A groundbreaking new report exposes the expanding reach of Beijing’s agents in their bid to influence and threaten, if need be, diaspora communities and their leaders.

By Sam Cooper | The Bureau

Canada’s leading independent researchers on Beijing’s aggressive repression networks have started to map out how Chinese agents target and attack critics on Canadian soil, and identify the perpetrators, with the goal of ultimately liaising with Ottawa’s underperforming enforcement and intelligence agencies to offer their expertise and implement a “kill chain” framework to disrupt Beijing’s attacks before victims are harmed.

Summary

A collaboration between two independent researchers in Canada, Sze-Fung Lee and Marcus Kolga, in tandem with the Toronto-based NGO, Digital Public Square, has produced an exposé of Beijing’s agents within diaspora communities and their expanding reach. The project’s findings encapsulates the harrowing experiences of 25 Canadian community leaders from Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Falun Gong backgrounds. The study revealed that 85% of respondents had faced direct threats against Canadian activists, orchestrated by Beijing’s proxies to intimidate and control these communities. Additionally, 80% reported coercive threats targeting family members in China, 70% identified political pressure, and 75% observed financial incentives influencing community members. Nearly half of the respondents experienced harassment, including threatening phone calls and online abuse, at least monthly.

The report reveals that Beijing’s agents leverage various tactics to silence critics. These include media disinformation attacks, lawsuits, and physical actions. It also identifies a “non-profit” run by a Beijing-sponsored mafia leader that hosted a “pop-up” outpost for Chinese consulate officials to reach out to diaspora members. These ad hoc missions represent an evolution of the brick-and-mortar Chinese police stations exposed in 2022 by the NGO Safeguard Defenders.

Sze-Fung Lee, whose research on transnational repression networks was cited this week in a New York Times investigative piece, said that, as a Hong Kong diaspora member, she wasn’t shocked to learn that almost 90 percent of diaspora community leaders experienced direct threats.

In response, the researchers propose a “kill chain” framework to systematically counter PRC operations, enabling government, law enforcement, civil society, and Canada’s democratic allies to address threats at every stage of their development and execution. The report also highlights case studies involving Members of Parliament, such as Kenny Chiu and Michael Chong, who faced cyber espionage, disinformation campaigns, and political interference from Beijing.

Despite Canada’s new foreign interference laws, Lee expressed skepticism about the likelihood of prosecutions similar to those undertaken in New York and Massachusetts. In the absence of Canada prosecuting Beijing’s proxies, she emphasized the need for multilateral cooperation among democracies and coordinated sanctions through G7 and NATO to effectively counter Beijing’s hybrid warfare tactics.

The report further warns that Chinese-language media, social media platforms, and community organizations are used to amplify pro-CCP narratives and suppress dissent. At least 14 Canada-based media outlets are members of the Global Chinese Media Cooperation Union, an entity controlled by the PRC’s United Front Work Department. Social media platforms like WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin serve as critical tools for disinformation and surveillance, while PRC-sponsored community events and influencer engagement foster pro-Beijing narratives and stifle dissent.

According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the United Front Work Department infiltrates community organizations to sway politicians and align them with CCP policies, using tactics such as bribery, cyberattacks, and “honey pot” schemes to compromise officials and undermine Canadian democracy.

Read the full report at the publisher’s website here.