A newly released document reveals that Canadian intelligence officials have been tracking China’s attempts to interfere in Canadian affairs for nearly 40 years.
The Canadian press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the report entitled “China/Canada: Interference in the Chinese-Canadian Community” prepared by the Federal Intelligence Advisory Committee in 1986.
This intelligence report has already warned Canada about Chinese political tactics and covert influence operations to exploit the country’s Chinese diaspora.
It states that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) employed potentially more effective new techniques to achieve these goals and that it continued its efforts to influence the many large Chinese communities abroad and to exploit these communities for its economic and political ends, both in Canada and elsewhere in the West.
Much of the document is redacted on the grounds that its disclosure could harm the conduct of international affairs, the defense of Canada, or the detection, prevention or suppression of subversive or hostile activity.
A long-standing concern
The 1986 report showed that the issue had been on Canadian intelligence’s radar for decades, said Alan Barnes, a former intelligence analyst and now a senior fellow at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.
Mr. Barnes, who discovered the document’s title during a recent archival search, indicates that the Intelligence Advisory Committee was chaired by the Federal Coordinator for Security and Intelligence in the Privy Council Office.
Barnes says his reports have been sent to a variety of senior government officials.
The researcher adds that the partial release of the intelligence report, 37 years after its creation, underscores the need for Canada to put in place an appropriate system for declassifying historical intelligence and security records after a certain period of time.
Canada is the only member of the Five Eyes, which includes the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, that does not have a process for declassifying historical documents, he notes.
No accident
Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for China Democracy, is not surprised by the report. He claims to have been aware of China’s efforts to induce individuals and groups to interfere in Canadian affairs since the early 1980s, although activity at the time was at a very low level.
They knew what they were trying to do. It was no coincidence, he said in an interview.
Mr. Kwan believes that Beijing stepped up efforts to influence Chinese communities in Canada after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 in order to restore its badly damaged image.
Referring to the released report, he adds that while it certainly helps document the history of China’s meddling plans, solely focusing on this document would essentially be a look into the past, not the future.
A recent report
The report’s release comes amid pressure on the Liberal government to launch an investigation into foreign interference in Canada after a series of media leaks of alleged Chinese interference.
Media leaks from unnamed security sources about alleged attempts by China to interfere in the last two general elections have prompted federal Liberals to explain what Canada is doing in response to those attempts.
In recent years, the federal government and its security agencies have begun to openly indicate that Beijing is particularly active in foreign interference activities against Canada.
Chinese government officials have consistently denied any interference in Canadian affairs. In this regard, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer, William Majcher, was arrested by the RCMP on Friday and charged with preparing to act on behalf of a foreign organization and conspiracy.