We Don't Have to Trade With China

It's not like we benefit:

The Department of Foreign Affairs says it suspected Chinese agents used WeChat to meddle in the 2021 federal campaign but didn’t act since the media platform wouldn’t take questions. WeChat is owned by a Shenzhen conglomerate: “It was not interpreted to be our job.”  

 

Speaking of rigged games inquiries into foreign interference: 

The commissioner of the public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s elections pledged to reveal the foreign forces meddling with the country’s democracy as the proceedings began on Monday.

Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue opened the inquiry by promising the process will aim to get to the bottom of what happened, while also finding ways to protect national security.

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“My team and I will make every effort to get to the bottom of things and understand what the country has faced — and what it may still be facing in terms of foreign interference,” she said in her opening remarks.

You've already decided the verdict, haven't you?

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A coalition of human-rights groups representing ethnic communities targeted by China are poised to boycott the public inquiry into foreign interference that begins Monday if Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue allows politicians with alleged ties to Beijing to cross-examine them and gain access to confidential testimony.

Justice Hogue, a judge on the Quebec Court of Appeal who heads the inquiry, granted standing to former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan, now deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., and independent MP Han Dong. Standing means they can cross-examine witnesses and gain access to all evidence collected, including whatever is presented to the inquiry outside of hearings.

Justice Hogue also granted intervenor status to Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo, which allows him to participate in the hearings examining foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

The Human Rights Coalition, an umbrella body of Canadian groups that have spoken out against China’s foreign interference and human-rights abuses, says the three politicians have long had ties to Chinese diplomats and expressed pro-Beijing views.

“I am very pessimistic about this inquiry,” said Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Advocacy Project. “This is a dead start for me. We are going to withdraw.”

Mr. Tohti said the three men have “acted like Chinese officials in Canada so I am not ready to make myself available to be cross-examined by them.”

**

Michael Chong said it did not take long for him to become a target of Beijing.

In testimony before US lawmakers on Capitol Hill last year, the Canadian Conservative politician described how an alleged intimidation campaign against him was born after he spoke out against China's human rights record in parliament.

He said that a Chinese official in Canada began gathering details about his relatives living in Hong Kong shortly after, and that a smear campaign against him was launched on China's most-popular social media platform, WeChat.

"My experience is but one case of Beijing's interference in Canada," he said. "Many, many other cases go unreported and unnoticed, and the victims suffer in silence."

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Smoke and mirrors:

Canadian authorities have issued a deportation order against a Chinese woman on the grounds she was part of Beijing’s foreign interference program.

The Immigration and Refugee Board ruled that Jing Zhang had worked for the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO), which it said conducts espionage in Canada.

While immigration officials did not argue that Zhang committed espionage, the Refugee Board found that as an 11-year OCAO employee, she had contributed to its efforts to pressure the Chinese diaspora.

According to the 32-page decision, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) uses the OCAO to silence dissent overseas.

The organization “was and remains involved in espionage against the PRC‘s targeted individuals and groups in Canada,” the IRB added.

 

Why not expel them all?

You know where they are.

**

He ran only to have the Chinese authorities hidden here:

Things came to a head for the activist on July 21, 2023. At the time, the 60-year-old Mr. Chen was living in Zhuzhou, in southern China’s Hunan province. The Zhuzhou police summoned him that morning and told him he was about to be subjected to a psychiatric evaluation.

To Mr. Chen, the threat of being locked in a psychiatric institution was more frightening than prison.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is notorious for using its psychiatric institutions to silence dissidents. They allow the CCP to completely remove activists from the justice system, with no hope of a trial, while diagnosing them with mental illness so they are socially isolated even after release. Inside China’s mental institutions, victims are subject to mental and physical abuse. After they return home, many of them deal with PTSD and even early dementia from being forcibly medicated.

Mr. Chen told The Epoch Times that as he stepped out of the police building, a compelling thought formed in his mind: Run!