Submission to the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference Commission by Quanzhou Friendship Society of Canada

22  July, 2024

 

We, Quanzhou Friendship Society of Canada (the “QFS”), thank the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference Commission (“PIFI Commission”) to open this opportunity to the public for submissions to address their concerns about foreign interference in Canada.

Our submission tries to raise our deep concern about severe damage to the Chinese community by some irresponsible media reports which made groundless accusation of community groups like the QFS, being agents of foreign interference in Canada.

It is our intention to show our support to the PIFI Commission by providing some real examples of intended or unintended damage to the Chinese community in the name of combating China’s interference and request the PIFI Commission to consider how Canada should prevent it from happening again in the future.

  1. About the Society

Established in 2008 in Richmond B.C., the Quanzhou Friendship Society of Canada is a non-profit and non-partisan membership community organization. Our members include people, who have studied, worked and lived in Quanzhou, are currently residing in Canada. The QFS has a representative office in Quanzhou, China to facilitate services to our members.

Our main purposes include:

. Help new immigrants adapt to new environment faster by uniting and helping each other among our members.

. Safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of our members in Canada and improve the status of Chinese community by actively participating in local social affairs.

. Promote people-to-people exchanges between the people of China and Canada.

. Serve as the window of Quanzhou in Canada, as well as the links and bridges between Canada and Quanzhou.

          2. How have you been affected by foreign interference?

The QFS was named and described as an organization of Chinese Canadians “who are completing tasks for the Chinese Communist Party” in an irresponsible and false media report. This report is nothing at all but misinformation and disinformation because it defames and smears the QFS without providing reliable evidence and sources of information. The report has caused serious damage to the reputation of our organization and our members. This shows again how dangerous an abuse of combating foreign interference could bring to our society.

A former infamous journalist published such a sensational but senseless report on April 28, 2022 on the Globe News website.[1] This journalist was later fired and his name was removed from this report by the Globe News. However, the report became an unnamed ghost article, still hanging on the news agency’s website and scaring the public.

From Paragraphs 14 to 17, the journalist mentioned the QFS name and made repeated false claims about our organization. For example, the report says in the first half of paragraph 15 that “The Society, based in Richmond, says that it has hundreds of members in Vancouver who are completing tasks for the Chinese Communist Party, according to Chinese government reports.” The reporter didn’t provide a reference to such reports. It was the author who put this “task” to the QFS at his intention to smear Chinese community and our organization.

The second half of Paragraph 15 continues that “One of the reports (hyperlink broken), published in October 2020, says Quanzhou’s ‘Overseas Chinese’ members completed many ‘achievements during the pandemic’ in Canada and ‘the social influence of the association is increasing day by day’”. When pandemic hit human being globally, China was hit the first as the epicenter in early 2020. Many nations and people around world, including Canada and Canadians, were generously providing PPE support to Chinese people in preventing the spread of the COVID virus. We knew Canada would be safe if we can stop virus spreading in China. What was wrong with such achievements fighting against the pandemic? Even if the Chinese government reports exist as the journalist indicated, it is possible a courtesy from Beijing to appreciate international support including some overseas Chinese’s. It is just as the same situation when wildfire destroy thousands of homes in 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, some British Columbians around the world made donations to the Red Cross Canada. Should not a statement of appreciation from BC government or the Red Cross Canada be normal?

——Screenshot of Paragraphs 14 and 15.

 

In Paragraphs 16 and 17, this journalist quoted two statements from CISIS and CBSA reports without providing a reference, and there is no way for readers like us to verify it. When a source-less statement or its source cannot be verified by others, what is it different from the misinformation and disinformation?

Even if the sources were true, which we don’t believe so because the journalist was trained to show the evidence in reporting, the report would have to show the connection to the QFS. Grafting one twig on another is the tactics that the journalist is specializing.

——Screenshot of Paragraphs 16 and 17.

Thanks to the God, the journalist was gone, but its negative impact stays. The no-name article is hanging on the website. Our names and reputation as a normal and legitimate Chinese Canadian community organization is still suspected.

       3. What else would you like the Commission to know or consider?

 

Our organization, QFS, supports the Commission’s mandate. We understand that it is for the best interest for Canada and Canadians to fight against foreign interference from China and elsewhere.

We also understand that misinformation and disinformation used in the name of “foreign interference” could be as damage and dangerous as foreign interference does to Canadians. Our tragic experience in the above media hysteria report offers such an example.

We thank the PIFI Commission again for reading and considering our submission that we obliged and our suffering that we don’t deserve.

 

[1] Police look at organized crime connections to Vancouver double-homicide | Globalnews.ca