(Ottawa) China has mastered the art of insidious interference in Canadian elections. And Kenny Siu, a former Conservative MP from British Columbia, warns that any interference from Beijing in the country’s next federal election is almost impossible.
Kenny Chiu was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Steveston-Richmond East in the October 2019 federal election. Following a widespread false propaganda against him by the Chinese Communist regime on the WeChat social network.
In an interview Pres, on Friday, the former Conservative MP confirmed that he met with two investigators from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the middle of the last election campaign and provided evidence of Chinese meddling. The meeting lasted more than an hour at his request at the election office he rented in Richmond.
Photo by Adrian Wilde, Canada Press Archives
Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu
“Then I raised the alarm. I could see that there was a sophisticated disinformation campaign aimed at interfering with the campaign,” said Mr. Chiu says on the phone.
Almost half of the residents in his riding are of Chinese descent. Many of them receive messages only from WeChat, a mobile text and voice messaging app developed by Chinese company Tencent Holdings Ltd. The app is very popular in China and among the Chinese diaspora around the world, who use it to communicate with family and friends still living in China. It has more than a billion accounts.
China uses many methods to interfere in elections. In this respect he surpassed Russia a long time ago.
Kenny Chiu, former Conservative MP
“Misinformation spread during the last elections was also one of the factors responsible for my defeat,” he added.
“Unfortunately, the Trudeau government is dragging its feet despite numerous reports of foreign interference. He is not taking this threat seriously. »
Daily The Globe and Mail China said last week it had used a sophisticated strategy during the 2021 election campaign to re-elect Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government and defeat conservative candidates seen as hostile to the Chinese Communist regime.
The daily said it looked at the extent of interference by Beijing by consulting classified CSIS documents relating to the period before and after the September 2021 elections.
The Conservative Party says at least eight of its candidates died because of Chinese campaign interference in the 2021 federal election. Among them, Mr. There were three trustees, including Chiu.
Described as a threat
During the last campaign, Mr. Xiu was particularly in the crosshairs of Chinese officials after he introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Commons aimed at establishing a registry of agents of foreign influence six months before the federal election. The United States has such a record while Australia adopted a Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative in 2018. The United Kingdom has launched consultations on creating a similar register.
Beijing believed that Bill C-282 was openly hostile to its ambassadors in Canada. The bill died on the order paper following the election call.
While he was a Member of Parliament, Hong Kong native Mr. Chiu, who immigrated to Canada in 1982, also chaired a House of Commons subcommittee investigating the ill-treatment of Uyghurs. Minorities in China. The Committee concluded that this misbehavior amounted to genocide.
For introducing this bill, Mr. Articles attacking Chiu have been published on WeChat and other Chinese social media and in the newspaper. Global Times – A newspaper close to the Communist Party in Beijing.
“WeChat is an app that is very closely monitored by the Chinese government,” explains the former politician. No information adverse to the Chinese regime was allowed. »
Mr. Articles described Chiu’s bill as racist and threatening to Chinese Canadians. Other articles attacked the Conservative Party and then leader Erin O’Toole for promising a tougher policy on China.
“Mr. An article claims that if O’Toole wins the election, he will ban the use of WeChat in Canada. “He has been labeled a racist leader because of his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Xiu.
In all its communications, the Chinese Communist Party presents itself as the sole guardian of China’s interests.
“It aims to prove that the Chinese Communist Party represents the Chinese nation, and any criticism of the party is criticism of China and all Chinese people,” said Xiu.
“We are facing an asymmetric information war. China does not allow its people to have free access to information. But, in Canada, there is no such control, whether the information is true or false. So, I really have no way to oppose this. »
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