China urges Canada to stop smearing with surveillance claims

BEIJING – China opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Thursday, in response to a question on Chinese interference in Canadian elections. 

China has no interest in doing so and will not interfere, he added.

Beijing urged Ottawa to stop unwarranted speculation and smearing, the spokesman said in response to a question on Chinese surveillance efforts in Canada.

On Wednesday, Ottawa accused Beijing of long-running air and maritime surveillance activities.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there are systematic attempts at interference by countries like China and Russia in Canada’s elections, which have been unsuccessful so far.

His comments followed a media report saying that

China had sought to influence the outcome of the 2021 election.

Foreign interference in elections is a very serious issue and Canada must be on guard against it, Mr Trudeau said.

Already tense Sino-Canadian relations have become more strained since the

shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon

over North American airspace earlier in February and a recent Canadian media report about what it said were Beijing’s attempts to influence the last vote.

Last week, the Globe and Mail newspaper cited top-secret Canadian spy agency documents saying that Chinese diplomats and their proxies had worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered more hostile to Beijing.

The Globe said the documents showed China favoured a Trudeau re-election, albeit with a parliamentary minority, which was in fact the outcome.

“This is an extraordinarily serious issue... we are seeing systematic attempts at interference by countries like China and Russia and others who want to destabilise democracies,” Mr Trudeau told reporters in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

“Everyone should be worried about the fact that countries like China and Russia and others are continually trying to spread misinformation and disinformation, trying to interfere in our elections – unsuccessfully, so far,” he said, but cautioned against falling into “partisan traps”.

The leader of Canada’s main opposition party, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, last week accused Mr Trudeau of ignoring the Chinese interference and benefiting from it.

Mr Trudeau said: “Amplifying and giving reasons to mistrust the outcome of an election... is not a good path to go down for society or for democracy.”

He raised “serious concerns” directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2022 over Beijing’s suspected meddling in the 2019 election, which had been reported by a domestic broadcaster.

The relationship between China and Canada has been tense since the detention of China’s Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing’s subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. All three were later released but relations remain sour.

Ottawa confirmed on Wednesday it was aware of other

air and maritime surveillance attempts by China that were thwarted by the Canadian military,

after the Globe reported that Chinese floating devices were found in the Arctic in autumn.

A spokesman for Canada’s Defence Ministry declined to give details, but said the authorities were aware of Chinese surveillance attempts using dual-purpose technologies, which can have both commercial and military applications.

“The Canadian Armed Forces are fully aware of recent efforts by China to conduct surveillance operations in Canadian airspace and maritime approaches,” said the spokesman, adding that the forces had stopped attempts to surveil Canadian territory since 2022. REUTERS