Following a recent media article reporting that Zhao Wei, a Chinese consul in Toronto, was involved in threatening Conservative MP Michael Chong’s family members in Hong Kong, there have been calls to expel Zhao from Canada. Here is what we know about him.
Zhao is a designated consular officer with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, according to Global Affairs Canada. The consulate’s website and news release archives list him as team leader of the “Consular and Overseas Chinese Affairs Division.” He has held that position as early as November 2018.
Apart from engaging Canadian officials, Zhao has also been actively participating in events held by certain associations in Canada. Some of the individuals involved in the events have been mired in controversy amid allegations of Beijing interference in Canada, and the associations are known for taking stances on key political issues in ways favourable to the communist regime.
Engagements in Canada
According to a December 2019 report by CCMedia.news, Zhao attended an event commemorating victims of the Nanjing Massacre—a six-week period of atrocities against Chinese citizens by Japanese troops during World War II that receives much publicity push by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) each year.The event was hosted by the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO), an umbrella group with over 100 member associations that has aligned with Beijing on various issues. Those issues include condemning pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and supporting the controversial Confucius Institute in Canada.
Also attending the event was MP Han Dong, who recently resigned from the Liberal Party caucus after a Global News report accused him of having advised the Chinese consul general in Toronto to delay releasing Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The two had then been detained in China for over two years, in a case widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzho on a U.S. extradition request. Dong denies the allegation and has taken legal action against Global News. He has not returned Epoch Times requests for comment.
The CTCCO did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Epoch Times.
According to a report by Chinese-language media Easyca.ca, Zhao attended a 2019 Chinese New Year celebration also attended by another Canadian politician, Vincent Ke, who Global News alleges served as a financial intermediary in the CCP’s interference schemes targeting Canada’s federal election that year.
Ke, a member of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative caucus at the time, resigned after Global News reported the allegation citing intelligence officials and documents. He now sits as an independent MPP for Ontario’s Don Vally North riding and has served Global News with a libel notice over its reporting.
Hebei Association of Canada, the Chinese hometown organization that hosted the event, received congratulatory letters from different Chinese regime governmental bodies, including the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. According to a study by the think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), the organization is part of the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD).
The UFWD is a network of party and state agencies responsible for influencing groups outside the party,“ including those overseas, such as ”foreign political parties, diaspora communities and multinational corporations,“ said the ASPI report titled ”The Party Speaks for You.”
The Hebei Association event was also congratulated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, International Trade Minister Mary Ng, and former Liberal MP Geng Tan, among others.
The association is a member organization of Council of Newcomer Organizations (CONCO). In August 2019, the CONCO published an advertisement that vehemently criticized the ongoing pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong, alleging that protesters were colluding with foreign powers.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Hebei Association of Canada for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.
Denial
Zhao was named by a national security source as being involved in threats to Chong’s relatives in Hong Kong, reported a May 1 Globe and Mail article that cited a July 20, 2021, top-secret intelligence assessment from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
The assessment said China’s Ministry of State Security “has taken specific actions to target Canadian MPs” involved in passing a motion in February 2021 declaring Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region a genocide.
The motion was sponsored by Chong. The source said Chong was the targeted MP and Zhao was the Chinese official working on this matter. On May 2, CSIS head David Vigneault confirmed the same to Chong.
The Epoch Times reached out to Zhao’s office at the consulate for comment but didn’t hear back.
On May 4, the consulate issued a statement in Chinese denying the accusations and saying that “certain Canadian media and politicians are spreading related false information, deliberately damaging the reputation and image of our consulate.”
‘Suspected Intelligence Actor’
A Globe article from February had cited an unnamed national security source who described Zhao as a “suspected intelligence actor.”Citing a number of national security sources, the article said Trudeau and senior aides had been warned on at least two occasions about former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan, currently deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., due to his alleged ties with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto. One source said Chan and Zhao had meetings in 2019 that were described in a CSIS 2020 briefing as being “clandestine in nature.”
Chan has denied those allegations. He has not returned requests for comment.
Calls for Countermeasures
In a statement issued on Twitter on May 3, Chong urged the federal government to declare Zhao persona non grata and to expel him from Canada.The Epoch Times reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment on whether it would expel Zhao, but didn’t hear back.
Amid mounting calls to take countermeasures against Beijing, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on May 4 that her department is summoning the Chinese ambassador to Canada over the issue, and that the federal government is assessing the possible “consequences” that Beijing might take if Canada expels Zhao.
Trudeau said on May 5 that his government is still evaluating the consequences of expelling the diplomat.
“This is a big step, not a small step to expel diplomats. It’s one that has to be taken with due consideration on all the potential impacts and all the very clear messages that it will send,” he said.
Trudeau told reporters on May 3 that he only learned from media recently about the Chinese diplomat having been involved in targeting Chong’s family, saying that “CSIS made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters the same on May 3, a day after he was repeatedly asked in the House about the date he learned of the threats.
On May 4, following a call from Trudeau’s national security adviser (NSA) Jody Thomas, Chong told reporters that she said CSIS had provided its July 2021 assessment about alleged Beijing threats against his family to government departments including to the then-NSA in the Privy Council Office (PCO). The PCO is an arm of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“That is in contrast with what the prime minister said yesterday when he indicated that the information had not been moved out of CSIS to the higher-ups,“ Chong said. ”I think the government needs to clarify and correct the record.”
Peter Wilson contributed to this report
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