Thread by @scoopercooper

Exclusive: Major advance in our Global News PRC interference reports with ⁦@StewGlobal⁩ and myself. RCMP interference investigations are questioning community leaders in Vancouver and Toronto. They attended Friends of Wenzhou clubhouse in Richmond. globalnews.ca/news/9339767/r…

2. The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team conducted interviews at the Wenzhou Friendship Society and in the surrounding neighbourhood, in Richmond, B.C.
At least a half-dozen officers canvassed the area.

3. The Wenzhou Friendship society was registered in 2001, and is a member of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations. Its $2-million clubhouse at 4266 Hazelbridge Way was purchased in 2011. @Plan200_ca @alexjoske @LauraHarth @Peterinexile @strawbeecream @chen_yonglin

4. The Wenzhou Friendship Society has been underlying some major headline stories previously; former president PAN Miaofei found himself the subject of so-called private ‘cash-for-access’ fundraising meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where wealthy pro-Beijing biz men,

had Trudeau’s ear in the intimate setting of Pan’s Vancouver mansion, for $1500-per-person, Globe and Mail first reported. Others like @ianjamesyoung70 have looked deeper into some of the attendees at this or similar dinners in a Toronto mansion. Here we have Pan w. PMJT and;

6. Some prominent CACA and Wenzhou leaders. The CACA is an umbrella group for some 100 ‘community’ associations in Vancouver. Sources with knowledge of the INSET probe and Chinese open source records indicate CACA is an affiliate of the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

7. While Beijing was facing possible Olympic boycott pressures over the international Xinjiang genocide findings, the CACA put out a pro 2022 Olympics petition, signed by many member groups. Canadian intelligence assesses these groups as PRC proxies, but they deny undue activity.

8. The focus of police questions to Wenzhou and associated leaders on Saturday in Vancouver municipalities, was whether PRC covert security and police operations are being run from Society buildings and networks, a source close to Vancouver and Toronto probes said.

9. The police action was part of a wider probe, also underway in Toronto, into a Chinese government campaign that uses threats and coercion against community members, said a source close to the investigation @StewGlobal

10. “They came to the building and asked some questions,” said current Wenzhou director Hua Wei Su.
“I really don’t know what to say, we’re really surprised,” he said.
The director also rejected that the building was linked to alleged Chinese police stations operating in Canada.

11. Central to these investigations by the RCMP is Xi Jinping’s United Front Work Department. I reported in early November that Canadian intelligence officials reported in January 2022 that PRC interference in Canada escalated in 2015, as Xi increased UF global operations.

12. Looking at UFWD has been mostly a CSIS file for a long time. But developments this weekend show the RCMP, the enforcement arm, is now very actively targeting PRC interference from alleged United Front ‘community’ groups. This is a big change in Canadian #natsec stance.

13. In recent weeks, the RCMP has acknowledged it was investigating allegations that China operates “police service stations” in the Toronto area that engage in threats, extortion and intimidation.

14. While Fox Hunt operations have been known to CSIS and RCMP investigators for years with little or no attention to the problems, RCMP appears to be advertising to suspects and victims that overt investigations into PRC threat networks are now the new normal.

15. I reported previously that Canadian police and intelligence understands China’s national security and intelligence arm, the Ministry of Public Security, views Canada as an easy operating environment. The concern is that Fox Hunt ‘stations’ and the range of actors connected

16. Are really set up to enforce fear of the CCP into diaspora communities, and while economic fugitives may be targets, it is really about extraterritorial CCP repression, as CSIS commented to me, in a fulsome statement.

17. In 2018, the Wenzhou Society also faced allegations of vote-buying in three B.C. municipal elections. But the RCMP said it was unable to substantiate allegations the society used WeChat messages that appeared to offer money to voters in Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby.

18. In my opinion it is significant that the Wenzhou Society faced a @RichmondRCMP ‘vote-buying’ investigation in BC’s 2018 municipal elections. Nothing came of the probe, but the alleged use of WeChat channels in vote influence operations is a pattern my police and intelligence

19. Sources are investigating with regards to PRC election interference and manipulation of media for PRC interference objectives.

20. @bobmackin also reported of Wenzhou campaign donations meeting attended by then ex president Pan Miaofei in 2018. One of the recipients, Mackin reported, was Richmond mayor candidate Hong GUO, a controversial lawyer that I found later, as @CullenInquiryBC exhibits showed,

21. Was involved with her client Paul King JIN, in significant alleged casino-money laundering and loan enforcement extortion dealings, through her Richmond law office. JIN was the focus of RCMP’s massive E-Pirate transnational money laundering probe. Charges on JIN were

22. Stayed in that case. Hong Guo denied any wrongdoing but continues to face BC Law Society investigations with regards to her trust account and a case with connections to BC Lottery Corp. casino money laundering investigations involving Guo’s former employee.

22. More to come, to summarize, the national security investigations currently are focused on Wenzhou Society in Richmond and associated leaders and the Fox Hunt allegations across Vancouver and Toronto. But RCMP investigators are also looking at United Front interference broadly

23. No charges have been recommended in this active FI investigation. For background on PRC Consulate networks allegedly involved in FI, surveillance, monitoring of community members see this previous @StewGlobal scoop we worked on. globalnews.ca/news/8537707/c…

24. Even as RCMP investigates FI, Canada lacks clearly defined and powerful modern counter-espionage and interference laws, and cooperation between CSIS-RCMP. First step Remedy is a no brainer for almost everyone in #natsec US expert @20committee explains

https://twitter.com/20committee/status/1602040109280509956?s=46&t=Zqy5roHBOqJPRaOVkkLcqQ

https://twitter.com/20committee/status/1602040109280509956