Michael Chong arrives to a standing committee on foreign affairs and international development in Ottawa on Thursday, May 4, 2023. The Conservative MP at the centre of Canada’s foreign interference saga is telling his story today to U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
WASHINGTON – The Conservative MP at the centre of Canada’s foreign interference saga is urging Capitol Hill lawmakers to work with their northern neighbour to battle Beijing.
Michael Chong, whose tale of Chinese meddling has been a political headache for the federal Liberal government, told his tale to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
The commission was established in 2000 to keep tabs on Beijing’s human rights record, and is a bipartisan committee of U.S. senators, House members and administration officials.
Chong says one of his main goals was to make clear just how widespread Chinese foreign interference is, both in North America and around the world.
Several members of the commission, including New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, pressed Chong on how the U.S. and Canada could work more closely together.
One of Chong’s ideas is to expose the conduct with “sunlight and transparency” – publicizing instances where China tries to cajole and intimidate people.
Prior to the hearing, Chong said he’s undaunted by the risk that his testimony would make him an even more prominent target for Beijing, particularly in the U.S.
“They’re targeting me because I’m being effective, and so I feel an obligation to continue to speak up, to give voice to the voiceless,” he said in an interview.
“There are people across the country who have been targeted for years, whose stories go untold and who suffer in silence…. That’s what keeps me going.”
Other witnesses Tuesday included Yana Gorokhovskaia of the pro-democracy D.C. think tank Freedom House; Laura Harth, the campaign director for the human rights group Safeguard Defenders; and Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas.
The commission keeps close tabs on China’s intimidation tactics, as well as a running list of people who have vanished or been taken as political prisoners.
That database includes Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians who were arrested and detained without cause in China for nearly three years, an apparent act of retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Meng, the chief financial officer and daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Vancouver in 2018 on an extradition warrant linked to Justice Department charges of bank and wire fraud.
In Canada, as in the U.S., it can be difficult to avoid the spectre of partisan politics when talk turns to China and foreign policy, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on global supply chains.
Virtually every domestic policy decision in the U.S. is made within the broader context of ending U.S. dependence on Chinese suppliers of raw materials, manufactured goods and high-tech components like computer chips and battery minerals.
North of the border, where the federal government’s handling of allegations of Chinese foreign interference has triggered a maelstrom of controversy, a public inquiry is scheduled to begin early next week.
The federal Liberal government, Chong said, still hasn’t done enough in the wake of the Huawei saga to properly fortify its foreign policy approach to China, even as the U.S. and other democracies adopt a more hawkish stance.
“It doesn’t surprise me because I think it is a characteristic of the current government to be slow on implementation,” he said. “This government can’t execute, and so it doesn’t surprise me that they are slow on reacting to this threat.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, though, Chong was more deferential, saying that a lot of western countries were slow to respond to the dangers, and that Canada has since managed to catch up.
Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josee Hogue will lead the 16-month inquiry, which is expected to delve into alleged meddling in Canadian affairs by China, Russia and other foreign states and non-state actors.
An interim report is due by the end of February and a final report by the end of December 2024.
In May, the government confirmed a media report that intelligence officials had detected a Chinese plot in 2021 to intimidate Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong. The Liberal government expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after sustained uproar in Parliament.
In response, China’s embassy expelled Canada’s consul in Shanghai and issued a statement accusing Canada of breaching international law and acting based on anti-Chinese sentiment.
Chong’s alleged targeting in 2021 came after he successfully sponsored a motion in the House of Commons labelling Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China a genocide. But he was never notified of the potential threats, a mistake he has called a “systematic breakdown in the machinery of government.”
Former governor general David Johnston was named as a special rapporteur to examine the issue, but he stopped short of recommending a public inquiry, touching off another round of partisan howling.
Johnston’s report concluded that the government had not knowingly or negligently failed to act and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself had not been briefed about specific allegations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2023.
