Canada is home to roughly 1.7 million people of Chinese origin, about 4.7 per cent of the population, and has been a favored destination for exiles from mainland China and Hong Kong. It is also, unsurprisingly, one of the countries where Beijing's reach abroad is most active.
The federal government's own public advisories describe the mechanics plainly: relatives still in China are used to pressure people in Canada into abandoning activities Beijing considers hostile, or into returning; and agents operating overseas are used to watch, monitor and report on people living in Canada. Public Safety Canada maintains a substantial public-facing section on the tactics involved — physical intimidation and violence, digital harassment and malicious cyber activity, social isolation, and coerced return.
Kwan, the New Democratic Party MP for Vancouver East and her party's public safety and national security critic, describes a campaign that has outgrown the categories built for it.
"The Chinese government's campaign of transnational repression has become increasingly sophisticated and brazen," she said in a written reply to Storm Media in late July. "It extends far beyond China's borders, targeting journalists, human rights defenders, democracy advocates, and refugees through intimidation, surveillance, coercion, and, in some cases, forced returns."
Her framing of what is at stake is deliberately not confined to the individuals affected. "This is not only an attack on individual freedoms but also on the sovereignty of democratic countries and the international refugee protection system," she said. "Democracies must work together to hold those responsible accountable."
*Click image or link to read the Taiwan media news - https://world.storm.mg/articles/1152999
