Then-Head of CCP Department Now Designated a Spy Agency Met With Canadian Ministers in 2018

Song Tao, minister of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, delivers a speech at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, on Dec. 2, 2017. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images)

Then-head of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) department responsible for engaging with foreign political parties met with multiple federal cabinet ministers and the national security adviser to the prime minister during a 2018 visit to Canada. This CCP department was recently designated an “intelligence service” by a German federal intelligence agency.

The International Department of the Central Committee of the CCP, also known as the International Liaison Department (ILD), operates “de facto as an intelligence service of the People’s Republic of China and is therefore part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus,” says a “Safety Notice for Politics and Administration“ in German.

“Particular care should therefore be taken,” added the notice, which was published on July 28 by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), which works to prevent extremist and espionage activities by other countries on German soil.

The ILD, founded in 1951, was initially created to manage relations between the CCP and foreign communist parties, particularly with the Soviet Union and with communist parties within the socialist bloc. Often referred to as the CCP’s specialized foreign affairs department, it operates alongside the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The department later expanded its mission beyond building ties with other communist parties around the world, according to an October 2019 article published by Theory China, the CCP’s central research institute for Party history and literature.

The article said that the ILD was working to develop inter-party relations with “all political parties in the world that are willing to associate with the CCP,” and that the CCP had established and was maintaining relationships with over 500 political parties and organizations in more than 160 countries and regions worldwide.

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The article also quoted Song Tao, ILD head from 2015 to 2022, emphasizing in a 2017 magazine article that the CCP’s foreign relationship efforts represent “an important battlefront” for the Party and also an important component of China’s broader diplomacy.

Canada Trip

During a visit to Toronto in January 2018, Mr. Song met with several federal cabinet ministers, including François-Philippe Champagne, who was then the minister of international trade. At the meeting, Mr. Song spoke of the “historic contributions” of the CCP’s 19th National Congress, according to a Chinese Embassy press release. The congress is a gathering for top Party officials that takes place every five years.

In response, Mr. Champagne expressed optimism about economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and reiterated Canada’s commitment to its relationship with China, the press release said.

Separate press releases from the Chinese Embassy noted that during his trip, Mr. Song met with Daniel Jean, then the national security and intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Bardish Chagger, then leader of the government in the House of Commons and minister of small business and tourism; and Matt DeCourcey, then parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister.

The press releases indicated that Mr. Song presented Mr. Champagne, Ms Chagger, and Mr. DeCourcey with a copy of the book “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,” a collection of dozens of speeches and directives that the Chinese leader has delivered since November 2012, when he assumed his leadership position.

The Epoch Times requested comments from Mr. Champagne, currently the federal minister of innovation, science and industry; Ms. Chagger, a Liberal MP who does not hold a cabinet position at this time; and Mr. Jean, now a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa. None provided a response by publication time. The Epoch Times also reached out to Mr. DeCourcey but has not received a reply.

Chinese Diplomat Denied Visa

Designation of the ILD as a spy service by the German intelligence agency in July came amid growing concerns in Canada in the past year over foreign interference activities by the Chinese regime on Canadian soil.

In a development directly connected with the ILD, The Globe and Mail reported on March 8 that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) refused to give a visa to a Chinese diplomat in the fall of 2022, with the report saying that the visa was for a new position at the Chinese Embassy linked to the ILD.

In her testimony before the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) on March 9, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly confirmed that GAC had denied a diplomatic visa to a member of the Chinese regime last fall.

“When China wanted to send a political operative last fall, we decided to deny a visa, which obviously is the right thing to do,” Ms. Joly said.

The Globe cited a federal government source saying that GAC concluded that the new position was “transparently not a diplomatic position” but instead was likely designed to handle covert political and interference activities.

In the months leading up to the visa denial, media reports citing national security sources had raised allegations of Beijing’s engagement in a number of foreign interference activities in Canada and many other countries around the world. These alleged activities included the operation of unofficial Chinese police stations on foreign soil, including at least seven such stations in Canada, located in cities in B.C., Ontario, and Quebec, including Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.

China has also been accused of interfering in Canada’s 2019 and 2022 federal elections, as well as launching surveillance balloons and spy buoys over Canadian territory and Arctic waters.

Kathy Han and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.