Posted at 12:00 p.m
(Ottawa) China has mastered the art of insidious interference in Canadian elections. And it will be almost impossible to counter any form of Beijing interference in the country’s next federal election, warns former British Columbia Conservative MP Kenny Chiu.
Kenny Chiu was first elected MP for Steveston-Richmond East in the October 2019 federal election after the Chinese Communist regime launched a widespread disinformation campaign against him on social network WeChat.
In an interview with La Presse on Friday, the former Conservative MP confirmed that he met with two investigators from Canada’s Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS) in the middle of the last election campaign to provide them with evidence of Chinese interference. The meeting took place at his request in the voting office he had rented in Richmond and lasted more than an hour.
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVE
Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu
“I raised the alarm at the time. I could see that there was an elaborate disinformation campaign in place to meddle with the campaign,” says Mr. Chiu, who has returned to business, over the phone.
Almost half of the residents of his riding school are of Chinese origin. Many of them only receive messages from WeChat, a mobile text and voice messaging application developed by Chinese giant Tencent Holdings Limited. This application is very popular in China and among the Chinese diaspora around the world, who use it to communicate with family and friends who still live in China. It has over a billion accounts.
China uses several tools at its disposal to interfere in elections. In this respect, it has long overtaken Russia.
Kenny Chiu, former Conservative MP
“The disinformation that raged during the last election was one of the factors that contributed to my defeat,” he adds.
“Unfortunately, despite numerous reports of foreign interference, the Trudeau government is dragging its feet. He doesn’t take this threat seriously. »
The Globe and Mail reported last week that China used an elaborate strategy during the 2021 election campaign to secure re-election of a minority liberal government led by Justin Trudeau and defeat conservative candidates perceived as anti-government.
The daily claims to have seen the extent of the intervention operations being carried out by Beijing by consulting classified CSIS documents relating to the period before and after the September 2021 elections.
The Conservative Party says at least eight of its candidates in the 2021 federal election have died due to campaign interference from China. Among them were three incumbents, including Mr. Chiu.
Described as a threat
During the last election campaign, Mr. Chiu was particularly in the crosshairs of Chinese authorities after he introduced a private member’s bill in the lower house six months ahead of the federal election that aimed to create a register of foreign influence agents. The United States has such a registry, while Australia introduced a foreign influence transparency program in 2018. The UK has started consultations to set up a similar register.
Beijing believed that Bill C-282 was openly hostile to his emissaries in Canada. The bill died on the order paper after the election call.
As an MP, Mr. Chiu, who hails from Hong Kong and emigrated to Canada in 1982, was also vice-chairman of a lower house subcommittee examining China’s Uyghur-reserved abuses. The committee concluded that these abuses constituted genocide.
Articles attacking Mr. Chiu for introducing the bill have appeared on WeChat and other Chinese social media, as well as in the Global Times newspaper – a newspaper close to the Communist Party in Beijing.
“WeChat is an application that is very closely monitored by the Chinese government,” explains the former politician. No information unfavorable to the Chinese regime will be admitted. »
The articles described Mr. Chiu’s bill as racist and threatening to Chinese Canadians. Other articles attacked the Conservative Party and then-Chairman Erin O’Toole for promising tough policies on China.
“One of the articles claimed that if Mr O’Toole won the election, he would ban the use of WeChat in Canada. He has been described as a racist leader for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party,” Chiu said.
In all of its communications, the Chinese Communist Party presents itself as the sole defender of China’s interests.
“This is to show that the Chinese Communist Party represents the Chinese nation, and any criticism of the Party is also a criticism of China and all Chinese people,” Chiu said.
“We are facing an asymmetric information war. China does not allow its people free access to information. But in Canada there is no such control over information as to whether it is true or false. So I had no way of countering it. »