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China poses serious threat to Canada’s security, says Canadian spy agency chief
Canada and China have not been on the best of terms in recent years, especially since the arrest of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018
The head of the Canadian spy agency has publicly accused China of “pursuing a strategy for geopolitical advantage on all fronts” that poses a “direct threat” to Canada’s “national security and sovereignty”.
“It is no secret that we are most concerned about the actions by the governments of countries like Russia and China,” said David Vigneault, director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
Vigneault made these remarks during a speech to the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The text of the speech was also released by the Canadian government.
Canada and China have not been on the best of terms in recent years, especially since the arrest of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018.
While Vigneault did say that China was an important global actor and a partner for Canada on some important fronts, he outlined the cause for concern, stressing, “To be clear, the threat does not come from the Chinese people, but rather the government of China that is pursuing a strategy for geopolitical advantage on all fronts - economic, technological, political, and military - and using all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty. We all must strengthen our defences.”
He said Beijing’s Operation Fox Hunt “claims to target corruption but is also believed to have been used to target and quiet dissidents to the regime”.
Vigneault went on to add that “these activities are different from the norms of diplomatic activity because they cross the line by attempting to undermine our democratic processes or threaten our citizens in a covert and clandestine manner”.
The CSIS chief also said that hostile state actors seek to leverage all elements of state power to advance their interests, and “this has accelerated” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that while traditionally spies worked to gather Canada’s military, diplomatic and political secrets, “adversaries are more focused on intellectual property and advanced research”.
