Last Monday, the National Post tweeted a selfie of incumbent Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, side by side with two other visibly Chinese women, along with the article headlined “pro-Beijing groups claim credit for helping Olivia Chow win Toronto mayoralty. She says she was unaware.”
The picture in question was snapped by Felicity Guo, chairperson of the Canada-Toronto Fuqing Business Association (CTFQBA). She had reportedly posted the picture on the social media platform WeChat, alongside a message encouraging fellow CTFQBA members to support Chow’s mayoral campaign.
When Chow’s victory was announced, the CTFQBA issued a letter of congratulations along with the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO). The letter noted that the organizations had sent large numbers of volunteers to aid Chow’s campaign.
The CTCCO registered as a non-profit group at Toronto city-hall in 1985. Its stated purpose is to unite and protect the interests of the Chinese Canadian community, while promoting traditional Chinese cultures.
The CTFQBA, meanwhile, was founded in June 2019 for entrepreneurs in Toronto from Fuqing, a coastal city in the Fujian province, China. According to its webpage, the association encourages Fuqing business leaders to assist each other and promote mutual growth.
These organizations are the “pro-Beijing groups” that the Post was referring to in its headline. The article goes on to draw parallels with ongoing federal investigations into foreign interference in Canadian elections by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Fear of “foreigners”
The article is just one of a slew of headlines issued over the last few months indicating that foreign–ie. Chinese–interests are influencing Canadian politics. The media campaign ostensibly began around February, when the Globe and Mail reported that the Chinese government had deliberately influenced the 2021 federal election, based on leaked classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents.
The documents alleged that the PRC used tactics like using Chinese Canadian organizations as political proxies, making anonymous cash donations to candidates, and employing international Chinese students to work for political campaigns on a full-time basis.
They also reported allegations that Michael Chan, deputy mayor of Markham, Ontario, cooperated with Chinese diplomats to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Chan was born in Guangdong province, China, and came to Canada with his family in 1969.
Over the next few months, media outlets began scrutinizing other Canadian politicians and leaders with Chinese heritage for sympathies and collusion with the PRC: Han Dong, then-Liberal MP of Toronto’s Don Valley North, who immigrated from China with his family in 1990 after the Tiananmen square massacre. Vincent Ke, conservative MPP of Toronto’s Don Valley North, who immigrated from China to Canada in 1988 when he was 18-years-old. Kenneth Sim, mayor of Vancouver, who’s parents had immigrated from Hong Kong and was born in Canada, along with Lenny Zhou, Vancouver city councillor, who came to Canada from China as a graduate student.
Then there were business associations like the CTFQBA and the CTCCO. The former “promotes ties to China,” a CTV News article reports, citing its mission statement, which reads “[to] unite rural feelings, integrate resources…and carry forward the spirit of unity.” Its “about page” gives acknowledgement to the United Front Work Department, a PRC government agency, for providing concrete guidance during its founding.
The campaign also resurged fears of Confucius Institutes, educational programs in Canadian schools formed in partnership with universities in China. The institutes facilitate Chinese language learning, along with education on Chinese cultures. They operate alongside German Goethe institutes, Spain’s Cervantes institutes, and the British Council – but questions about academic and contractual freedoms has led the media to call them a “Trojan Horse” for Chinese poltical influence.
Problems in the media coverage
The strength of the foundations for these allegations vary. Some lack important context, some are based on claims from unnamed sources, and some assume the worst, based on limited information.
But media coverage of the scandals has followed several other concerning patterns, besides straying from ordinary standards of veracity.
Journalists invoke the opinions of outspoken PRC critics of Chinese descent, attributing criticism of other Chinese Canadians and organizations to them. The practice resembles tokenism, distancing the outlets from seeming racist, and giving the appearance of greater credibility.
In their article on potential interference in Chow’s mayoral victory in Toronto, the Post cited commentator Jonathan Fon, saying “those Chinese mainlanders have been programmed with Chinese communist propaganda, brainwashed.”
The Globe and Mail similarly cited commentator Louis Huang, who practiced as a pediatrician in China before immigrating to Vancouver, in their coverage of potential interference in the city’s municipal election. Huang was quoted saying that “no other country has been ‘so comprehensively’ influenced by China.”
CTV News cited activist Gloria Fung, president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, in their coverage of allegations against Dong and Ke. “She says Beijing has funded many candidates over several elections in order to place them in government at the municipal, provincial and federal levels,” they wrote.
Articles also frequently conflate a party’s social and business connections with acting as an agent for the PRC. The CTFQBA’s acknowledgement of guidance from the United Front Work Department is one example.
Wei Chungyi, owner of the Toronto grocery chain Foodymart, responded to media criticisms that he was “too close’ with the Chinese consulate in Toronto, in a statement published by Global News.
“I am a Chinese-born Canadian citizen…Canada is a multicultural country, and all ethnic groups are close to the embassies and consulates in Canada of their country of origin. What is wrong with this?” it read.
An open letter to the Special Rapporteur into the allegations, written by Canadian academics, reads “through their family connections, economic activities, and educational journeys, many Canadians are linked to people and institutions around the world in multiple, complex ways. Drawing lines between what and who is Canadian, and what or who is foreign can be extremely divisive.”
The federal government’s role
Opportunistic journalists and editors certainly owe some responsibility for stoking fears of Chinese people and communities in Canada.
But there are several other things going on here – partisanship in Ottawa, for one.
“Let’s send a message to Trudeau: Canadians want a full public inquiry into Beijing’s interference in our democracy,” tweeted Conservative MP Michael Barret on June 28.
Party leader Pierre Polievre tweeted on July 6 that Trudeau was evading a Public Inquiry, which was retweeted by other Conservative Party members including former party leader Andrew Scheer.
Since the interference efforts apparently benefitted Trudeau’s Liberal Party, the Official Opposition has capitalized on the notion that the Prime Minister is complicit with undermining Canadian democratic processes.
But Ottawa has clearly demonstrated an abundance of political will to crack down on China, beyond party politics.
Other writers have pointed out that International corporate lobbyists, the US government, and international political coalitions influence Canadian politics in ways that are equally–if not more–concrete than the alleged interference of the PRC. But neither the government nor the media has reacted to them with the same vigour.
The bias has proved to influence Canada’s actions towards China before.
Just six months earlier, on January 5, 2023, the Public Health Agency of Canada issued special COVID-19 related restrictions on airline passengers from Hong Kong, Macau, and the PRC, supposedly in light of rising infection rates and the emergence of the XBB 1.5 variant of the virus. The variant had first been detected in New York City, USA, and had spread to the UK. Rates of infection were rising in both countries. But the restrictions only applied to people from China. Experts agreed that the measures would not be effective, and that the move was informed by politics rather than evidence.
History repeats itself
For some readers, this story might ring eerily familiar.
It calls back to post 9/11 Islamophobia, the Cold War Red Scare, and the internment of Canadians with Japanese ancestry during the Second World War – instances of extreme xenophobia and cultural warfare, which were sparked by the Canadian state entering conflict with another state. The animosity trickles down into everyday life – physical appearances, activities, and ideas that evoke the image of the enemy state are deemed both dangerous and foreign as a result.
History has shown that these waves of xenophobia lead government, intelligence, and media actors to carry out accusations of conspiracy which turn out to be unfounded.
Every Canadian individual and organization accused of colluding with the PRC’s interference efforts has denied the allegations. David Johnston, who was hired as Special Rapporteur into the allegations of PRC interference, concluded that the allegations against Dong were unfounded, and that China did not influence the results of the 2019 or 2021 Federal elections. Support rabble today!
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Chan, Dong, and Ke have threatened legal action against the media outlets that published accusations against them. Sitting Conservative Senator Victor Oh has even proposed a nation-wide foundation to financially assist Chinese Canadians who want to sue journalists reporting allegations against them.
