CCP’s Harassment and Intimidation of Canadians a ‘Serious Problem’: Think Tank Study

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Canada has a “serious problem” when it comes to foreign interference by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a new study that investigated the regime’s harassment and intimidation of Chinese-Canadians on Canadian soil.

The research, based on a survey conducted by think tank SecondStreet.org, highlighted that most respondents believed they were targeted for their beliefs—specifically, whether they practised the Falun Gong spiritual faith or Christianity, expressed support for Hong Kong, or simply spoke out in favour of democracy.

“Chinese-Canadians shouldn’t have to worry about their homeland’s tyrannical regime while in Canada,” said Dom Lucyk, report author and SecondStreet.org’s communications director, in an Aug. 26 news release.

“From harassing phone calls and punctured tires to threatening Canadians’ relatives back in China, it’s clear that Canada has a serious problem on our hands.”

The study gathered responses from 26 participants, whom Lucyk recognized for being “brave enough to come forward to shed light on the CCP’s activities in Canada.” The report withheld their names to protect their anonymity. Their responses were collected over a four-month period from March 15 to July 15.

Lucyk said the survey “is not simply a random sampling” but rather a “qualitative exercise sought to examine more granular details from those who had experienced persecution.”

He said they were found by “reaching out to cultural, religious and political organizations, through targeted advertising on social media, by speaking with those who had already shared their story in the media, and through personal connections.”

WeChat, Phone Calls

The survey posed five questions to the participants. They were asked to describe any harassment, intimidation, or other interference in their life from the CCP since moving to Canada. They were also asked to indicate the frequency of the harassment, the reason why they believe they’ve been targeted, and their thoughts on whether it’s common for Chinese-Canadians to be harassed by the regime and how Canadian government bodies should address the issue.

Of the 26 respondents, 21 specifically mentioned their beliefs as being the reason they were targeted—either political belief (pro-Hong Kong or pro-democracy) or faith-related belief (Christianity or Falun Gong, a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions).

Twenty-five respondents said they believe interference is common for Chinese-Canadians, with seven of those adding that harassment is common if one holds views that contradict those of the CCP.

A Christian respondent described how the CCP uses Chinese digital platforms to target individuals in Canada.

“My WeChat account, which is the only app almost all Chinese use, got shadow-banned when I posted my support for Hong Kong in 2018. If I am in a group, no Chinese citizens, anyone using a Chinese phone number, can see my post. Only a few people that use Canadian phone numbers can see my post,” the respondent said.

“So my Canadian political campaigns for various candidates and my Bible study with friends in China since 2018 have been severely impacted.”

An Ottawa Falun Gong practitioner said she has been receiving harassment calls ever since the CCP began persecuting her faith in 1999, spearheaded by then-Party leader Jiang Zemin, now deceased.

“For many years since the persecution, the phone line at our home received numerous harassing phone calls, mostly automated messages that hate propaganda against Falun Gong or endless red songs praising the Chinese Communist Party,” she said.

She added that in 2002, after going to Geneva during a session of the United Nations human rights body to join an appeal seeking an end to the persecution, she received a call from a man speaking Mandarin who said he knew about her Geneva trip. The call then turned into sexual harassment and she hung up, she said.

The report highlighted another Falun Gong practitioner saying, “Around 2002, one day when I came home, [I] found a big size branch of my house plant was cut off and put on the kitchen counter and a knife was beside it.”

Such a threat “would leave anyone unsettled and looking over their shoulder,” the report said.

Tracked, Violence, Threats to Family

A report from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (FDAC) recently highlighted that the CCP has increasingly been using non-Chinese individuals to surveil and interfere with Falun Gong practitioners and their activities in Canada. Falun Gong is also known as Falun Dafa.

The 143-page report, initially released in October 2023 and updated in July 2024, detailed how practitioners were photographed while holding peaceful protests outside the Chinese Embassy and consulates. The photos and personal information gathered, according to the report, are often used by the regime to intimidate the practitioners.

Lucyk’s research concurred with the FDAC report. A Calgary Falun Gong practitioner who was surveyed described how the CCP engaged individuals to track practitioners’ movements.

“The guy who took a photo of me had tracked me over 3 times in ChinaTown and he is the first one that has tracked me to my house,” the respondent said, referring to harassment experienced in fall 2023.

The respondent described “being tracked, monitored, listened, by different guys (chinese, indian, black, white including teenagers) at my house, bus station, any location I parked, also on my computer and phone.”

In one case, a Falun Gong practitioner experienced physical violence, said Lucyk’s study.

“Chinese consulate hired several gangsters cut my banners in front of the consulate, beating me and pointing gun at me. They also sent on secret agents to collect our personal information,” the respondent said.

“They also harassed my family in China, forced them to sign a pledge that I did something they don’t like overseas, they will take away all their properties.”

Eight of the respondents mentioned some type of harassment or targeting of family back in China.

Intimidation, Blocking Bank Account

A respondent described being intimidated by a Chinese Embassy official while working as a freelance reporter for the Chinese community in Ottawa, referring to an incident during former CCP leader Hu Jintao’s 2005 visit to Canada, and mentioning The Epoch Times.

“I was exchanging a conversation with a new[s] reporter from Epoch Times at the Media Room at the Parliament. After the conversation and the reporter from Epoch Times had left, a neatly dressed, sort-of giving you a PLA (People’s Liberation Army) look man sat in front of me. He turned and asked for my name and agency’s name,” the respondent said.

The respondent asked the man for his information instead, but rather than complying, the man kept on asking for the respondent’s information. “We kept the stand-off and I still guarded my information hard. Finally, he admitted that he was from the Chinese embassy,” the respondent said.

Threats from the CCP also came in the form of phone calls from the Hong Kong police force’s National Security Department, said another respondent, who indicated that this happened once in January and once in February this year. Asked why the respondent might have been targeted, the respondent said “[c]olluding with foreign countries to endanger national security. Subversion. Insulting the national flag.”

While the respondent’s personal context surrounding that response is not clear, those two incidents took place shortly before Hong Kong’s adoption of a new national security law in March, which critics say will crush the city’s remaining freedoms. The new bill, known as Article 23, covers five offences: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, destructive activities endangering national security, and external interference.

Another respondent said the Chinese regime “wants to control everyone born in China” and will resort to financial means to do so. “I am not allowed to say anything critical of the Chinese government on the Internet. They blocked my bank account in China, demolished my house in China, and occupied my property.”

One respondent said “being followed or unexplained phone calls that hung up are common tacts” the CCP deploys.

“I have been an outspoken Canadian leader of pro-democracy and human rights movement. As such I am a targeted because of my criticism of China’s policies--specifically in the media,” the respondent added.

Politicians Targeted

The CCP’s targets are not limited to Chinese immigrants, but extend to Canadian politicians. The SecondStreet.org report noted the case of Conservative MP Michael Chong, who it says has faced a targeted disinformation campaign likely coordinated by the CCP.

The survey included a respondent who claimed to have been a victim of CCP election interference during a 2022 municipal by-election due to his anti-CCP views.

“My profile [was] put in a wrong name, mis-translated, or even omitted on certain Chinese-community oriented, Chinese language websites focused on ethnic Chinese candidates,” he said.

Survey respondents said Canadian government bodies should do their part to protect Canadians targeted by the CCP.

“Many ideas were put forward, including a registry of CCP agents, controls on the CCP-owned ‘WeChat’ app, and expulsion or criminal prosecution of any CCP agents found guilty of harassment,” Lucyk wrote.

Andrew Chen contributed to this report.