Support for Chinese Regime Required to Access Canadian-Funded Scholar Exchange Program in Canada

Students during a graduation ceremony held at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, on July 18, 2007. China Photos/Getty Images

Chinese candidates applying for a Canadian taxpayer-funded exchange program must declare allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership and the Party’s “socialist system,” The Epoch Times has learned.

Global Affairs Canada issued a notice about the launch of the 2024–25 Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program for Chinese applicants on April 9. The notice provides a link to a corresponding notice on the Chinese regime agency’s website specifying the conditions for applicants.

On the Chinese side, the program is managed by the China Scholarship Council, an agency under China’s Ministry of Education that oversees international academic exchanges. On the Canadian side, the program is administered by the Canadian Embassy in Beijing and promoted by EduCanada, a federal organization under Global Affairs that collaborates with the provinces to help international students looking to study in Canada.

Under the scholarship program, which usually last 4 to 12 months, participants are placed as visiting scholars at Canadian universities without need for formal enrolment. Canada provides $2,200 per month in living expenses along with health-care coverage. The Chinese side foots the bill for travel expenses as well as visa application fees.

In its “Selection Notice“ for the 2024–25 program, the China Scholarship Council lists several other conditions for applicants besides the requirement to support the CCP—which was the No. 1 condition. These include upholding academic standards and ethics, having good physical and mental health, being aged 50 or younger, intending to return to China to put acquired skills to use, and committing to uphold the CCP’s ideals.

“[Candidates should] support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics; love the motherland; have good moral character; abide by laws and regulations; have a sense of responsibility to serve the country, serve the society, and serve the people; and have a correct world view, outlook on life, and values,” the first condition says in Chinese.

The Epoch Times contacted Global Affairs Canada for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.

The Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program was created in 1973 as part of an agreement between then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

The program is open to academic staff, master’s or doctoral graduates, as well as non-academics holding “senior professional posts” in China, such as judges, broadcasters, and economists.

Concerns

Human rights lawyer David Matas says the requirement for applicants to support the CCP could mean that those in the Canadian-funded program may engage in self-censorship, which goes against human rights laws and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“I think the issue is whether it violates Canadian law, whether it violates a particular statute or not. And I would say that it does,” Mr. Matas said in an interview.

As well, he said, requiring candidates to support the CCP leadership also implies supporting Beijing’s hostile activities abroad.

“Supporting communist leadership means supporting what they’re doing, and supporting what they’re doing means complying with their requests,” he said. “If the Communist Party leadership asks [the successful candidates] to spy and they don’t, that is not supporting the Communist Party leadership.”

China’s National Intelligence Law requires Chinese citizens and organizations, including private businesses, to provide support, assistance, and cooperation in the regime’s intelligence operations.

Mr. Matas pointed to another Chinese educational program involving Canadian institutions that had evoked human rights concerns.

“This issue actually arose with the Confucius Institute, because the people who work for them are hired in Beijing and they have a similar requirement,” Mr. Matas said. “Specifically, [the applicant to teach at Confucius Institute] couldn’t be a Falun Gong practitioner. They actually had that on the website.”

Sonia Zhao, a Falun Gong adherent who taught at McMaster University’s Confucius Institute, filed a case with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal in September 2012 alleging discrimination in hiring practices. She stated that she had to agree to not practise Falun Gong as part of Beijing’s requirement for teaching at the institute. Beijing refused to remove the requirement, and McMaster eventually ended its Confucius Institute program.

“The problem is discriminatory because the Communist Party discriminates against anybody they [target]—Falun Gong practitioners, Hong Kong democracy activists, or Uyghurs,” Mr. Matas said. “They maintain a list of perceived enemies, and this violates Canadian human rights protections.”

Research Partnership

David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, along with fellow senior intelligence officials from Canada’s Five Eyes allies, issued a warning last October about growing security concerns involving China targeting Western educational and research institutes. Specifically, the regime’s threats to Western innovation, intellectual property, and academic institutions were highlighted by the officials during a rare public appearance on Oct. 17, 2023.

Responding to concerns over Beijing’s threat to Canadian academia, Ottawa in early 2024 released a “Named Research Organizations” list that identified 85 Chinese organizations deemed to present the highest risk to Canada’s national security. The list includes those recognized as the Seven Sons of National Defence due to their close ties to the Chinese military. Ottawa has said it won’t provide federal funding for technical projects in sensitive areas with these organizations.

The Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program, which focuses on Canadian studies in the social sciences and humanities, covers fields such as economics, law, international relations, history, and geography.

Mr. Matas said that even though these fields are not technical, they still pose potential security risks.

“It depends on the information [the exchange scholars] have access to and the research that is itself supposed to be secure. I think that would be a problem,” he said.

Mr. Matas noted that it’s not correct to say everyone coming from China is engaged in malign activities, but those who need to meet certain requirements to qualify could potentially act as spies and report to “the Communist Party on everything they see around them.”

As a member of a human rights coalition participating in the ongoing public inquiry into foreign interference, Mr. Matas cited cases of individuals affiliated with the Confucius Institute in Canada who engage in surveilling the Chinese diaspora, pro-democracy activists, and persecuted groups like Falun Gong.

He said Western nations’ belief that China would democratize following engagement with democracies has proven flawed, and the communist regime has instead become more aggressive. This is especially so under Xi Jinping, who has become increasingly hostile to the West, he said.

“With Xi Jinping, I think hopes have evaporated and I think the situation now in terms of Communist Party repression is as bad as it’s ever been,” Mr. Matas said.

“It’s really crushed the hopes of those who thought that the contact with China, development with China ... would lead to freedom in China.”

Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.