China made an unusual book donation to the city of Brossard before being met with a rejection on a second attempt, in which it had contacted the mayor directly. An example of Beijing’s influence tactics on Quebec soil, according to national security experts.
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Brossard Mayor Doreen Assaad was “very surprised” when the consul of the People’s Republic of China offered to donate books to the small city library at a meeting in 2019.
“I got the query that Brossard is a beautiful multicultural community and that [le consulat] had surplus books available […] It was the first time I received such a request. I didn’t know what to answer,” the mayor told us.
She never learned why the representative of this great world power wanted to make such a donation or what exactly the books offered were, as the library declined the consulate’s offer.
“The problem with Huawei started with the arrest of director Meng Wanzhou and [l’emprisonnement en Chine] the two Michaels. We said to ourselves: “Well, we’ll wait”. Also [les livres en caractères chinois] are not a development priority for our collections,” the library’s director, Suzanne Payette, also told us.
A second donation
However, it was not the first time that Brossard, which has a large community of Chinese origin, received such an offer. In 2017, under the previous mayor Paul Leduc, the library was effectively imposed a donation of 300 books by the consulate.
The donation was made at a party organized by the Brossard Chinese School. “We had no choice. It was in front of everyone. So you say thank you and you take it,” says Ms. Payette.
A precise cataloging of the contents of these books has not been carried out since then due to a lack of personnel. The Journal was able to examine some of them during a recent visit.
From patriotic history books to a book honoring the Communist Party to language textbooks or novels, Chinese character books are diverse in the small part allotted to them.
“Propaganda”
The library has not received any further donations from representatives from abroad.
“Today there is a lot of talk about foreign interference, but when we bought the books it wasn’t in the air. Today we would be more careful,” explains Ms. Payette.
For national security experts, the situation, while seemingly anecdotal at first glance, is good evidence of the Chinese government’s interest in staying close to its foreign citizens.
“Part of a well-organized plan is to be as influential as possible. Of course, there is a difference between influence and interference. But you have to look at it as a propaganda exercise […] “The Chinese community is President Xi Jinping’s top priority,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to China.
“Several countries want to promote them. “It’s not limited to the People’s Republic of China,” Nuance, for his part, Arthur Wilczynski, a former senior official.
However, the latter believes the books should be identified so that readers know they were offered by a “government actor whose interests seldom coincide with those of Canadians”.
“Could this be a selfless donation? Absolutely. […] But we also know that China is attempting to exercise control over the Chinese diaspora in Canada. Giving away pro-Chinese or pro-government books can be interpreted as an attempt to influence the population,” said Dennis Molinaro, a former national security analyst who now teaches at Ontario Tech University.
“It’s also surprising that we tried to go through the mayor. If you want to donate books to the library, you usually contact the library.”
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