Jun. 20, 2005

People of Chinese origin are Canada's largest minority, numbering more than 1 million. After English and French, Chinese is now this country's third language.

Canada will also purchase $21 billion worth of goods from China this year, and we have $700 million invested there.

By any measure, our relationship has been a friendly and growing one. So it is more than offensive to be told that Chinese Canadians in Toronto and other cities are being spied on and harassed by agents of the People's Republic of China. If true, this is an affront to Canada, an attack on our sovereignty and citizenry, and a serious cause of friction that will do neither country any good.

Prime Minister Paul Martin should convey that message in blunt terms to Beijing, following claims by a Chinese defector to Australia, Hao Fengjun, that China runs a large and busy network of spies here.

While Hao's claims have yet to be verified, Martin should instruct the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Mounties to do just that.

[...]

Some of the spying Hao alleges, based on police files he claims to have seen, is of the traditional kind, in which professional agents seek out political, high-tech computer and military data, and economic information. Our security services are expected to be alert to this. But Hao also claims Beijing is recruiting Canadians to spy on and to harass members of the international Falun Gong movement [...].

One document supplied by Hao names Jillian Ye, a Toronto Falun Gong adherent, as the subject of a 2004 report to top officials in Beijing. Hao says Chinese spies keep tabs on practitioners, tap phones and threaten and harass them.

Other Falun Gong practitioners confirm they have been harassed. Martin should let Beijing know that if proof surfaces that China is targeting Canadian citizens, the impact on relations will be serious, swift and negative.