We ve been warned for years about China's growing influence in Canada, from secret Chinese police stations in Toronto and other cities to potential military bases in Prince Edward Island, and now we have reports of China's influence expanding into the Alberta oil fields. Yes, you heard that right. We now have news of some guards, alleged armed agents in northern Alberta with prohibited weapons. We re going to break it all down in this video and try to make sense of this mess.
00:00:00.000Ladies and gentlemen, we got an explosive report for you today. You see, throughout the years,
00:00:06.280there's been multiple warnings given to Canada from American authorities informing the Canadian
00:00:12.660government under Justin Trudeau and now under Mark Carney about the reality of China's ever-growing
00:00:19.360influence in this country, from secret Chinese police stations in Toronto and other cities
00:00:25.420to potential military bases in Prince Edward Island. And now we have reports of China's
00:00:31.320influence expanding into the Alberta oil fields. Yes, you heard that right. We now have news of
00:00:37.420some guards, alleged armed agents in northern Alberta with prohibited weapons. We're going
00:00:43.540to break it all down in this video and try to make sense of this mess. So first, we're going to start
00:00:48.720with this briefing, which was given to Parliament a couple of days ago by an American defense group
00:00:54.180in regards to Chinese Communist Party organizations that are conducting activities all over Canada.
00:01:02.540Then we're going to get to what's happening in Alberta with those armed Chinese guards that they
00:01:07.500reportedly found in the oil fields. My name is Kevin Vong and I'm a senior fellow at MLI and a former
00:01:14.700member of Parliament from Toronto. Let me begin by saying that today's joint endeavor is a good
00:01:20.080reminder of the long-standing relationship and partnership between our two democracies, who,
00:01:27.320whatever our differences, have a lot more in common than that which divides us. And one of the things that
00:01:32.840we have in common is a shared adversary in Communist China, who may present as a benevolent and smile to
00:01:40.800our face, while simultaneously have their hands in our back pocket. An authoritarian state who will extend a hand,
00:01:49.400is not claiming to be in the spirit of friendship, but do friends take the other's people hostage? Would a friend steal
00:01:56.440your technology and then undercut your industries and companies and steal your jobs? Do they buy up your medical PPE
00:02:04.640before a deadly global pandemic? Or do they set up illegal police stations in your country? Do they put bounties on your people?
00:02:12.880That's an important one that a lot of Canadians are not aware of.
00:02:16.380There are Chinese secret, not so secret, I guess, police stations in cities like Toronto, I believe in Montreal as well.
00:02:24.160And that was reported by Rebel News a couple of years back.
00:02:27.240But it didn't make the mainstream news because, of course, government paid media is not going to talk against government.
00:02:34.560Justin Trudeau knew it. Mark Carney knows it. And they're doing nothing about it.
00:02:39.180Interfere in your democratic elections. These aren't hypothetical questions.
00:02:44.200They're real examples of what has happened or is happening today in Canada.
00:02:49.640And you'll be hearing today from our speakers about the Chinese Communist Party's primary tool of interference, the United Front Work Department.
00:02:58.860First, you will hear from Cheryl Yu. Cheryl is fellow in China studies at the Jamestown Foundation.
00:03:05.160She's the author of the report that they're releasing today.
00:03:08.440Harnessing the People, Mapping Overseas United Front Work in Democratic States.
00:03:13.880And she's also the co-author of Chinese Communist Party Covert Operations Against Taiwan.
00:03:19.460Following Cheryl will be Peter Mattis, president of the Jamestown Foundation and an advisor to the Interparmentary Alliance on China,
00:03:28.000where I'm also proud to serve on the Alumni Council.
00:03:30.860Peter is a former CIA counterintelligence analyst and was previously then-Senator Marco Rubio today.
00:03:37.700Secretary of State, he was his staff director for the Congressional Executive Commission on China.
00:03:43.480Now, before I pass the floor to Cheryl, I just want to situate everyone with some key considerations, starting with diplomatic representation.
00:03:52.340China's diplomatic footprint in Canada, as was released by the Hoot Commission, is 176 Chinese diplomats.
00:04:00.620Now, compare that to the U.S. footprint, which consists of a little over, coincidentally, 176 American diplomats.
00:04:07.160But what's curious is, if you put it in perspective of total trade, which I know is the forefront of many Canadians' minds today,
00:04:15.160is that trade with the United States represents over a trillion dollars, or about 70% of our total trade.
00:05:13.180In 2023, you have this so-called diplomat who was actually blackmailing a member of parliament who is of the Chinese diaspora.
00:05:21.480The guy is a Canadian, but his family came from China, and that's what those people are doing here.
00:05:26.960They got the same number of diplomats that the United States has in Canada, and yet they do nine times less, a fraction, about 10% the amount of trade.
00:05:37.900So why the hell do we need so many Chinese diplomats here if we're not doing nearly, not even half of the amount of trade that we're doing with the Americans?
00:05:47.760That's because they're not here for trade.
00:05:51.480What are the activities of the eight out of nine?
00:05:54.380So are they really inefficient, or are they doing something else?
00:05:57.220Those are some of the questions that I'm asking.
00:05:58.640And with that, I'd like to hand it over to Cheryl.
00:06:03.140Thank you for having me, and thank you for the opportunity to speak about this report and its implication for Canada.
00:06:09.220My research looks at how the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP, built influence in democratic societies through what it calls overseas United Front work.
00:06:18.760United Front is the party's weapon that it uses to expand control and influence without using force.
00:06:23.780The party uses this system to shape political, social, and economic environments in ways that serve the party's goal, which is becoming the dominant global power and advancing claims such as the annexation of Taiwan.
00:06:36.680And through ongoing and long-term relationship building, the party has created a global network of individuals and organizations inside open societies.
00:06:44.220This report maps that system across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany, identifying more than 2,000 United Front-linked organizations.
00:06:54.700These organizations are identified through leadership links to the United Front system, including connections through meetings, delegates, and advisors to agencies such as the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.
00:07:10.540And organizations in Canada are very much part of this.
00:07:14.220Canada alone has at least 575 United Front-linked organizations, making it the second largest network in the research and has the highest per capita among the four countries.
00:07:26.500This number gives a sense of how broad and deeply rooted the network already is, but at the same time, it is likely just a surface.
00:07:33.600Holy cow, and she's saying that that's just the surface.
00:07:37.080There's over 500 Chinese Communist Party-linked organizations inside Canada, the number one per capita based on population.
00:07:48.760The United States probably has more because America has this problem, just not nearly as much per capita, and the Americans are also very well aware of it.
00:07:57.320And Donald Trump is working on it, on trying to get rid of Chinese influence in the United States, but so is Canada to a certain extent.
00:08:24.020Much of the United Front work happens through informal ties, such as personal relationships, invitation to China, honorary titles, and privileged access.
00:08:32.340So, the nearly 600 United Front-linked organizations identified in Canada within a limited amount of time and resources are really just a visible layer of a much larger system operating quietly underneath, and it continues to grow as we speak.
00:08:47.620Canada is important to the Chinese Communist Party because it has strong institutions, vibrant civil society, and the large diaspora communities.
00:08:56.280Those are strengths, but at the same time, they are also exactly what the United Front work seeks to leverage.
00:09:02.340To the party, if it can shape thinking, networks, and decisions in countries like Canada, it doesn't need confrontation.
00:09:12.460So, Canada, alongside the United States, has become one of the key environments where overseas United Front work is actively developed.
00:09:20.020And from the research, three things stand out.
00:09:23.060First, the Chinese Communist Party politicizes everything.
00:09:26.900The network in Canada spans almost every sector of society, including hometown associations,
00:09:32.000cultural organizations, cultural organizations, business and trade groups, schools, professional societies, and Chinese-language media outlets.
00:09:39.680Activities that look social, cultural, and economic are treated by the CCP as political resources.
00:09:45.120And party-linked organizations often carry out those activities that appear benign, such as local-level exchange, people-to-people exchange, youth conversations, and economic activities.
00:09:56.320They look like normal activities that other countries also do, but the party's intentions matter.
00:10:01.580The goal is to build up a network of its friends that can be activated when needed.
00:10:07.540Second, most of the United Front activities are not illegal.
00:10:13.940Influence is built through access, invitations, titles, and personal ties, not necessarily through breaking rules.
00:10:19.740So, for example, individuals with strong United Front ties have accompanied multiple Canadian prime ministers from both political parties to visit the PRC and also participate in policy consultations ahead of those trips.
00:10:46.540With this network in place, the party gains the ability to make requests for political influence, narrative shaping, talent recruitment, and even voter mobilization on Beijing's behalf.
00:11:20.920They're already using these organizations to influence public opinion.
00:11:26.920We see it in academia, where a community-based friendship organization in Edmonton that begins with cultural programming later entered university spaces to promote the so-called real China narrative and linking these activities to PRC political milestones.
00:11:42.200We also see United Front-linked organizations protesting transparency measures, such as foreign agent registries, by reframing governance tools as racial discrimination.
00:11:58.820So, during COVID, for example, a hometown association based in Quebec fundraised to purchase medical supplies in response to the United Front System's Fuzhou Overseas Chinese Community Pandemic Prevention Initiative.
00:12:10.780And what this shows is that United Front networks are not passive.
00:12:15.760They are built in advance so they can be activated when the party needs leverage.
00:12:21.220And because the infrastructure already exists inside Canadian society, mobilization can happen quickly and at scale without appearing centrally directed.
00:12:30.760One other thing I want to mention is that many Chinese Canadians are victims of the CCP's United Front work.
00:12:38.700The party intentionally targets people of Chinese descent with propaganda, emotional appeals, identity-based messaging, and sometimes coercion.
00:12:47.040Many people involved in these organizations are unaware of how the system works.
00:12:51.580So, this is not a question of ethnicity.
00:12:53.720It is a question of state-directed political influence inside a democracy.
00:12:57.220And protecting targeted communities is part of protecting our democratic institutions.
00:13:03.940And so, to conclude, what the report shows is that foreign influence doesn't usually arrive as a scandal.
00:13:09.700It arrives as normal engagement until the environment has already been shaped.
00:13:14.340United Front work uses democracy's openness as its operating environment, and that is why it is difficult to detect and easy to normalize.
00:13:22.300In my research, the most effective foreign influence operations are invisible or unseen.
00:13:28.440They succeed by shaping environment and expectations before anyone realizes political influence is taking place.
00:13:35.400So, understanding how influence actually operates is essential if a democratic society wants to remain open without being quietly shaped from within.
00:13:43.600Thank you, thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
00:13:46.420I also am proud as a sort of a mentor, as a leader of an organization, that one of my fellows has her first real solo effort to explain a difficult and complex subject.
00:13:57.860And to highlight the fact that she has done more work than I think just about anyone else on the planet to uncover these networks, to track them, not just in Canada, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, but also in other parts of the world.
00:14:13.540And we're steadily building up our understanding of what they are.
00:14:16.600And this report is significant because it's not just telling a story based on party documents and what is the purpose of the party's ambitions and what is the purpose of United Front work.
00:14:29.320What is the purpose of this United Front policy system that starts at the center and goes to the provinces and affects literally every part of the party, right?
00:14:38.200So you can find United Front work departments and Western corporations that are in China with a party committee inside them, right?