China Blurs Line Between Private and State-Owned Companies to Further CCP Goals: CSIS Official

A sign for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service building in Ottawa, in a file photo. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

China blurs the line between private companies and state-owned enterprises, with China-based corporations assisting in advancing the regime’s strategic objectives, a senior intelligence official told MPs.

Nicole Giles, senior assistant deputy minister at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) made the comments while appearing before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics, which is studying disinformation targeting parliamentarians.

“The People’s Republic of China does not really distinguish between private companies that operate from within China’s state-owned enterprises, and [use] whatever means they can to try to further the strategic objectives of the Communist Party of China,” she said on May 21.

“We do see corporate actors out of PRC using all means and various techniques at their disposal to try to further the objectives of the Communist Party of China.”

Ms. Giles was responding to a question from NDP MP Matthew Green on whether multinational corporations use “misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information for pecuniary interest or financial gain.”

MPs on a separate committee have previously raised concerns about China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which mandates that “all organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law.”

CSIS Director David Vigneault told the House of Commons procedure and House affairs committee that the law “essentially codified and publicized the fact that the PRC, the Communist Party, saw everybody—every company, every citizen—as someone who needed to support intelligence services.”

“The way the PRC is looking at its citizens, irrespective of the fact that they may have dual citizenship and irrespective of the fact they may have been living in another country for years—a couple of generations—they would apply the same standard to apply that law and they would be putting pressure on individuals to collaborate with the intelligence service if that was their desire,” he said during a committee hearing on June 13, 2023.

Concerns Over TikTok

Mr. Vigneault recently raised concerns about TikTok, a multinational corporation owned by the China-based company ByteDance, warning in a CBC interview that data from TikTok “is available to the government of China.”

During the May 21 ethics committee meeting, Liberal MP Iqra Khalid quoted Mr. Vigneault, stating, “There is a very clear strategy on the part of the government of China to be able to acquire personal information from anyone around the world.” She asked how the government can encourage Canadians, particularly the youth, to take these security risks seriously.

In response, Ms. Giles noted the government’s initial step of banning TikTok on government devices.

“It’s a very astute approach, as the [CSIS] director said, and we would continue to encourage everyone to be very thoughtful about the personal information that they provide to companies,” she said.

Ottawa banned TikTok on government-issued devices in February 2023 after the app was determined to present “an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”

Concerns over TikTok have been a focus of U.S. lawmakers. On March 13, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the company to divest from its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban on U.S. app stores and hosting services. U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law on April 24, the day after the Senate passed the legislation.

In response, TikTok sued the U.S. government on March 7, calling the law “unconstitutional” in a court filing.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged citizens to heed Mr. Vigneault’s warnings regarding TikTok during a May 17 press conference, stating “As an individual, I would say that I would absolutely not recommend someone have TikTok.”

He added that Canada is closely watching developments in the United States, where legislation requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban on U.S. app stores and hosting services by January 2025.

Andrew Thornebrooke, Chandra Philip, and Terri Wu contributed to this report.