Chinese Consul-General in Vancouver Issued Veiled ‘Warning’ to Canadian Politicians, Former MP Says

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

Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu says he has raised concerns with authorities investigating foreign interference about a veiled “warning” issued by a former Chinese consul-general in Vancouver.

Chiu told The Epoch Times that he was concerned about remarks made by Tong Xiaoling during a July 2020 interview with the Vancouver-based Chinese language radio station AM1320.

“She was practically giving out a warning to Chinese Canadian politicians,” he said.

In the interview, Tong was asked whether China would consider sanctioning Canadian critics, particularly “ethnically Chinese politicians,” who have been outspoken against Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong. Canada and other Western democracies have condemned the Beijing-imposed law, saying it undermines human rights.

In her reply, Tong accused Western politicians of using human rights as a pretext to attack and interfere in China’s internal affairs. Additionally, she argued that the national security law targets only a small minority whose actions disrupt harmony and threaten national security in Hong Kong.

“If you don’t break the law or engage in these kinds of activities, why do you have to worry about your own safety?” Tong said in Mandarin.

The national security law, which came into force in 2020, is widely seen as an erosion of Hong Kong’s democracy and has drawn international criticism for its expansive scope, which extends beyond Hong Kong residents to also target foreign nationals.

Chiu, who was very outspoken against China’s human rights abuses when he was an MP, said he submitted his concerns about this case to the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the Foreign Interference Commission, and the RCMP on Sept. 18.

Beijing ‘Weaponized Fear’

Chiu has been closely following investigations into Beijing’s interference in Canada’s last two federal elections. He said that since Tong’s remark occurred outside the election cycle, he only recalled the incident after reading a review released by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

“I neglected to mention that to any of the authorities when they interviewed me because I was laser-focused on the election period. But anyway, that’s what jogged my memory when I finished reading the report,” he said.

The review, submitted to the foreign interference inquiry on Sept. 17, focused on a China-linked disinformation campaign in the B.C. riding of Richmond-Steveston, where Chiu served as MP before losing to the Liberal candidate in the 2021 election.

During the election campaign, Chiu reported being a target of a widespread disinformation campaign to show him as being anti-Chinese, with false information about Chiu and his advocacy for human rights circulating on the Chinese social media platform WeChat.

Investigators with the Commissioner of Canada Election said these influence efforts were motivated by the Conservative Party’s election platform, which had an elaborate section on confronting Beijing’s aggressions, and Chiu’s actions and statements, which were used to claim that both the platform and Chiu were “anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”

Chiu highlighted the investigators’ repeated assertions that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses fear as a means of influencing diaspora communities.

“The measures that almost all Chinese Canadian interview subjects stated as the fear or disquiet were the possibility that travel to and from China could be subjected to interference by Chinese authorities, as well as measures being applied against family members or business interests in China,” the review by Commissioner of Canada Election stated.

“One word that has been—I’ve actually counted—mentioned many times in the report is the word fear,” Chui said.

“In the 112 pages of the [Commissioner of Canada Election] report, there are 34 mentions of ‘fear,’ and that tells you the CCP weaponized fear among Canadian populations, Chinese populations, politicians, and others.”