RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-spies-western-governments-united-kingdom-76c0c9b3?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The United Kingdom this week has been roiled by alleged Chinese attempts to subvert the Parliament, including a report that a parliamentary staffer was arrested in March on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Such attempts to surveil and, worse, subvert democracies appear to have become standard practice for the Communist Party. Lawmakers the world over are on notice.

The staffer, whose arrest was first reported by the Times of London, ran an internal think-tank on behalf of a group of China-hawk lawmakers. This would have brought him into contact with senior members of Parliament, a variety of policy experts and activists, and journalists covering Sino-U.K. relations. The staffer said in a statement issued by his lawyer that he is “completely innocent” of the allegations.

Speaker of the Commons Lindsay Hoyle told lawmakers that the staffer’s arrest had been disclosed to senior officials around the time it happened in the spring. But backbenchers and the general public are right to ask whether keeping a lid on the story deprived them of opportunities to hold Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration accountable for its handling of this case and its China policy.

This week brought a separate report that MI5, the British domestic security service, advised the Conservative Party’s central headquarters to prevent two individuals from running for Parliament as the party was preparing candidate lists in 2021 and 2022, the Times reports. The individuals allegedly had links to Beijing’s United Front Work Department, a Communist Party organ engaged in influence operations abroad.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19960/china-taking-over-europe

Europe is in “complete denial” as China proceeds to spread its influence on the continent. At least that is the urgent, unequivocal view of Ivana Karásková, a Czech foreign influence specialist and a special adviser to European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová.

“Asked what parts of the Continent were most in the dark about Chinese influence, she added: ‘The whole of Western Europe is not looking. And yet there are cases that are so blatant.'”

In July 2023, the UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament released a comprehensive report on China’s threat to the country, and how the Communist power seeks both political and economic influence.

The Committee found that China had “successfully penetrate[d] every sector of the UK’s economy,” and that “the Government has been so keen to take Chinese money that it has not been watching China’s sleight of hand.”

“China sees almost all of its global activity in the context of what it sees as the struggle between the United States and China, and therefore it sees the United Kingdom fundamentally through that optic. China aspires to split off from the United States countries which it thinks might be detachable, and they sometimes have a sunnily optimistic view about which countries might be susceptible to that treatment. I would say that that was their single biggest issue with the United Kingdom.” — Sir Julian Lewis, Chairman of the UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, July 13,2023.

China’s influence in the UK… reaches deep into the government, as well. Despite all of the above “the Government does not want there to be any meaningful scrutiny of sensitive investment deals” with China according to the report.

Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office reportedly told UK government officials not to use the term “hostile state” about China in order not to offend the Communist country. The term, the Foreign Office said, should not be used in documents and internal messages via email and WhatsApp between advisers, civil servants and ministers.

“[T]he PRC’s influence is significantly higher in Germany than comparable European countries.” — The China Index 2022, an independent organization that tracks Chinese influence worldwide.

“A key concern is the high level of uncritical research cooperation between Germany and China, including in sensitive technological and military areas, which is one of the highest and among the most ‘captured’ globally… Huawei, BGI, ZTE, Hisilicon (Huawei-owned) and other Chinese companies collaborate with and fund projects at German universities and research institutions. Huawei alone has entered into at least 120 cooperation projects over the last 15 years, with annual budgets between 25,000-290,000 euros per project. The real number is unclear, as German universities sometimes cite their ‘academic freedom’ to refuse to answer freedom of information questions….” — The China Index 2022.

There are “90 Chinese groups in Germany with direct ties to the United Front bureaucracy in China…. Add on about 80 Chinese Student and Scholar Associations, more than 20 Confucius Institutes and classrooms, a dozen united front-aligned, Chinese-language media…an as yet unknown number of “Chinese Aid Centers”… and the phenomenon is both large and complex. There are hundreds of groups working in Germany to maintain the CCP’s ideology, values, language and goals…. from the grassroots to the elite. Europe-wide, these groups are embedded throughout civil society…and likely number over a thousand, since they are present… in every country.” — Didi Kirsten Tatlow, China expert, synopsis.cz, February 10, 2019.

“The decision to join the Silk Road [Belt and Road Initiative] was an improvised and atrocious act,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said recently.

“The Chinese Communist Party has always forged links with politicians from countries whose positions…they wished to influence.” — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, “Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment,” October 2021.

“The CCP also seems very active within the Italian political class, targeting the M5S [Five Star Movement] in particular.” — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, “Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment,” October 2021.

“In France, as much as anywhere else, the Party has forged strong relationships with individuals enabling China to infiltrate the political sphere, defend its interests and silence critical voices…. Beyond individuals punctually and diversely recruited by the Party, the construction of a Chinese network within the French elite runs through the France-China Foundation since 2013.” — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, “Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment,” October 2021.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19961/china-ceo-whisperers-chinese-communist-party

“I was pretty dismayed at the extent of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the federal Parliament. I should probably not say any more to stay on the right side of the libel laws… [W]hat are the authorities doing about this? I think that’s the real measure of China’s influence.” — Australian professor Clive Hamilton, National Post, April 15, 2019.

Despite leaked intelligence reports about Chinese interference in Canada’s last two federal elections in 2019 and 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has refused to hold a public probe into the matter.

[T]he passivity of Trudeau’s Liberal Party is “permitting China to colonize Canada.” — Tasha Kheiriddin, Canadian political columnist, National Post, August 22, 2023.

“On housing: Chinese money laundering inflated Canadian property values for decades and helped push home ownership out of reach for today’s buyers. On drug addiction: China is the main source country of fentanyl found in Canada, paving the way for thousands of overdose deaths. On the economy: China has targeted a host of Canadian industries for control, from lobsters to lithium.” — Tasha Kheiriddin, National Post, August 22, 2023.

“The CCP’s basic strategy of overseas influence and interference is to capture elites in politics, business, media, think tanks, universities, and cultural institutions…It deploys a range of techniques including flattery, financial inducement, exploitation of anti-racist and anti-American sentiment, bribery, and honey traps… Key figures in the Liberal Party have long historical ties to the CCP, not least through business connections…” — Clive Hamilton, thehub.ca, June 2, 2023.

“I’ve often said that Chinese leaders are what I call CEO whisperers, they’re very, very skillful when meeting foreigners, particularly senior foreigners. China inspires a kind of excessive affection in people and an excessive sense of wonder and a desire not to apply the usual sort of critical thinking skills, and people are seduced by it.” — Former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney, thehub.ca, June 2, 2023.

China has reportedly openly been trying to influence [Canadian PM] Justin Trudeau for the past ten years. One unnamed CSIS source said that the CCP had its eyes on Justin Trudeau well before he became prime minister.

Trudeau, during his first election campaign in 2016, visited the homes of “wealthy Chinese-Canadians for private fundraising events. Some of the hosts had close connections with the CCP and had been actively promoting Beijing’s takeover of islands in the South China Sea.” — Professor Clive Hamilton, in his book, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World.

The influence of the CCP is so pervasive that Canada’s minister of environment, Steven Guilbeault, at the same time as being Canadian minister, is also an “official adviser to the Chinese government.” – torontosun.com, August 16,

China…is a real threat to Canada’s sovereignty. “Recent Chinese actions and announcements are pointing to Beijing’s determination to have a military capability in the region that will exceed that of Canada.” — Rob Hueber, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary, theglobeandmail.com, August 25-27, 2023