The Department of National Defence says
Chinese surveillance buoys discovered in Arctic waters last fall have been intercepted by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
The Chinese buoys were identified by the Armed Forces in a mission dubbed
Operation LIMPID, which aims to detect threats to Canadian security via routine monitoring of the country’s air, maritime, land, and aerospace domains.
CAF’s interception of the buoys was confirmed by Daniel Le Bouthillier, head of media relations at the Department of National Defence. Bouthillier declined to provide details on the retrieval of the Chinese devices, citing the need to ensure the integrity of operations.
“The Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces are fully aware of recent efforts by China to conduct surveillance operations in Canadian airspace and maritime approaches utilizing dual-purpose technologies,” Bouthillier said in a statement.
“Under Operation LIMPID, the CAF monitors Canada’s air, land, and sea approaches, and since 2022, it has stopped attempts to surveil Canadian territory.”
MPs were
previously warned of China’s threat to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic region, which is more imminent than expected, according to Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre.
“The time periods are so short, which means the problem is not [in] 20 years. [The Chinese] are doing the capabilities studies right now,” Eyre said in testimony at a House committee on Oct. 25, 2022.
Retired lieutenant-general Michael Day echoed Eyre’s concerns, saying that the Chinese buoys were likely installed to monitor U.S. nuclear submarine traffic in the Arctic. The buoys could also be used to map seabeds and ice thickness as China is showing an increased interest in the economic and military value of the Arctic as new polar sea routes open up.
“China, like most nations, is super interested in the pretty significant changes that are happening up north. They do not have an icebound port, but they do have a rapidly growing icebreaking fleet,” Day told the Globe and Mail.
Wave of Espionage
News of the Chinese spy buoys come on the heels of the downing of a high-altitude
Chinese spy balloon that trespassed North American airspaces on Feb. 4.
Some political figures, such as
Tory MP Michael Chong and U.S.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), have said the incident serves as a wake-up call for governments about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) wave of espionage operations.
Media reports of CCP interference in Canada have been raised in the Parliament one after another since last fall, spanning from alleged secret Chinese police stations in
Toronto and
British Columbia to the charging of a former
Hydro Quebec employee for sending trade secrets to China.
On Feb. 21, MPs on the Procedure and House Affairs Committee decided to expand their study of foreign election interference after classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents on Beijing’s interference in Canadian federal elections were leaked in the press.
The top-secret CSIS files, first reported by the
Globe and Mail on Feb. 17, outline how China executed a sophisticated strategy of interference in the 2019 election that had two central goals: ensuring the re-election of a Liberal minority and the defeat of some Conservative candidates who were regarded as unfriendly to Beijing.
Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs have
stepped up criticism of the Liberal government’s stance towards foreign interference after
media reports last November said CSIS had warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several cabinet ministers that China allegedly provided illegal funding to 11 candidates during the 2019 federal election campaign. Trudeau at the time claimed that he wasn’t briefed about “any federal candidates receiving any money from China.”
Trudeau responded to the leaked CSIS documents on Feb. 17,
defending his government’s efforts to ensure Canadian election integrity, saying that “the outcomes of the 2019 and the 2021 elections were determined by Canadians and Canadians alone.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report
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