Canada expelled a Chinese diplomat early this week, and China retaliated by expelling a Canadian diplomat. The allegation of China’s aggressive political interference in Canada is at the center of this tension.
On May 1, The Globe and Mail, a Canadian media outlet, disclosed a 2021 top-secret assessment by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the nation’s top spy agency. The CSIS warned that Beijing is the “foremost perpetrator” of foreign interference in Canada and that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operatives have employed “incentives and punishment” as part of their overseas operations, directly targeting Canadian legislators, business executives, and Chinese immigrants in the nation.
The CSIS assessment identified Michael Chong, a member of parliament (MP) from the Conservative Party, as one of the CCP’s targets. Chong, the son of a Chinese immigrant, is an outspoken critic of the CCP. In 2021, a non-binding motion sponsored by Chong to declare that the CCP’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslims constituted genocide was passed by the House of Commons 266-0. The Chinese ambassador to Ottawa, Cong Peiwu, condemned the motion and claimed, “There is no so-called genocide in Xinjiang at all.”
Soon after, China put Chong and several other MPs on its sanction list. The CSIS alleged that Zhao Wei, a diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Toronto, instructed Hong Kong authorities to locate Chong’s relatives in the city. Zhao sought to “make an example” of Chong and silence other China critics in Canada by going after Chong’s relatives.
Other than offering Chong a vague warning, CSIS never shared
