On February 17, the Globe and Mail published evidence that China had deployed a sophisticated campaign to interfere in the 2021 Canadian federal election with the apparent aim of securing a minority Liberal victory. Drawing from classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents, the Globe’s reporting revealed a multipronged Chinese interference strategy, which included disinformation campaigns, undeclared cash donations, and mobilization of international Chinese students in a bid to defeat (mostly Conservative) politicians deemed hostile to Beijing’s interests. Those interests appear to include bending Canadian policy goals into alignment with those of the Chinese Communist Party, especially in the key areas of accepting China’s territorial claims over Taiwan and turning a blind eye to the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong and the ongoing persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
The full impact of the 2021 Chinese electoral interference is difficult to fathom. Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole estimated that Chinese tactics cost the Conservatives eight or nine seats. Tong Xiaoling, China’s former consul general in Vancouver, boasted that she had personally helped defeat two Conservative MPs, according to the CSIS reports. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs was already investigating allegations that China had supported eleven candidates—nine Liberal and two Conservative—in the Greater Toronto Area in 2019; the committee’s scope will now be expanded to probe the 2021 election.
