Promoting TikTok to Teens, Fentanyl Part of CCP’s ‘Unrestricted Warfare’: House Committee Report

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning (C) participates in a military drills in the South China Sea on Jan. 2, 2017. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Promoting TikTok to teenagers and distributing fentanyl are among the methods China is using to expand its global influence as part of its broader “unrestricted warfare,” says a House of Commons committee report compiled after hearing from expert witnesses.

The methods are a “no rules apply” approach by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to target Western adversaries, according to the Dec. 16 report from the Standing Committee on the Canada–People’s Republic of China Relationship.

“This approach explains the PRC’s wide range of activities,” said the report, including “distributing fentanyl in other countries” and “promoting TikTok to teenagers around the globe,” alongside other geopolitical initiatives.

The report cited testimony from Cleo Paskal, a researcher at the Université de Montréal’s Centre for International Studies.

“The Chinese Communist Party uses unrestricted warfare to increase its relative comprehensive national power,” Paskal testified before the committee on Feb. 5.

“It is the concept that connects the dots of everything from the artificial islands in the South China Sea to the [Belt and Road Initiative] to getting Canadian teenagers addicted to TikTok,” Paskal said.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Daniel Rogers also warned MPs about data collection via apps as part of China’s foreign interference efforts in his Dec. 18 testimony before a separate Commons committee. Rogers expressed concern that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is subject to Chinese laws that could compel businesses to support the regime’s intelligence operations, potentially leading to the transfer of Western users’ data to China.

Rogers also highlighted that social media platforms serve as “breeding grounds for extremist ideologies,” with youth especially vulnerable to radicalization due to the increasing volume of violent rhetoric online.

On Nov. 6, following a national security review, Ottawa ordered TikTok to cease operations in Canada. The short-video app has also been banned from all government-issued mobile devices since February 2023.

Meanwhile, China is recognized as the largest source of illegal fentanyl precursor chemicals exported to Canada and North America since 2015, according to a June briefing note from the foreign affairs department. The report also noted that, since January 2016, about 42,500 Canadians have died from opioid overdoses. Between January and September 2023, there was an average of 22 overdose-related deaths per day, with 82 percent involving fentanyl.

Countering Chinese Influence

The Canada-China committee report is the second annual review of Ottawa’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, introduced in November 2022. It cites the strategy’s recognition of Beijing as an “increasingly disruptive global power” and once again highlights troubling practices and policies, including China’s efforts to expand its influence in the region and its ongoing human rights abuses.

MPs from the committee urged the federal government to examine ways to increase the engagement of Canadian specialists in the Indo-Pacific region to “counter the influence of the People’s Republic of China” and benefit nations in the area.

MPs also suggested that the government, in the next review of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, indicate that Taiwan’s future must be determined peacefully and support its meaningful participation in international organizations. This challenges China’s territorial claims over Taiwan and the regime’s growing threats to assert control over the island nation through military means.

The report also recommends addressing China’s human rights abuses against minorities. It urges the government to call on the PRC to end its cultural assimilation policies and to respect these minority groups’ rights to self-determination.

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.