In late 2022, various media outlets around the world reported on a suspected attempt by the People's Republic of China to infiltrate the Parliament of Canada by funding a network of candidates to run in the country’s 2019 federal election.[1][2][3][4][5]
Alleged plot
The alleged plot to infiltrate the 2019 election was made public through a November 7, 2022 investigative report by Global News.[1]
Sources for the report said that a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proxy group mobilized around CA$250,000 to fund the infiltration network through a staffer for an election candidate and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who both acted as intermediaries.[1] Recipients of the donations included at least eleven candidates and members of their campaign staff. [1] The sources also said that the candidates were members of Canada’s two main political parties (the Liberal Party of Canada and Conservative Party of Canada), and that some of them were “witting affiliates of the Chinese Communist Party.”[1]
Details of the suspected infiltration plot were reportedly presented to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in January 2022.[1] CSIS reportedly did not conclude whether the suspected interference operation achieved its goals, but it did say that Canada was subject to more foreign interference attacks from China than from any other nation. [1]
Parties reportedly involved
Chinese Consulate in Toronto
According to the Global News report, the consulate directed the transfer of the funds.[1] The report also said that a member in the consulate directed a staffer for unnamed federal election candidates to monitor and interfere with their engagement activities. The interference efforts included preventing meetings with representatives of Taiwan.[1]
United Front Work Department
According to the Global News report, several candidates in the alleged infiltration network met with officials from China's United Front Work Department. CSIS’s intelligence documents said the organization’s activities in Canada has facilitated interference operations by China’s Ministry of State Security and that its members in Canada has operated from Chinese consulates in Canada.[1]
Reaction
When asked to comment on the disclosure of their intelligence reports to the press, CSIS said they had identified PRC foreign interference in Canada, which it defined to include election interference through covert foreign political financing.[1]
Prime Minister Trudeau said that although China has been “continuing to play aggressive games with our institutions, with our democracies”, his government has been undertaking measures to combat “foreign interference of our democracy and institutions.”[6]
On November 9, a request was made by a cross party group of Canadian Members of Parliament to convene an emergency meeting in order to discuss the interference allegations detailed in the Global News report.[7]
Similar allegations of Chinese interference
A year following the 2021 Canadian federal election, Conservative Party politicians including former leader Erin O'Toole blamed Chinese government interference as a factor behind the loss for the party. In a 2022 interview on the UnCommons podcast with Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, O'Toole opined that media outfits linked to the Chinese Communist Party could have cost the Conservatives up to "eight or nine seats.".[8]
O'Toole's beliefs were supported by Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong who stated that while the party was initially hesitant to blame China for influencing the vote due to inconclusive evidence at the time, he now believed "The communist leadership in Beijing did interfere in the last federal election by spreading disinformation through proxies on Chinese-language social media platforms that contributed to the defeat of a number of Conservative MPs" citing a report by McGill University. Similar views were shared by O'Toole's director of parliamentary affairs Mitch Heimpel who claimed Canadian national security officers had contacted the Conservatives around election day to express concerns about potential foreign interference. Heimpel also cited the example of former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu who had been targeted by a misinformation campaign by the Chinese social media platform WeChat. Research into alleged electoral interference by McGill University indicated that there was no specific riding specific data to draw a full conclusion on the impact of potential interference and noted "Canadian-Chinese issues were not central to the campaign nor were they top of mind for voters" but concurred researchers had found Chinese state media had worked "with an apparent aim to convince Canadians of Chinese origin to vote against the Conservative Party."[9][10]
See also
- 2019 Australian Parliament infiltration plot
- 1996 United States campaign finance controversy
- Christine Lee
- Legal dispute between former New Zealand Members of Parliament Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross which stemmed from a donation to Bridges by Chinese businessman Yikun Zhang
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cooper, Sam. "Canadian intelligence warned PM Trudeau that China covertly funded 2019 election candidates: Sources". Global News.
- ^ "Trudeau accuses China of 'aggressive' election interference". BBC News.
- ^ "Trudeau: China playing 'aggressive games' with Canadian democracy". DW.
- ^ "China trying to gut Canada's democracy: PM". Taipei Times. The Guardian.
- ^ "China playing 'aggressive games' with Canada democracy: Trudeau". France 24.
- ^ D’Andrea, Aaron. "Canada facing 'aggressive games' from China, others amid interference report: Trudeau". Global News.
- ^ "MPs request emergency meeting on 'troubling' Chinese interference allegations". Global News.
- ^ Thomson, Stuart (June 9, 2022). "Conservatives lost 'eight or nine' seats in last election due to Chinese interference, says O'Toole". The Hub. Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
- ^ Lee, Sze-Fung; Fung, Benjamin (January 4, 2022). "Misinformation and Chinese interference in Canada's affairs". Policy Options. Archived from the original on June 9, 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
- ^ Blatchford, Andy (June 8, 2022). "O'Toole blames China for Conservative election results". Politico. Ottawa. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-09.