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Vancouver city hall now says Global Affairs Canada did not approve a meeting held last month between one of its employees and Chinese officials regarding an event by performers critical of Beijing.
In an unsolicited email to Global News, the city admitted it had falsely claimed the federal government had deemed the meeting with China’s consulate in Vancouver a normal diplomatic interaction.
“Global Affairs Canada did not take an official position about the meeting,” city spokesperson Cecilia Ho said in the email sent Tuesday correcting its previous statement about the matter.
The spokesperson blamed an “internal misunderstanding.”
Global Affairs Canada did not respond to questions about the incident, which some have branded an example of China’s continued efforts to interfere in Canada’s domestic affairs.
On May 4, Global News reported that Chinese consular officials had requested a meeting with the city employee responsible for the Vancouver theatre where dance group Shen Yun was scheduled to perform.
Sources told Global News the diplomats wanted the employee to cancel the show. Beijing has long targeted Shen Yun because of its ties to the Falun Gong movement and unflattering portrayal of Chinese communist party rule.
Responding to the report, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s office said in a May 5 statement that the meeting was “not a breach of protocol, nor was there any pressure” by consular officials to cancel the event.
“Staff discussed the meeting with Global Affairs Canada and confirmed that the meeting falls within the bounds of a normal diplomatic interaction with China,” the statement said.
But the city now says its statement was inaccurate and that Global Affairs Canada did not actually give the thumbs up to the meeting in advance, as the mayor’s office had claimed.
The performance also faced bomb threats that were traced to China, but went ahead without incident at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre April 8-12 after a police search failed to turn up explosives.
Prior to the Vancouver leg of the tour, the Canadian Opera Company cancelled Shen Yun performances in Toronto following threats to attack the venue. The performances have since been rescheduled for June.
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The apparent attempts to silence a show critical of communist party repression came as Prime Minister Mark Carney pursues a trade agreement with Beijing despite national security concerns.
Pro-democracy activists have asked the Carney government to address foreign interference with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is scheduled to arrived in Ottawa on Thursday, the first such visit in a decade.
In a letter sent to Foreign Minister Anita Anand on Tuesday, the association representing Canadian Falun Gong practitioners asked her to raise China’s attacks on Shen Yun shows with Wang.
The letter asked Anand to demand that China “cease consular pressure on Canadian officials and venues, and stop orchestrating threats targeting Shen Yun and Canadian politicians.”
It also said Anand should demand that China cooperate with Canadian police investigations into those behind bomb threats targeting venues hosting Shen Yun performances.
Additionally, Anand should affirm that Canadians have the right to attend cultural performances and practice their faith “free from foreign intimidation,” the Falun Dafa Association of Canada wrote.
“Raising these concerns directly and on the record would signal to Beijing that Canada recognizes and takes seriously foreign interference and intimidation targeting communities within Canada, and that attempts to suppress lawful cultural and religious expression through coercive means are unacceptable,” it said.
The group was to hold a press conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday to press the issue, along with the imprisonment in China of Falun Gong practitioners with family members in Canada.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported on May 1 that China remained a top perpetrator of foreign interference against Canada, along with India, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.
A report released Wednesday by the Montreal Institute for Global Security said Canada was a “significant target” of Chinese state influence operations that included meddling in elections.
The report urged G7 countries to co-ordinate their responses to the threat, which it called “a central national security challenge” to the political systems, institutions and societies of democratic countries.
“As strategic competition intensifies, authoritarian states are increasingly leveraging covert, coercive, and non-transparent tools to shape decision-making abroad,” said the report, Guarding the G7: Countering Beijing’s Influence Operations.
“The Chinese Communist Party leverages a broad ecosystem of affiliated organizations, intermediaries, and informal networks that span political, economic, academic, and societal domains to influence and interfere in G7 countries,” it said.
“These actors often operate under the guise of legitimate exchange, enabling influence to be exercised in ways that are difficult to detect, attribute or regulate.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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