Failing to Expel Chinese Spies Tells China, US That Canada Is ‘Open Territory’ for Chinese Infiltration: Scholar

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When Canada does not expel Chinese spies operating within the country, it signals to China and the United States that Canada is “open territory” for Chinese infiltration, says Charles Burton, a China scholar and senior fellow of the Sinopsis think tank.

Burton said Canada expelled Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat who reportedly targeted Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family, in 2023, after the media exposed Wei’s actions.

“I just don’t want any Chinese spies to be operating freely in our country,” Burton said.

“The fact that we don’t expel any of them, we don’t make any of them persona non grata, or bring their proxies to Canadian courts to be made accountable for these alleged activities, I think sends a signal to China that Canada’s open territory for this kind of thing.”

Burton also said Canada failing to expel Chinese spies sends a signal to the United States that Canada is “open territory” for Chinese infiltration and raises the question of whether the United States can trust Canada in collaborating on security and military issues.

He noted that the Chinese regime has a large diplomatic footprint in Canada. While Japan has approximately 40 diplomats in Canada and India has approximately 30, China has 176 diplomats in Canada, he said, adding that Canada doesn’t have “anything like that number of diplomats in China.”

“The question is, are Chinese diplomats so inefficient that they need such large numbers to engage in legitimate diplomatic function, or is it that about 70 percent of them are engaged in espionage, influence operations, harassment of Canadians of Chinese origin, and other things which are not consistent with their diplomatic function?” Burton added.

Ottawa a few days later declared Zhao a persona non grata.

“I have been clear: we will not tolerate any form of foreign interference in our internal affairs. Diplomats in Canada have been warned that if they engage in this type of behaviour, they will be sent home,” then-Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement on May 8.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said during a parliamentary committee meeting on Nov. 27 that all diplomats must respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states that diplomats can’t interfere in the internal affairs of host countries.

Burton said he had thought the commissioner would be appointed in the fall of 2024 and that Public Safety Canada said the registry would be operational by June 2025, a year after Bill C-70 passed. However, no commissioner has been named.

In August of this year, the public safety minister indicated an appointment for commissioner would be announced in September. “That didn’t happen either,” he added, noting the department is now saying that an appointment might happen before Parliament’s winter break.

“For the coalitions [of rights groups] that I work with, these unexplained delays feel like cynical stakeholder management rather than sincere consultation with Canadian Chinese and other stakeholders,” Burton said.

“The concern is that institutional resistance or murky forces within the establishment is stalling the registry. It appears there are current and former members of Canada’s political elite who fear transparency, lest it expose how they’ve been induced to serve a foreign state’s agenda against the interests of Canada.”

Burton said by not implementing the registry, Canada is not dealing with Chinese espionage in the country or taking “effective measures” against agents of the Chinese regime who are involved in intimidation and harassment in the country. He said this tells the Chinese regime that they can continue to engage in these activities in Canada if Canada isn’t serious about the registry.

Anand told MPs on Nov. 27 that as stated previously by the public safety minister, the foreign influence registry would be implemented by the end of the year.

“Canada is showing leadership at a crucial time right here in our own country, including with our G7 partners,” Anand said.

Burton said Canada is “essentially saying we’re going to do Canada-China relations in the way that China wants to do it.” He also said the idea of having a partnership with a country like China was “extraordinary,” noting the House of Commons has determined that the regime was “engaged in genocide and facilitates third world dictatorships by providing them with Chinese surveillance technologies.”

Following a meeting with the Chinese foreign minister in October, Anand said that Canada is in a “strategic partnership” with Beijing. Although Canada agreed to a strategic partnership with China in 2005, relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years, particularly after China arbitrarily detained two Canadian citizens in retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request. In its 2022 Indo-Pacific strategy, Ottawa described China as an “increasingly disruptive global power.”

Burton said, “I don’t feel that Canada should partner up with a regime whose values are so discordant with what makes our country great.”