Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne told the media on November 17 that attempts by China and other countries to intimidate people on Canadian soil “will not be tolerated,” and pointed to criminal charges against those involved. In addition, Canadian Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole warned that “the rise of China is the greatest threat to Canadian interests today.
Pengfei Shang spoke in the Canadian House of Commons on Tuesday in response to a motion on China introduced by O’Toole’s Conservative Party. The motion asks the Canadian government to put forward a strong plan to counter China’s foreign influence activities and decide whether to involve Huawei in the construction of the country’s 5G network. When asked about recent media reports that Chinese officials are intimidating dissidents and the Chinese community on Canadian soil, Shang Pengfei said, “This is a matter of grave concern to me and my colleagues.” He said, “Any reports of harassment and intimidation of individuals in Canada are disturbing and will not be tolerated.” He also urged Canadians experiencing any intimidation or efforts to influence to report it to police.
In the corresponding cases, he said, “the RCMP will continue to investigate with a view to bringing charges under the Criminal Code.” Canadians can rest assured that their government takes the threat of foreign interference very, very seriously,” he said. He continued, “The Minister of Public Safety will soon be introducing additional measures to protect the safety and security of Canadians.” The Conservative Party of Canada has introduced a motion to the Canadian Parliament asking authorities to ban Huawei from participating in the country’s 5G network within 30 days, among other measures. O’Toole also told the media on Tuesday that China’s influence operations are a key threat to Canada. He said, “Canada and our allies once believed that engagement would lead to democracy, and we mistakenly believed that ignoring the sharp edges of communism would, over time, smooth those edges by putting trade ahead of our values.” He continued, “Canada was so convinced that we were pleased to join our allies in accepting China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. We now know that this decision has had a disastrous impact on Canadian workers.”
O’Toole said, “It’s not surprising that China violated many of the conditions of its WTO membership. Everything the Chinese Communist Party does is planned and structured, from their lobbying campaign against Western politicians to secure WTO membership, to their efforts to disrupt our industries by dumping cheap, state-subsidized goods and ignoring intellectual property laws.” He said, “Huawei’s rise is itself a result of years of industrial espionage by China against Nortel. When we talk about outsourcing jobs to China, we’re not just talking about textile manufacturing. Rather, we’re talking about advanced manufacturing, technology and what we believe are the jobs of the future. Intellectual property theft, counterfeiting and digital piracy are not the exception to our dealings with China, they are the reality.”
O’Toole said, “I can’t say this enough: our current conflict is with the Chinese Communist Party, not with the Chinese people. And we must also realize that the Chinese government speaks for the party, not for the people.” He said, “Facing a challenge of this magnitude requires a national effort, from the highest levels of government to the individual choices of consumers. We must speak openly about what is at stake, and the Chinese web of influence is not only undermining our government’s response, it is shaking the trust of our citizens. When the Trudeau government ignored this issue, Canadians worried that we were not doing enough to defend ourselves against Chinese aggression. But the time for action is now.”
The Canadian government now recognizes that “the China of 2020 is not the China of 2016,” Shang Pengfei Ling noted. “Given the current challenges, we are taking a sober view in assessing the Canada-China relationship 50 years from now,” he said in his speech. He said, “While we have long-standing ties that took root long before diplomatic relations were established, today we are facing a difficult reality.” The Canadian government recognizes the need for a “new approach” to dealing with China that relies on working with allies and advocating for human rights and respect for international law, Mr. Shang said. “China raises some of the key foreign policy challenges of our time,” he noted. Shang Pengfei stressed, “We must engage with China with our eyes wide open.”
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