We Don't Have to Trade With China

But it's Justin's favourite country:

My statement on The Globe and Mail report regarding a diplomat of the People’s Republic of China in Canada.https://t.co/9Fcm46tZSs#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/WL6zJNbBvE

— Michael Chong 🇨🇦 (@MichaelChongMP) May 1, 2023

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China sees Canada as a “high-priority target” and employs “incentives and punishment” as part of a vast influence network directed at legislators, business executives and diaspora communities in this country, according to a top-secret intelligence assessment from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The CSIS report is an overview of Chinese government foreign interference in Canada, ranging from investigating a Conservative MP’s relatives in China to harassing a mainland Chinese student in Canada who publicly supported Hong Kong’s democracy movement.

The report warned that Beijing is the “foremost perpetrator” of foreign interference in Canada. Its agents are unconcerned about repercussions, the report says, because of the lack of obstacles such as a foreign-influence registry of the kind established in the United States and Australia.

(Sidebar: this registry.)

It’s not known whether elected officials in Canada gained access to the report, which was produced by the agency’s Intelligence Assessment Branch and dated July 20, 2021, several weeks before the federal election campaign got under way. The assessment is presented as a “baseline for understanding the intent, motives and scope” of Beijing’s foreign interference in Canada.

The nine-page document, seen by The Globe and Mail, is the latest example of the warnings published by Canada’s security service in recent years that lay out a problem – and a solution. It’s marked top secret and for Canadian eyes only.

It warns that “absent real disincentives,” such as a foreign-influence registry and indictments of foreign-interference actors, Chinese targeting of Canada is “expected to continue and increase over time.”

“Threat actors almost certainly perceive their activities in Canada to be low-risk and high reward,” the assessment said.

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On Friday, the foundation’s former CEO, Pascale Fournier, who left the foundation with other board members a few weeks ago during an internal crisis, testified before the House of Commons ethics committee that her predecessor “misled” the public by claiming its origin was Canadian and not Chinese.

As reported by the Epoch Times, she noted a statement her predecessor Morris Rosenberg had given to the National Post in 2016 regarding the $200,000 donation promised by Chinese businessmen Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng.

The Post article paraphrased Rosenberg as saying the foundation does not count the donation as being foreign since it was made by a company registered in Canada.

“This was a declaration on behalf of the foundation to say that it was not foreign, that it was Canadian money. This was in the annual report as well, when in fact, the tax receipt itself mentioned China,” said Fournier, a law professor of law at the University of Ottawa.

“I think this is something that is misleading to Canadians.”

Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, both formally associated with the Chinese regime-backed China Cultural Industry Association (CCIA), had promised to give a total of $1 million to the foundation and the Université de Montréal in 2014, in honour of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

The issue surfaced in the news in 2016 a few months after the donation ceremony, when the Globe and Mail reported that Zhang Bin had attended a cash-for-access Liberal Party fundraiser where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the guest of honour.

Of the $200,000 promised to the foundation, in the end only $140,000 was provided in two instalments.

But the reality doesn’t quite match what was publicly announced by the donation’s beneficiaries.

Fournier explained that the two charitable receipts had been signed by Rosenberg, with the one for the first instalment of 2016 mentioning an address in China. It was also not in the name of either announced donor, but on behalf of the company Millennium Golden Eagle, which is owned by Zhang Bin.

The receipt for the second instalment provided in 2017 was for the same company, but this time with an address in Quebec, said Fournier.

“I immediately started to ask questions about why is it that we would have two receipts that are so different that one seems to be international with money that seems to come from China, and another one with an address in Quebec?” she said.

Fournier’s inquiries about the donation started after the Globe reported on Feb. 28 that it was the Chinese regime that directed Zhang Bin to give money to the Trudeau Foundation, in a potential foreign influence scheme.

When Fournier started investigating internally what had transpired, she found out through reviewing emails that the CCIA was in direct communication with foundation employees, telling them what to specifically write on the donation receipts.

She said that based on what she saw, there was no direct link between the donors and the foundation. “The link was really between this (Chinese-regime-backed) association (CCIA) and the foundation.”

“Is it fair to say that the association was an extension of the People’s Republic of China, the government?” asked NDP MP Matthew Green.

“I think there was a very strong proximity. I don’t know if I would say extension, but it was clearly under the guidance of the (Communist) government,” said Fournier.

 

Fear not.

Justin's bother will step in and take a hit for family:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brother has been summoned to testify Wednesday at the Commons ethics committee over his role at the Trudeau Foundation. Alexandre Trudeau was a senior director when the Foundation falsified reports to conceal Chinese donations, says a former CEO. The Income Tax Act requires that all charities truthfully account for donations under threat of 125 percent penalties and loss of charitable status: “A Chinese Association was communicating with employees of the Foundation. They were giving clear direction on what needed to appear on receipts.”

 

Will he be so accomplished a liar as his flagging brother?

Time, it will tell.

 

In other news:

China is reportedly recruiting former air force pilots from the West to understand better how Western military aircraft and pilots operate. Up to 30 former UK military pilots are believed to have traveled to China since 2019 to work as instructors in the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

"It's taking Western pilots of great experience to help develop Chinese military air force tactics and capabilities. Money is a strong motivator." — Unnamed Western official, BBC, October 28, 2022.

"It was very specific that it had to be frontline military aviators in current flying practice.... why send military pilots rather than teachers?" — Sky News, October 28, 2022.

Perhaps most incredibly, the US Army, as late as November 2020, conducted the Disaster Management Exchange (online, due to coronavirus) with China's PLA.... Unbelievably, the November 2020 remote exercise took place just one month after President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, Robert O'Brien, had pronounced China to be the threat of the century....

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Chinese authorities were preparing Sunday to release a man who disappeared three years ago after publicizing videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the COVID-19 outbreak, a relative and another person familiar with his case said.

Fang Bin and other members of the public who were dubbed citizen journalists posted details of the pandemic in early 2020 on the internet and social media, embarrassing Chinese officials who faced criticism for failing to control the outbreak. The last video Fang, a seller of traditional Chinese clothing, posted on Twitter was of a piece of paper reading, “All citizens resist, hand power back to the people.”

Fang’s case is part of Beijing’s crackdown on criticism of China’s early handling of the pandemic, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to control the narrative of the country.

He was scheduled to be released Sunday, according to two people who did not want to be identified for fear of government retribution. One of them said Fang was sentenced to three years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vague charge traditionally used against political dissidents.