Recent news that a Chinese diplomat had threatened a Canadian MP’s family in Hong Kong highlights the potential for more severe actions against the general Chinese Canadian population and dissidents by the Chinese Communist Party, warns the leader of a rights advocacy group.
Meanwhile, Zhao Wei, the Chinese diplomat who allegedly made the threats, has remained an accredited officer with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto.
“This is extraordinarily appalling to us because if the Chinese Consulate officials in Toronto dared to threaten the Official Opposition party’s foreign critic, they could have done much worse to ordinary citizens of Canada,” Gloria Fung, chair of the Canada-Hong Kong Link, told The Epoch Times.
“The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has been exploiting the fact that Canadians of Chinese ethnic background still have their relatives and family members in China or Hong Kong, and that’s why they could use them as hostages in exerting pressure on Canadians,” she said.
“At the same time, I’m quite sure the magnitude and extent of intimidation, harassment, will be much more severe than what they do to other Canadians.”
The CCP seeks to control all individuals of Chinese origin, regardless of where they live or what nationality they hold, Fung said, pointing to a remark by former Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi that people of Chinese origin are “first and foremost Chinese.” Wang made the comment in 2016 in response to concerns raised about the detention of Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo, who holds British citizenship.
Threats Against Diaspora
A Chinese Canadian resident of Toronto who has experienced the CCP’s intimidation tactics says it has caused significant distress to her family in China. As a Falun Gong practitioner, Huang Hua was forced to remain in Canada as a refugee because of the severe persecution she would encounter if she returned to China.
Huang’s father and sister still live in China, and she said local police have repeatedly harassed them as part of their intimidation tactics against her.
Her father, who lives in Zhejiang Province, has received warnings from local police for trying to contact her, Huang told The Epoch Times. In October 2019, police raided his home, presumably searching for evidence to convict him for practising Falun Gong.
When Huang’s father moved to Sichuan Province to stay with her sister during the COVID-19 pandemic, local police continued to harass the family and to attempt to coerce them to renounce their beliefs, Huang said. In September 2022, when Huang decided to bring her father to Canada, they discovered that his life savings of 700,000 Chinese yuan (approximately C$138,000) had mysteriously disappeared from his bank account.
“As an individual [in China], it’s impossible to get away when the government targets you. You will always lose,” Huang said, noting that the family gave up trying to secure a lawyer. “In China, the rule of law does not exist.”
Calls for Countermeasures
In his statement posted on Twitter, Chong said that when the Liberal government learned that he was being targeted by a foreign intimidation campaign, they should have declared the Chinese diplomat persona non grata and expelled him from Canada, in addition to warning Chong about the threat.“The fact that the government neither informed me nor took any action is indicative of its ongoing laissez-faire attitude toward the PRC’s intimidation tactics,” he wrote.
The Epoch Times reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment on whether Zhao Wei will be expelled, but didn’t hear back.
Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian in Toronto and longtime democracy advocate, echoes Chong’s position that Wei should have been expelled.
“There should be a countermeasure in response to the role that the Chinese diplomat in Canada has played in this incident. [Canada] should deliver diplomatic démarche and expel this person,” Sheng told The Epoch Times.
“Such action is a blatant challenge towards Canadian sovereignty. But it is not just a matter of sovereignty, it is also [an act] that extends China’s transnational repression in Canada.”
She noted that one legislative tool to tackle such situations would be a foreign influence registry, which would require individuals or groups working on behalf of a foreign entity to register with the federal government.
“This is a very basic and much-needed policy,” Sheng said. “This law wouldn’t just target the CCP, but any foreign entity that seeks to interact with Canada. It would be unfair and unjust for Canadians if any engagement is done through a covert, disguised, deceptive method.”
