CSIS warned senior health officials about “insider threat activities” linked to Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, seven months prior to the lethal Ebola shipment to China.

By Sam Cooper | The Bureau

Summary

Parliament’s Canada-China Committee has confirmed that Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, warned senior health officials in August 2018 about “insider threat activities” linked to Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, seven months before their network coordinated the shipment of live Ebola and Henipah virus samples from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Despite the warning, no immediate restrictions were placed on their access to sensitive materials. The Committee report released Tuesday states that CSIS briefed Public Health Canada on foreign interference and possible insider threats, flagging Dr. Cheng and Dr. Qiu, but the delayed response allowed them to continue their operations, endangering Canada’s security. [The Committee report is included as a PDF file at the end of this update].

Dr. Qiu’s deep associations with China’s military and scientific programs were well-established, as were her collaborations with Major-General Chen Wei, a leading figure in China’s biological weapons research, dating back to 2012. Her use of Canada’s facilities to benefit China was recognized in Beijing, and she was recruited into China’s Thousand Talents Program. Concerns over Dr. Qiu and Mr. Cheng’s activities continued to grow in tandem with security incidents at the National Microbiology Laboratory, including attempts to remove samples and breach security.

The Committee’s report outlines recommendations to safeguard Canada’s scientific resources, including terminating research collaboration with PRC-affiliated entities in sensitive fields and designating the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Thousand Talents Program as Named Research Organizations under Public Safety Canada. Despite RCMP investigations, Dr. Qiu and her husband were able to leave Canada. Their employment was only terminated in January 2021.

The incident revealed a notable gap between CSIS’s understanding of the Chinese threat and that of the Trudeau administration. Minister of Health Mark Holland acknowledged the unprecedented implications of China’s actions, while former CSIS director Richard Fadden emphasized the intensification of espionage and interference techniques by the CCP since Xi Jinping’s rise to power.

Read the full-text of this report at the publisher’s website here.