Hon. Michael Chong's Opening Statement to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Senators and Members of Congress,
Thank you for inviting me here today.
I understand you are interested in my experience of Beijing’s transnational repression, or what we call “foreign interference”.
Like millions of Canadians and Americans, I’m the child of immigrants. My mother immigrated from the Netherlands and my father immigrated from Hong Kong. I’ve extended family living in both the Netherlands and Hong Kong.
I’ve been elected since 2004 to represent the district of Wellington-Halton Hills and have served in the federal cabinet and chaired several parliamentary committees. In 2020, I was appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Official Opposition.
Since then, my criticisms of Beijing have increased in response to President Xi’s increasing violations of the rules-based international order, and repression in the PRC and abroad.
In November 2020, I introduced a motion adopted by the House of Commons calling on the Canadian government to “make a decision on Huawei’s involvement in Canada’s 5G network within 30 days” and to “develop a robust plan …to combat China’s growing foreign operations here in Canada and its increasing intimidation of Canadians living in Canada.”
Several months later in February, I introduced another motion which the House adopted recognizing Beijing’s actions towards Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims as a genocide.
In May this year, I learned that a PRC diplomat working out of the PRC’s Toronto consulate had, since 2020, been gathering information to further target me and my family in Hong Kong.
Last month, I learned that I was the target of a disinformation campaign in May of this year on the Chinese language social media platform, WeChat. The Department of Foreign Affairs has concluded that Beijing’s role in this information operation is “highly probable.”
My experience is but one case of Beijing’s interference in Canada. Many, many other cases go unreported and unnoticed, and the victims suffer in silence. This has serious implications for the approximate four per cent of Canadians of Chinese descent.
Beijing targets these diaspora groups using a variety of tactics.
One tactic is to target the many Chinese international students in Canada, coaching them into participating in foreign interference activities on university campuses, such as targeting
- pro-Hong Kong democracy activists, and
- Tibetan and Uyghur human rights campaigners.
Other tactics used include
- targeting Chinese language media and social media in Canada,
- the establishment of illegal “police stations” in Canada,
- the wrongful arrest and detention of Canadians such as Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor and Huseyin Celil, and
- coercing Canadians back to the PRC.
Recently, the PRC is using a tactic of creating “wanted lists” and offering bounties for the arrest of those from Canada.
These various tactics are serious and concerted effort to interfere with democratic activity in Canada, and leave millions of Canadians at risk of being intimidated, coerced, silenced, and unable to enjoy the basic democratic rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in our constitution. These tactics cannot be tolerated in a free and sovereign country.
Canada must work closely with its democratic allies like the United States in countering Beijing’s efforts to interfere in our democracies.
Foreign interference is a serious, national security threat to Canada. It threatens our economy, long-term growth, social cohesion, our Parliament and our elections. It requires a suite of measures to combat, including closer cooperation among allied democracies.
Canada must work toward a stronger defense and security partnership with the United States and our allies. We must look for every opportunity to strengthen this partnership to meet the challenge of rising authoritarianism and to preserve our fundamental freedoms, democratic institutions, and the rules-based international order.
Thank you.