The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) investigation shows that at least 15 Canadian scholars participated in Beijing’s “Thousand Talents Program.” They included experts in quantum computing, electronic engineering, vaccines, chemistry and artificial intelligence.

Professor Margaret McCuaig-Johnston of the University of Ottawa believes that this number is substantially underestimated. She said that all major Canadian universities have many research projects in which they are collaborating with China, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum optics. These are areas of great interest to the Chinese military. China will pass the Canadian academic research results to the military whether in the open or privately through these collaborating scholars.

Gu Ming (a pseudonym), who once served for years as a senior executive in the Canada-China Society of Science and Technology (CCSST), told Radio Free Asia that more than two decades ago, the Chinese government established overseas bases and deployed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations to learn or steal Western technology. There are CCP branches in well-known Canadian universities such as the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. CCSST is one of the liaison organizations. “These people (in CCSST) are here to do research and study for a Ph.D. They were paid by the state, and there are CCP branches there. China uses these associations to contact foreign research institutions and senior research scholars. Then they either invite the scientific and technologically talented to do research in China or they buy the scholar’s knowledge. If they can’t buy the knowledge they need, they try to steal it. To put it bluntly, China started employing this strategy more than 20 years ago.”

The Canadian authorities are well aware of the situation. For example, the Conference Board of Canada published a report in 2016, claiming that the “Thousand Talents Program” provides salary, research funding and other incentives to participants, who the carry out research and other activities in Chinese and overseas universities. In recent years, after discovering evidence of technology transfers, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has discussed (this issue) with universities and other research institutions, expressing its concerns about the “Thousand Talents Program” and other foreign recruitment plans.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 21, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/lf-09212020161552.html

Caroline Wilson, the newly appointed British ambassador to China, will take office this month. Before leaving for Beijing, the senior diplomat posted a photo on her Twitter account. In the photo, she and the Chinese ambassador to the UK held a book that glorifies the head of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. The tweet raised questions about whether she could promote and safeguard British values and interests.

Wilson said on her twitter account: “Valuable meeting with @AmbLiuXiaoMing before heading to Beijing. We can and must work for ambitious UK-China collaboration, on climate, health, trade, and also engaging on trickier topics too. I look forward to supporting a mature, positive UK-China relationship, in line with UK values.” The book The Governance of China, which Xi Jinping authored, presents the official party line for the Chinese government.

Wilson’s tweet and photo soon attracted hundreds of comments. Only a few comments praised her as “the best candidate for this absolutely critical position.” The vast majority of netizens believed that this tweet was extremely untimely.

“UK values in this particular book? Good luck …”

“Ah, the little book of Chairman Xi. Just the perfect analogy to the little red book of Chairman Mao.”

“Some individuals still don’t understand the CCP; good luck trusting the CCP.”

“British values and Xi Jing Ping Thought. Round peg in a square hole.”

“Hardly imagine this can happen to the new ambassador when the whole world is condemning #CCP for its move in suppressing human rights in #HongKong and #Xinjiang. #TakeDownTheCCP”

“Why not change with George Orwell’s “1984” with it? it’s a completely forbidden No entry sign in mainland china now.”

Nathan Law, one of the student leaders during the 79-day Umbrella Movement in 2014 in Hong Kong, now living in London following the National Security Law that Beijing enacted, commented, “This looks terrible. Accepting ‘Xi’s speech’ from this awful ambassador — I see it as an insult to the democratic values that we all share. Stop helping the CCP to spread its propaganda and infiltrate the democracies. This is an extremely bad move from the new British Ambassador.”

Roger Garside, a former British diplomat and author of Coming Alive: China After Mao“ said, “As a former British diplomat myself, who served twice in Beijing, I am appalled by this behavior of our Ambassador-designate to the PRC… It goes beyond anything I have witnessed from a British diplomat.”

Garside summed up the reaction to Wilson’s tweet as a “stream of well-deserved outrage.”

Source: Voice of America, September 18, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/uk-ambassador-china-stirs-uproar-photo-promoting-xi-jinping-20200918/5589689.html

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, François-Philippe Champagne, commented in an interview with the Globe and Mail on Canada’s Free Trade Agreement with China. He concluded that there is no value in continuing the negotiation and so Canada has given up on the process. The negotiation started four years ago when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited China. Champagne expressed the belief that the current political conditions are not suitable for further discussions. Prime Minister Trudeau has been under heavy domestic criticism for giving up too many of Canada’s principles in exchange for China’s business opportunities. Earlier, Champagne described China’s style of pushing foreign relationships as “arbitrary” and “coercive.” (Editor’s note: Sina’s report did not mention that, in the same interview with the Globe and Mail, Champagne stated Canada’s first priority is to bring home Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. In in June, in retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese Communists charged the two Michaels with espionage.)

Source: Sina, September 19, 2020
https://news.sina.cn/2020-09-19/detail-iivhvpwy7616303.d.html