Vancouver City Hall now says Global Affairs Canada did not approve a meeting last month between one of its employees and Chinese officials over an event presented by artists critical of Beijing.
In an unsolicited email to Global News, the city admitted that it had falsely claimed that the federal government viewed the meeting with the Chinese consulate in Vancouver as normal diplomatic interaction.
“Global Affairs Canada has not taken an official position on the meeting,” city spokeswoman Cecilia Ho said in an email sent Tuesday correcting her previous statement on the matter.
The spokesman blamed an “internal misunderstanding.”
Canada’s Department of Global Affairs did not respond to questions about the incident, which some described as an example of China’s ongoing efforts to interfere in Canada’s internal affairs.
On May 4, Global News reported that Chinese consular officials requested a meeting with the city employee in charge of the Vancouver theater where the dance troupe Shen Yun was scheduled to perform.
Sources told Global News that the diplomats wanted the employee to rescind the offer. Beijing has long targeted Xin Yun for its ties to the Falun Gong movement and its unflattering portrayal of Chinese Communist Party rule.
In response to the report, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s office said in a May 5 statement that the meeting “was not a violation of protocol, and there was no 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 normal diplomatic interaction with China,” the statement read.
But the city now says its statement was inaccurate and that Global Affairs Canada did not agree to the meeting in advance, as the mayor’s office claimed.
The show also faced bomb threats that could be traced back to China, but continued without incident at the Queen Elizabeth Theater from April 8 to 12 after a police search failed to find explosives.
Before the Vancouver leg of the tour, the Canadian Opera Company canceled Shen Yun’s performances in Toronto after threats to attack the venue. The shows 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 seeks a trade deal with Beijing despite national security concerns.
Pro-democracy activists have asked the Carney government to address foreign interference in Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is scheduled to arrive 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 followers asked her to raise China’s attacks on Chen Yun’s performances with Wang.
The letter asked Anand to demand that China “stop consular pressure on Canadian officials and locations, and stop coordinating threats targeting Shen Yun and Canadian politicians.”
She also said Anand should demand that China cooperate with Canadian police investigations into those behind bomb threats targeting venues hosting Shen Yun shows.
In addition, Anand should emphasize that Canadians have the right to attend cultural performances and practice their religion “without any foreign intimidation,” the Canadian Falun Dafa Association wrote.
She added, “Raising these concerns directly and publicly would signal to Beijing that Canada recognizes and takes seriously foreign interference and intimidation targeting communities within Canada, and that attempts to suppress legal cultural and religious expression through coercive means are unacceptable.”
The group was scheduled to hold a press conference at Parliament House on Thursday to press the issue, along with the imprisonment of Falun Gong practitioners in China along with their family members in Canada.
Shen Yun dancers pose with their tour bus.
Shenyun.org
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported on May 1 that China remains a top perpetrator of foreign interference against Canada, along with India, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.
A report issued by the Montreal Institute for Global Security on Wednesday said that Canada was a “major target” of Chinese state influence operations that included election interference.
The report urged G7 countries to coordinate their responses to the threat, which it described as a “central national security challenge” to political systems, institutions and societies in democratic countries.
“As strategic competition intensifies, authoritarian states increasingly make use of covert, coercive, and opaque tools to shape decision-making abroad,” said the report, titled Guarding the G7: Countering Beijing’s Influence Operations.
“The Chinese Communist Party benefits from a broad ecosystem of affiliated organizations, intermediaries and informal networks spanning political, economic, academic and societal spheres to influence and intervene in G7 countries,” the report said.
“These actors often operate under the guise of legitimate exchange, allowing influence to be exerted in ways that are difficult to detect, attribute, or regulate.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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