CCP’s Harassment and Intimidation of Canadians a ‘Serious Problem’: Think Tank Study

Canada has a “serious problem” when it comes to foreign interference by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a new study that investigated the regime’s harassment and intimidation of Chinese-Canadians on Canadian soil.
“From harassing phone calls and punctured tires to threatening Canadians’ relatives back in China, it’s clear that Canada has a serious problem on our hands.”
Lucyk said the survey “is not simply a random sampling” but rather a “qualitative exercise sought to examine more granular details from those who had experienced persecution.”
Of the 26 respondents, 21 specifically mentioned their beliefs as being the reason they were targeted—either political belief (pro-Hong Kong or pro-democracy) or faith-related belief (Christianity or Falun Gong, a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions).
Twenty-five respondents said they believe interference is common for Chinese-Canadians, with seven of those adding that harassment is common if one holds views that contradict those of the CCP.
A Christian respondent described how the CCP uses Chinese digital platforms to target individuals in Canada.
“My WeChat account, which is the only app almost all Chinese use, got shadow-banned when I posted my support for Hong Kong in 2018. If I am in a group, no Chinese citizens, anyone using a Chinese phone number, can see my post. Only a few people that use Canadian phone numbers can see my post,” the respondent said.
“So my Canadian political campaigns for various candidates and my Bible study with friends in China since 2018 have been severely impacted.”
An Ottawa Falun Gong practitioner said she has been receiving harassment calls ever since the CCP began persecuting her faith in 1999, spearheaded by then-Party leader Jiang Zemin, now deceased.
“For many years since the persecution, the phone line at our home received numerous harassing phone calls, mostly automated messages that hate propaganda against Falun Gong or endless red songs praising the Chinese Communist Party,” she said.
She added that in 2002, after going to Geneva during a session of the United Nations human rights body to join an appeal seeking an end to the persecution, she received a call from a man speaking Mandarin who said he knew about her Geneva trip. The call then turned into sexual harassment and she hung up, she said.
The report highlighted another Falun Gong practitioner saying, “Around 2002, one day when I came home, [I] found a big size branch of my house plant was cut off and put on the kitchen counter and a knife was beside it.”
Lucyk’s research concurred with the FDAC report. A Calgary Falun Gong practitioner who was surveyed described how the CCP engaged individuals to track practitioners’ movements.
“The guy who took a photo of me had tracked me over 3 times in ChinaTown and he is the first one that has tracked me to my house,” the respondent said, referring to harassment experienced in fall 2023.
The respondent described “being tracked, monitored, listened, by different guys (chinese, indian, black, white including teenagers) at my house, bus station, any location I parked, also on my computer and phone.”
In one case, a Falun Gong practitioner experienced physical violence, said Lucyk’s study.
“Chinese consulate hired several gangsters cut my banners in front of the consulate, beating me and pointing gun at me. They also sent on secret agents to collect our personal information,” the respondent said.
“They also harassed my family in China, forced them to sign a pledge that I did something they don’t like overseas, they will take away all their properties.”
“I was exchanging a conversation with a new[s] reporter from Epoch Times at the Media Room at the Parliament. After the conversation and the reporter from Epoch Times had left, a neatly dressed, sort-of giving you a PLA (People’s Liberation Army) look man sat in front of me. He turned and asked for my name and agency’s name,” the respondent said.
The respondent asked the man for his information instead, but rather than complying, the man kept on asking for the respondent’s information. “We kept the stand-off and I still guarded my information hard. Finally, he admitted that he was from the Chinese embassy,” the respondent said.
Threats from the CCP also came in the form of phone calls from the Hong Kong police force’s National Security Department, said another respondent, who indicated that this happened once in January and once in February this year. Asked why the respondent might have been targeted, the respondent said “[c]olluding with foreign countries to endanger national security. Subversion. Insulting the national flag.”
Another respondent said the Chinese regime “wants to control everyone born in China” and will resort to financial means to do so. “I am not allowed to say anything critical of the Chinese government on the Internet. They blocked my bank account in China, demolished my house in China, and occupied my property.”
One respondent said “being followed or unexplained phone calls that hung up are common tacts” the CCP deploys.
The survey included a respondent who claimed to have been a victim of CCP election interference during a 2022 municipal by-election due to his anti-CCP views.
“My profile [was] put in a wrong name, mis-translated, or even omitted on certain Chinese-community oriented, Chinese language websites focused on ethnic Chinese candidates,” he said.
Survey respondents said Canadian government bodies should do their part to protect Canadians targeted by the CCP.
“Many ideas were put forward, including a registry of CCP agents, controls on the CCP-owned ‘WeChat’ app, and expulsion or criminal prosecution of any CCP agents found guilty of harassment,” Lucyk wrote.