The Predictable and the Unexpected

"The Chinese economy is designed to be, when it comes into a country like Canada, fundamentally parasitic. It sucks out capital, it sucks out IP, it sucks out jobs. It's designed to feed the parasite and to weaken the host."

"Another thing about China is that according to the 2017 National Intelligence Law, every Chinese citizen and Chinese company has to support China's intelligence efforts. They have to. They're punished if they don't, and they're rewarded if they do. If you're a Chinese citizen, you are a hostage, an unwilling hostage, often, of the Chinese state."

"[The Chinese Communist Party's] disintegration warfare [finds fault lines in communities, and exacerbates them]; to use countries' own weaknesses or strengths in the case of democracy, against itself, in order to weaken its resistance to China, in order to advance China's relative comprehensive national power."

"The Chinese are very good at identifying legitimate grievances, exacerbating them, and then leading you toward a solution that benefits China."

Canadian journalist Cleo Paskal, China politics expert 

Models pose near the BYD Seal 06 Dmi, unveiled during the Auto China 2024 show in Beijing, on April 25, 2024. China's largest EV maker has been expanding rapidly into overseas markets, and could reach Canadian shores shortly following Ottawa's recent deal with Beijing. (Ng Han Guan/The Associated Press)

 

Canada's intelligence agencies are acutely aware of the danger that China poses to Canada's sovereignty. They issue reports, some portions of which are made public, others that go directly to the Prime Minister's office and a multitude of government agencies. Beijing's acquisition of state, scientific and corporate technology secrets of other countries through complex espionage schemes to further its own interests by shortcuts, undermines trade and military secrets of the countries it infiltrates. Its cyber-spy network has reaped great benefits for China at the expense of the countries whose classified material it accesses.

 

China uses and abuses, harasses and threatens expatriate Chinese who take up citizenship in other countries, considering them solely Chinese citizens and obligated to feed Beijing's hunger for data they can access willingly or unwillingly. Beijing does not recognize dual citizenship of its former nationals. In foreign countries of the West Chinese investment, the presence of elements of its United Front Work Department pose a threat to its expatriate community many of whom feel sufficiently pressured to do its bidding.

 

The Chinese economy thrives as a manufacturing powerhouse, and the nation’s products seem to be everywhere. The majority of tags, labels, and stickers on a variety of goods proclaim they are “Made in China.” ChinaChipManufacturing   Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

 

In the last several decades, invited to join the World Trade Organization, China used the opportunity to build upon its vast population of cheap labour to over-produce consumer goods, exporting them abroad as less expensive alternatives to similar products made in Europe and North America, establishing itself as the choice of consumers everywhere, leading to the failure of manufacturing elsewhere throughout the world as China mounted the summit of world production championship. 

 

China's trade piracy in government-subsidized production guaranteed it access to global markets through consumer demand. But manufactured goods are not the only items that emanate from China, as the world became acquainted with pathogens that made their presence first in the Middle Kingdom, then transited borders in human-to-human contact to spread wildly in a great global contamination wreaking havoc in illness and widespread deaths, overwhelming hospitals and medical science.

 

 

 

Where the spread of population-levelling disease ran its temporary course, after China took advantage of the need of medical devices and supplies of face masks to a world hungry for any bandaid solutions to help ward off disease and death. China took recourse to other means of conquest, this time through the chemical production of opioids and precursor chemicals to supply the world community with lethal drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil leading to illegal street drugs cheaper to acquire while expanding core groups of drug users, when incidents of drug overdoses began to soar.

 

China's clever use of persuasive media while flooding Europe and North America with illegal substances in its control of pharmaceuticals and supply chains has created a desperate situation of drug addiction, homelessness, drug overdose deaths and criminal violence. All of which are well known in Canada, as it is elsewhere, including Beijing's organized interference in politics abroad in  efforts to ensure that during elections political parties soft on China are elected. Interference that includes persuading expatriate Chinese with dual citizenship to run for political office and once installed, able to influence outcomes in favour of China.

 

And this is the country whose ideology is in such contrast to that of any Western democracy that world leaders will visit, despite its hostile agenda, to pay homage to its commercial, technical, mercantile and trade success, at a time when economies worldwide face onerous trade tariffs brought into play by the world's most influential political and economic giant, the United States, seeking advantage by aligning themselves with the commercial/political savagery of China as an alternative.

 

China’s President Xi Jinping (R) and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer shake hands before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 29, 2026.

Carl Court | Afp | Getty Images 

"These visits reflect managed, selective resets under rising U.S. policy uncertainty, rather than a strategic pivot to China"

"Keeping communication channels open with Beijing is increasingly seen as preferable to disengagement."

"Particularly as the gains from selective resets with China become more visible, and U.S. policy has grown less predictable."

Yue Su, principal economist, Economist Intelligence Unit  

 Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney with China's President Xi Jinping, January 16  Ministry of Foreign Affairs \ People's Republic of China

 

The Messy Divorce Proceedings Between Ottawa and Beijing

One legislation can change your life. Tomorrow when you get up, your life will be different. Nothing belongs to you anymore."

"This could affect thousands of Canadians with benign links to China because of their familial, commercial, educational, or civil society relationships in the mainland [China]."

"It seems very likely to me that these individuals will be seen in an unfavourable light. In the current context of extreme suspicion about all things Chinese, the risk of stigmatization is real."

"Your name goes on a list, whether  you are guilty or whether you are in fact a foreign agent. Once your name goes on the list, you will have a mark on your head and you will be stigmatized and that can affect your career and your life prospects."

Canadian Senator Victor Oh

"This is straight out of the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party] playbook, using racism as a deflection from the proper issue at hand."

"It's downright offensive."

Cheuk Kwan, Toronto Association for Democracy in China

"[The anti-registry push is similar to the disinformation campaign that targeted me in the 2021 election]."

"They are using the fear of newer immigrants."

"It's fertile ground for misinformation and they're exploiting the opportunity."

Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu

Marco Mendicini, Minister of Public Safety: "Today, we launched consultations on the creation of a Canadian Foreign Influence Transparency Registry. We invite Canadians to share their views on this important tool to protect our institutions." Twitter

 

That Beijing has been infiltrating Canada at every conceivable level for years is well known. Agents loyal to the People's Republic of China have inserted themselves in academia, science, business and politics; their purpose to gain influence for China. During the mainland takeover of Hong Kong and the persecution of democracy activists those same activists cojoining forces with the Chinese missions in Canada and enlisting the support of Chinese students on study visas championed Beijing.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Chinese Canadians of Hong Kong background deplored Beijing's dashing of Hong Kong's freedom to lean into democracy, imposing on the city Beijing's heavy hand of communist-style justice. The Confucius Institute chapters that were opened in many universities to foster friendship with China, to feature its heritage and promote its language was recognized as a propaganda tool and lost favour in Canada. 

Above all, the harassment of Chinese-Canadians by Chinese agents working out of Canada, some in the confines of shadowy Chinese police stations that threatened those who rebelled against Beijing's line finally received attention by investigative reporters who revealed the role that Beijing played in the last federal elections, spreading false information and attempting to influence the outcome of elections, which in fact resulted in two anti-Beijing Members of Parliament losing their seats, and led to a proposal for a foreign agent registry.

Canada has an ugly past with respect to its white European heritage that wanted to keep its citizens of European derivation and white. In 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act barred Chinese from migrating to Canada and installed a head tax of $500, an unheard-of-sum. At the same time Jewish Canadians faced discrimination as did Indigenous Canadians. Today, Canada welcomes Chinese immigrants that represent one of two top sources of new Canadians. But this Liberal government denied any knowledge of Beijing's interference despite being informed years ago by its own intelligence services.

Now, in the face of real and proven interference on many levels from industrial espionage to cybersecurity, and proven political interference, controversy has arisen over the pending legislation for a foreign agent registry. Senator Yuen Pau Woo of British Columbia conflated the installation of a registry with the former immigration act, that a registry could become "a modern form of Chinese exclusion". Both he and Senator Victor Oh often speak in the senate in support of Beijing.

Cheuk Kwan and lawyer Dora Nipp argue a registry would be welcomed by Chinese-Canadians since it would "prevent an entire community from being singularly labelled as a threat" as well as its function acting as a reminder to other nations to refrain from intimidating diaspora members. Activist Bill Chiu of Vancouver dismissed any link between legislation for a foreign agent registry and the former Chinese head tax: "If they are so gung-ho about modern forms of Chines exclusion, shouldn't they be jumping up and down when the PRC's draconian policies exclude equal participation of countless [people] in China?"

The bill, if passed would require anyone acting for a foreign government or related entity to register if planning to communicate with a member of Parliament or a senior official on government business. To prevent "malign" influence as Public Safety Canada calls it, where someone acts for a foreign power without disclosing their connection. Senator Woo opposed a Senate motion calling China's treatment of its Uyghur minority genocide; he advised government to release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and co-authored a report that Chinese-Canadians were largely impervious to foreign interference, while recommending closer ties with China.

Debate on a bill that would identify foreign agents lobbying those in public office was opened in the Senate. Photo by iStock /GETTY IMAGES

Senator Pau Woo

Yuen Pau Woo

@yuenpauwoo

100 years ago, as part of the #ChineseExclusionAct, Canada forced all Chinese people in the country to register or face deportation. How can we prevent this registry from becoming a modern form of Chinese exclusion? S-237 & the former C-282 are not the answer. Time to speak out