providing briefings,” CSIS spokesperson John Townsend said in an email.
A sign for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service building in Ottawa, in a file photo. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Established by Elections B.C earlier this year, the group—the first of its kind at the provincial level in Canada—consists of representatives from provincial government, federal and provincial agencies, CSIS, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, and the RCMP.
“We work closely with partner agencies to mitigate the risk of foreign interference in BC elections,” Elections B.C. spokesperson Wesley MacInnis said in an email. “The EIWG meets on an ongoing basis to assess risks, facilitate collaboration between members, and support the development of risk-response strategies for individual agencies.”
MacInnis said while B.C. elections remain “safe and secure,” the working group was formed to mitigate any risks “in recognition that the risk environment around elections has changed in recent years.”
In response to a request for comment, Public Safety Canada said it’s not an investigative agency, and deferred the request to the police of the jurisdiction. The RCMP’s E division, which has jurisdiction in B.C., pointed to the EIWG, which the police force is a part of.
A spokesperson with the B.C. provincial government said that during elections, government communications are limited to public health and safety, and they can’t comment on other issues.
Noé Chartier, Andrew Chen, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Omid Ghoreishi
Author
Omid Ghoreishi is with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times.
