Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Richard Fadden was right all along. According to a former Chinese spy speaking to a security conference Wednesday, the Ministry of State Security has long targeted foreign politicians.
Li Fengzhi, who defected in 2003, told the conference in Gatineau that China wants to steal commercial secrets and influence politicians. “China wants to find some important, influential people to speak out for China. They pay attention to this,” he said.
Mr. Fadden got into hot water last year when he said municipal officials and provincial Cabinet ministers from two provinces were under the influence of the Chinese government. He backed off from his comments after loud criticism from Chinese-Canadian groups.
Mr. Li was asked if he thought the recent incident involving Tory MP Bob Dechert was a case of espionage. “I’m not sure if she [Xinhua news agency correspondent Shi Rong] is an informant of the Chinese secret service but…they often use reporters as cover,” he said. The parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Affairs Minister admitted sending “flirtatious” emails to the journalist.
While China is preoccupied with organizations that might foster internal dissent such as Falun Gong and the Free Tibet movement, Mr. Li made clear that the tentacles of its secret services reach far into civil society — from academia to non-governmental organizations. “China is interested in anything, everything that China is not very good at, either military or civilian,” he said.
The aim is to trap unwary Westerners in “honey pot traps.” Mr. McAdam said men of influence are often targeted and face trumped up charges of rape or attempted rape and are forced to co-operate or face jail time.“They want to capture people in shameful activities — alleging sex with minors is a common method used,” he said. British and French secret services have started warning prominent business people visiting China about the risks. “Public servants and politicians are the main targets but the Chinese are also after the technology and military sector, so they target engineers, business people and scientists, too.
“People say they won’t fall for it but they do. Executives with a heavy travel schedule turn up in Shanghai or Beijing jet-lagged and find themselves in need of affection. People succumb.”
He said the fact that travellers to China have to submit a visa application gives Chinese intelligence services months to target their operations. “If they are caught in a honey trap, they are a time-bomb for their employer,” he said.
Mr. McAdam, who worked as a diplomat in Asia said he was targeted several times but extricated himself. A family friend, a junior oil company executive, visited him in Hong Kong and Mr. McAdam said he warned him to be wary while on a trip to Beijing. “After dinner, he came back to his hotel room and found two beautiful, naked Chinese girls in his bed. He remembered my lecture and called security and had them removed. He is now a senior person in an oil company but, had he been caught, he could easily have had his career ruined.”
The Prime Minister is due in Beijing early next year as part of the government’s new business-friendly relations with China. He is well aware of China’s clandestine activities in this country. But there have been no public statements on the subject in recent years and no prosecutions such as those that have taken place in the United States.
More typical is the case of Haiyan Zhang, who was fired as a senior analyst in the Privy Council Office of government in 2006 after CSIS said she was a security risk. The Public Service Labour Relations Board later said the government didn’t handle the case properly, ordered she be given two years of back pay and re-instated.
As the government presses the reset button on its relations with China, it has taken a three monkeys approach — see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The bribing and corrupting of public officials is apparently an inconvenient truth.
National Post
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https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-csis-right-to-worry-about-chinese-spies
