..
Two More Chinese Police Stations in Canada Among 48 Additional
Illegal Police Outposts Identified Globally: Report
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa in a file photo. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
By Andrew Chen
December 6, 2022; Updated: December 7, 2022
In addition to the three unofficial Chinese police stations in Toronto that have drawn widespread concern in recent months, two more have been found in Canada, according to a new report by Safeguard Defenders. They are among 48 Beijing-operated illegal police outputs around the world that have been newly identified by the Spain-based human rights NGO, which had earlier identified 54 such outposts.
“Patrol and Persuade,” released Dec. 5, is the third report in a series of investigations conducted by Safeguard Defenders focusing on these overseas police service stations that it says are part of transnational repression and long-arm policy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The NGO notes that all of its documentation is exclusively based on open-source accounts published by Chinese authorities and state media run by the CCP.
This brings the total number of unofficial Chinese police stations discovered to 102, with an overall presence in 53 countries. Among the two newly identified stations in Canada, one was found in Vancouver while the exact location of the other remains unknown.
A previous report, published in September, found that two local-level police authorities in two provinces under the Chinese Ministry of Public Security have been operating 54 overseas Chinese police service stations around the world, including three that are posted in the Greater Toronto Area. The service stations are run by the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau in Fujian Province and the Qingtian Public Security Bureau in Zhejiang Province.
Safeguard Defenders’ new report identified two additional local Chinese police jurisdictions that have been running at least 48 other overseas Chinese police service stations. These include 29 stations set up by the Nantong Public Security Bureau based in Jiangsu province, and 12 created by the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau, which is also in Zhejiang Province. Six additional stations are found operated by the Qingtian police and one station is set up by the Fuzhou police authority.
The Dec. 5 report says the operations of the Wenzhou police authority began with a 2016 “pilot” project in Milan, Italy, and the Nantong police authority began its overseas campaign in February 2016. The Qingtian police bureau also began its overseas operations in Milan in 2018.
“This directly refutes PRC [People’s Republic of China] authorities’ statements that the operations started in response to the Covid 19 pandemic,” Safeguard Defenders said in its report.
Operation Fox Hunt
Safeguard Defenders initiated its investigation after it saw the Chinese authorities touting the success of the overseas police service stations in supporting a Beijing campaign aimed at fighting telecommunications fraud committed by Chinese nationals living abroad.
According to the September report, between April 2021 and July 2022, the Chinese police “persuaded” up to 230,000 claimed fugitives to return to China “voluntarily” to face criminal proceedings, though it has also admitted that not all the targets have committed crimes.
“Persuasion to return” is a key method of the Chinese government’s “involuntary returns” operations, which include its “Operation Fox Hunt” and broader “Sky Net” campaign, Safeguard Defenders said.
The method entails either “tracking down of the target’s family in China in order to pressure them through means of intimidation, harassment, detention or imprisonment into persuading their family members to return ‘voluntarily,’” or directly approaching the target “through online means or the deployment of—often undercover—agents and/or proxies abroad to threaten and harass the target into returning ‘voluntarily,’” according to the report.
The Dec. 5 report cited new data from an Oct. 27 working report by the CCP’s Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, which said that since the start of the operations in 2014 and October 2022, over 11,000 successful Fox Hunt operations have been concluded in 120 countries.
New information also identified at least one illegal “persuasion to return” operation run through the Wenzhou station in Paris, France, and at least 80 cases where the Nantong overseas police stations have assisted in the operation to capture or persuade individuals to return to China.
“This contradicts PRC authorities’ statements that the stations are merely providing administrative services,” said the report.
The Chinese Embassy in Canada has previously acknowledged the existence of the three police service stations in the GTA in response to a CBC News inquiry, but argued that the stations are for providing Chinese citizens living abroad with civil services such as driver’s licence renewal, and that the stations are staffed by volunteers who are “not Chinese police officers” and “not involved in any criminal investigation or relevant activity.”
Safeguard Defenders, however, pointed to a contradictory statement from the Qingtian Public Security Bureau, which claimed to have “hired” 135 people to manage its first 21 service stations, according to a statement published on May 2019 by the People’s Public Security Daily, a state-media under the Ministry of Public Security.
The news article also indicated the Qingtian police service stations’ participation in Beijing’s Fox Hunt operation, saying that “through the construction of overseas service stations, Qingtian police have achieved new breakthroughs in overseas pursuit of fugitives.”
“Since 2018, they have successfully concluded 6 criminal cases involving overseas Chinese. Through the assistance of the ‘Police and Overseas Chinese Liaison Office,’ one person on the red notice was arrested and two have been persuaded to return to China. The [City of Qiantian] ranks number one in “Fox Hunt Operation,” the state media outlet said.
Another jurisdiction, Wenzhou, uses similar language announcing the hiring or appointment of 19 persons early after the launch of their first stations, which was further confirmed by a certificate for a Stockholm “overseas liaison officer” for the station, according to Safeguard Defenders.
===========================================================================================
Ottawa hears of ‘active foreign interference network’ in secret
Privy Council Office memo
By Sam Cooper Global News
Posted December 13, 2022 1:15 pm
Updated December 13, 2022 2:48 pm
The Parliament Hill Peace Tower is framed in an iron fence on Wellington Street in Ottawa on March 12, 2020.
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A February 2020 Privy Council Office national security memo documented China‘s alleged “subtle but effective foreign interference networks” that targeted the 2019 federal contest, said MP Michael Cooper.
Apparently, this memo took at least a year to travel from the Privy Council's Office to the PMO. it's a good thing they are in the same building or it might never have gotten there.
In the Procedure and House Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, the Conservative member from Edmonton quoted from a redacted document, saying: “Investigations into activities linked to the Canadian federal election in 2019, reveal an active foreign interference network,” and added that it referenced the Chinese Communist Party.
The PCO regularly briefs the Prime Minister’s Office and appropriate cabinet ministers on national security intelligence. The redacted document was provided to the committee, which is mandated to investigate federal documents regarding allegations of People’s Republic of China (PRC) foreign interference. Global News has reviewed the document.
While Cooper did not cite the document’s source, intelligence sources say it comes from the Privy Council Office’s Intelligence Assessment Secretariat. Cooper said the redacted “Daily foreign intelligence brief” was published on Feb. 21, 2020.
The multi-partisan group of MPs began hearings in November in response to revelations in Global News reports that outlined Canadian intelligence probes into what sources called China’s vast campaign of interference targeting Canadian elections and politicians, as well as Beijing’s alleged covert “Fox Hunt” police operations in Canada that are targeting Chinese-Canadian communities.
These CSIS investigations were summarized in memos and briefs that started in January 2022, Global reported last month, and intelligence sources said they contained an allegation that China’s Toronto consulate covertly funded an interference network that included political staffers and at least 11 election candidates. Those sources also said that this information was provided to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several ministers.
Beijing has denied the allegations.
Separate Global News intelligence sources with awareness of the Privy Council Office report say that the document also refers to at least 11 Greater Toronto Area election candidates targeted by the PRC in the 2019 contest, part of a loosely organized network that involves community leaders, political staff and some politicians who take “broad guidance,” from China’s consulate in Toronto, according to the February 2020 PCO memo.
Intelligence sources also told Global News that the Consulate made a clandestine transfer of around $250,000 to the Toronto-based network, a detail that the prime minister was not briefed on. Contrary to what members in Parliament and elsewhere have said, no names of network members were included in the memos and briefs, and there is no evidence showing that China directly earmarked money for the 2019 federal contest.
Sources with knowledge of the redacted February 2020 Privy Council Office memo say it determined that some of “at least 11 candidates in the 2019 election” are likely unaware of China’s influence efforts, but some have knowingly cooperated with the clandestine interference schemes, according to the document.
Cooper asked Liberal Dominic LeBlanc, the minister of intergovernmental affairs, if he had been briefed on China’s alleged election interference in the 2019 election.
LeBlanc said he has been briefed generally on foreign interference, but citing security reasons, he said he could not disclose whether he has been informed of “specific cases.”
“I don’t have this supposed list of 11 candidates. In my discussions with security officials, they did not provide these names,” he said.
And, apparently, he didn't ask for them. In fact, no one in the government has asked for them even now.
Cooper added the Procedure and House Affairs Committee is aware of CSIS investigations that say China has targeted politicians and riding associations as part of its election-interference campaigns. Cooper did not cite dates or more specific information on the CSIS investigations.
In response to a question from B.C. NDP MP Rachel Blaney, who asked why Canadians have not been informed of the names of 11 candidates allegedly targeted by China, Liberal Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly reiterated that both she and Trudeau were not provided specific information in 2022 on China’s alleged election interference, including the names of 11 candidates targeted by China, or whether China had directly funded candidates in the 2019 contest.
And, again, neither she nor Trudeau has asked for them? Why, probably because Trudeau already knows at least one or more of those.
“Reports of Chinese election interference in 2019 are very troubling and we take (the reports) seriously,” Joly said. “We must ensure there is no interference, and we are taking a whole of government approach,” to combat disinformation and interference from nations including China and Russia.”
===========================================================================================
Trade minister apologizes for breaking conflict of interest rules
Mary Ng failed to recuse herself from contracts granted to personal friend, report finds
Richard Raycraft · CBC News ·
Posted: Dec 13, 2022 12:27 PM ET |
Minister of International Trade Mary Ng speaks during a news conference in Ottawa on May 5. Ng has apologized after the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner found she contravened the Conflict of Interest Act. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
International Trade Minister Mary Ng has apologized after Canada's conflict of interest and ethics commissioner concluded she placed herself in a conflict of interest through her involvement in a decision by her office to award contracts to a friend's company.
Ng's office signed contracts for media and communications training with public relations agency Pomp & Circumstance, co-founded and run by Amanda Alvaro.
The commissioner stated in his report, released Tuesday, that Ng and Alvaro are friends according to the definition in the Conflict of Interest Act. Alvaro is a regular panellist on CBC's Power & Politics.
The contracts were signed on behalf of the minister in March 2019 and April 2020.
"Minister Ng twice failed to recognize a potential conflict of interest involving a friend, an oversight of her obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act," Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said in a news release.
"There is simply no excuse for contracting with a friend's company."
In a statement posted to Twitter Tuesday, Ng apologized.
"I take full responsibility for my actions. I should have recused myself and apologize to all for not having done so," Ng said in the statement.
"At no time was there an issue of any personal benefit for me, nor any intention for anyone to benefit inappropriately."
There is more on this story at CBCNews.
CBC would never mention it, but Mary Ng is from the Greater Toronto area and is also of Chinese origin. What are the odds that she is one of the 11 crooked MPs accepting funds from China?
==========================================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment