Several links between alleged Montreal police stations and the Chinese communist regime

The Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal and the Sino-Quebec Center of the South Shore are suspected of being, like four other centers identified elsewhere in the country by the Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders, “posts of police” on behalf of the Chinese authorities. The RCMP mentioned last week that citizens of the Chinese diaspora could be intimidated or threatened by the Chinese communist regime in connection with these centers.

Allegations which were formally denied by the lawyer of the two centers on Tuesday. In a statement, the latter said they had learned “with astonishment” of the holding of this investigation and said they were ready to collaborate. 

Various links

Over the past few weeks, we have identified various links between these community centers and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) both in Quebec and internationally:

• Until the publication of our report last week, the “Government of the People's Republic of China” was listed among the partners of Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal on their website, alongside the governments of Quebec and Canada. . The mention has since been deleted.
• Both centers have also been designated as overseas Chinese service centers.
• During the same period, she met a vice minister of the United Front Labor Department in China.
• Ms. Li became vice -president of the Overseas Friendship Association of Gansu Province in China, in 2018. The Federation of Overseas Friendship Associations is under the aegis of the Department of United Front Work, a repressive wing of the CPP according to several international reports (see other text).
• In 2018, she was also personally invited by the Prime Minister of China to participate in the festivities surrounding China's National Day, a mention since deleted from the Center Sino-Québec de la Rive website -South.

Worry

Experts on the Chinese question and representatives of groups fighting for democracy in China say they are worried about this proximity between Montreal community centers and the Communist regime in Beijing.

“There is no reason which could justify why the Chinese government lends assistance to a social service center in Montreal. It has nothing to do with China. One cannot help but wonder what is the real motivation of the Chinese government to invest resources in an organization which does not have the mandate to serve the interests of China”, raises Charles Burton, of the Macdonald Institute -Laurier, and former Counselor at the Canadian Embassy in China.

“The Federation of Friendship Associations is clearly part of the operations of the Department of United Front Work (DTFU). Confucius Institutes, friendship associations; all these so-called “soft” associations are actually the invisible face of the DTFU (…) It is not unique to Montreal or Brossard. There are other organizations like these elsewhere that have questionable ties to the Chinese government. It arouses suspicion,” says Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for China Democracy. 

She denies

By the Through their lawyer, the two community centers refused to answer our questions about their appearance of ties with China.

Last week, during a short telephone interview she gave us, Xixi Li denied being close to the Chinese Communist Party. She also indicated that her vice-presidency of the Gansu Province Overseas Friendship Association was only on an “honorary” basis.

“I have never been involved. I never participated. I don't know what they did,” she said, saying she didn't know the association could be linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

She also said she met members of this association when they came to visit Montreal “around 2015”.

“We haven’t had contact with China with Covid for years. I haven't been back to China for years (…) for a long time,” she said. 

– With the collaboration of Yves Lévesque&nbsp ;

The United Front and Friendship Associations 

The Department of United Front Work (DTFU) has been worrying for a long time some time in the international arena.

This is a department of the Chinese Communist Party used by Beijing in its actions of foreign interference.

“Beijing uses the DTFU to stifle criticism and infiltrate foreign political parties, diasporas, universities and multinational corporations. The importance of the DTFU, for the Chinese Communist Party, has expanded in recent years under the regime of President Xi; ; indeed, 40,000 new employees have been added,” Public Safety Canada wrote on its website.

Other reports and expert testimony have pointed to the DTFU's ties to Chinese friendship associations as one of the tools in the DTFU's arsenal against foreign interference.

< p>This is the case in particular of a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, published in 2020. In 2018, the report “China's Overseas United Front Work: Background and Implications for the United States” by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was already sounding the alarm.

“The United Front's strategy includes a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments and other actors to take action or adopt positions favorable to Beijing's preferred policies. A number of official and quasi-official entities conduct overseas activities guided or funded by the United Front, including Chinese government and military organizations, cultural and “friendship” associations,” the report said. /p>

“The main groups of the United Front include leading organizations (…) Abroad, these are (…) associations of Chinese students and scholars, and numerous overseas Chinese hometown and friendship associations. By coopting these organizations under the aegis of the United Front, the party seeks to shape the narrative and extend its influence abroad,” University of Toronto political science professor Lynette H. Ong also told the parliamentary committee. on China-Canada Relations in May 2021