China’s proxies intimidating its expatriates in Canada, says report amid worsening relations
The Chinese government deploys “trusted agents” or proxies for its state agencies in Canada to threaten and intimidate members of its diaspora community into refraining from criticism of the regime, using tactics such as retributive action against family and friends in the mainland, a media report said.
This strategy employed by Beijing has now been recognised by Canada’s spy agency, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), according to a report in the national daily, Globe and Mail.
While these tactics may be used to force fugitives to return to China, a CSIS spokesperson told the daily that they could also be utilised “for silencing dissent, pressuring political opponents and instilling a general fear of state power no matter where a person is located”.
“Certain foreign states routinely attempt to threaten and intimidate individuals around the world through various state entities and non-state proxies. These states, such as the People’s Republic of China, may use a combination of their intelligence and security services as well as trusted agents to assist them in conducting various forms of threat activities,” the spokesperson said.
In the strongest public denunciation of China’s bullying of its expat community in Canada, the CSIS spokesperson also added that the “fear of state-backed or state-linked retribution targeting both them and their loved ones, in Canada and abroad, can force individuals to submit to foreign interference”.
Taken together, such activities “constitute a threat to Canada’s sovereignty and to the safety of
Canadians,” he said, while asking Chinese Canadians to report such coercion to Canadian law enforcement.
Such actions of the Chinese government echo those occurring in the United States, under the name of Operation Fox Hunt, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray had said was launched under the direction of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014 through the Ministry of Public Security to “target Chinese nationals who he sees as threats and who live outside China, around the world”.
These revelations come even as protests against Beijing have burgeoned in Canada. Multiple marches and other events have been jointly organised by community groups with their roots in Hong Kong and Tibet to protest Chinese government measures including a controversial security law in Hong Kong and persecution of Uighurs, a minority Muslim group, in China’s Xinjiang region.