The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa in a file photo. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)
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A B.C. Liberal MP who regularly attends events of groups that adopt Beijing’s language and views had opposed the creation of a foreign agent registry in Canada when he was a first-time candidate in the 2021 election.
In a Sept. 9, 2021, interview on Chinese-language YouTube channel Rise Bowl, Parm Bains, Liberal candidate for Steveston–Richmond East at the time, was asked if he would support Bill C-282, an act that aimed to make the dealings of any foreign influencers more transparent.
Specifically, the bill aimed to establish a foreign influence registry to require “individuals acting on behalf of a foreign principal to file a return when they undertake specific actions with respect to public office holders.”
Bill C-282 was a private member’s bill introduced by Conservative MP Kenny Chiu in April 2021, in the previous Parliament. At the time of Bains’s interview, Chiu was the incumbent MP for Steveston–Richmond East, whom Bains was running against. Chiu was known for his pro-Chinese democracy stance and for being an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and expressed concern at the time that he was being targeted by a disinformation campaign to turn voters against him.
Chiu’s bill didn’t list any specific countries the registry would apply to, but the host of Rise Bowl, the YouTube channel of B.C.-based Chinese-language media Rise Media, said during the interview that some believe the act would “violate the human rights” of some communities in Canada. The host—through translation by Liberal candidate Brea Huang Sami—asked Bains if he agreed.
“The simple answer is I will not support that bill. I don’t believe that I can support anything that is viewed to be discriminatory against any community,” Bains replied, as first reported by the Found in Translation website.
“If there are organizations that need to be looked at, if they’re causing problems, or it could be political views that are different or [of] harm to this country, then we look at those things through the RCMP, and we investigate, and we ban organizations,” said Bains.
“To me, it [Bill C-282] looks like a very discriminatory type of policy,” added Bains, who went on to win the seat in the 2021 election, defeating Chiu.
New Support for Registry Bill
Amid new focus on foreign interference by Beijing and other regimes in Canada, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino announced in early December 2022 that the federal government was preparing to launch a public consultation on the merits of creating a foreign agent registry.
Shortly thereafter, a survey conducted by Nanos Research between Dec. 19 and 22, 2022, showed that nearly 90 percent of Canadians are in favour of establishing such a government entity to make the growing foreign influence operations from China, Russia, and other authoritarian states more transparent.
The Epoch Times made multiple attempts to contact Bains to inquire whether he stands by his comment made as a candidate or if he would now support his government’s possible legislation to set up a foreign agent registry. However, Bains didn’t respond to emails, and calls to both his Parliament Hill and constituency offices went unanswered.
Chiu says Bains needs to substantiate his earlier claims and explain to his constituents and Canadians why he said the foreign agent registry was “discriminatory.”
Bains, Chiu says, was repeating the same “disinformation” as that spread by those who, both before and during the 2021 election, had accused Chiu of seeking to “suppress the Chinese community” through his bill. Chiu says the bill is intended to combat interference by foreign regimes and is to the benefit of Chinese-Canadians.
“It’s almost like Parm Bains was singing from the same song sheet as those who are behind the scene, trying to move the puppet strings,” Chiu told The Epoch Times.
“The problem with that is, it’s fallen into the … core of their disinformation, many of the people who are influenced by the CCP,” he said.
“The United Front Work Department’s message is to identify the motherland—the People’s Republic of China—as the spokesperson worldwide for all diaspora Chinese,” Chiu said, noting that the CCP doesn’t speak for all people of Chinese descent.
The United Front Work Department is an agency of the Chinese regime responsible for co-opting opposition inside China as well as carrying out influence activities abroad.
‘Disinformation Campaign’
Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos told the Senate on March 29, 2022, that Chiu lost his seat in the 2021 federal election “in large part because of a disinformation campaign about his bill—a disinformation campaign that was clearly linked to a foreign power.”
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedures and House Affairs, on Nov. 3, 2022, also heard testimony from DisinfoWatch that the foreign disinformation monitoring platform became aware of “Chinese state media narratives that directly targeted the Conservative Party” and the party’s then-leader, Erin O’Toole, weeks before the 2021 election.
“Simultaneously, members of the Chinese-Canadian community brought to our attention similar narratives appearing on local Canadian Chinese-language media platforms and the Chinese social media channel WeChat,” DisinfoWatch’s founder and director Marcus Kolga told the committee, adding that “WeChat is commonly regarded as a tool used by the Chinese government for surveillance and repression.”
Kolga also noted that on Sept. 9, 2021, CCP-owned tabloid Global Times published an article “attacking” the Conservative Party’s foreign policy platform. He said the article also “threatened Canadians” that if they elect a Conservative government, they should expect strong counterstrikes from China. According to the Global Times article, “Ottawa is the one to suffer.”
CCP Slogan in Election Ad
On Sept. 10, 2021, a day after Bains was interviewed by Rise Bowl and just days before the 2021 election, Rise Media published a front-page advertisement from the Liberal candidate’s campaign in the 327th edition of its magazine, Rise Weekly.
The headline of the ad reads in Chinese, “Bring new reform and opportunities to Richmond East,” while a smaller headline underneath reads, “Oppose racial discrimination, build a harmonious society.”
Creation of a “harmonious society,” or “hexie shehui” in Chinese, was introduced as a strategic goal of the CCP in 2004 by then-Chinese leader Hu Jintao in response to growing social discontent. Hu, in power from 2002 to 2012, instructed China’s leading officials and Party cadres to place “building a harmonious society” at the top of their agenda.
The concept was described as a desired state of social harmony and stability where all groups and classes worked together to resolve “contradictions” and uncertainties such as problems related to income gaps, agriculture, and the social security system, according to the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, internet censorship remained a key method for “guiding public opinion” in order to maintain the regime’s stability and develop a “harmonious society.” Chinese netizens in time created the euphemism “river crab”—whose Chinese translation “hexie” has the same pronunciation as the word “harmonious” in Chinese—to refer to the so-called harmony resulting from netizens having their posts or comments deleted if deemed to be not harmonious.
Event Participation
After being elected MP, Bains remains a consistent attendee of events involving the Vancouver Chinese Consulate and other groups that frequently take positions aligned with those of Beijing on various issues.
On Sept. 16, 2022, Bains attended a Chinese cultural event where the Vancouver Chinese Consulate’s acting consul general Wang Chengjun was invited to give a speech.
On Nov. 22, 2022, Bains and Yang Shu, the Chinese consul general in Vancouver, both attended the inauguration ceremony of the ninth executive board of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations (CACA), reported Dawa News, a Vancouver-based Chinese-language media outlet. Bains said at the event that he knew many of CACA’s members and expressed his gratitude to the organization for supporting him, the report said.
CACA was among nearly 90 Canada-based Chinese organizations that signed a letter in August 2022 condemning U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan while voicing support for a CCP white paper prompted by Pelosi’s trip. The letter, published on Dawa News on Aug. 16, reiterated Beijing’s determination to “reunify” with Taiwan.
At a Sept. 10, 2022, event in Richmond, B.C., Bains’s assistant presented an award to organizer Maria Xu, Chinese name Xu Ling, who at the event unveiled a new Chinese library in Vancouver. Referred to as a “book drifting station,” the library is part of a China-based project whose founder had said aims to “spread the voice” of the CCP. “Drifting” refers to the books having first been collected in China before being sent to other parts of the world.
The new library is part of a project spearheaded by the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library, based in Nantong City in China’s Jiangsu Province. The Nantong library’s online catalogue shows its top category as being “Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory.”
Xu Ling is a well-known figure in the B.C. Chinese community. She is indicated as a director of the United Global Chinese Women’s Association of Canada (CWACA), a federally incorporated not-for-profit listed in the Corporations Canada database. According to a Sept. 11, 2022, article by Chinese-language media outlet Lahoo.ca, Xu is president of the CWACA as well as president of the Canada Jiangsu Overseas Federation Society (CJOFS).
CACA also lists a Xu Ling as one of its honorary chairpersons in both its seventh and ninth executive boards, and as one of its executive vice chairs in its eight executive board. The Epoch Times previously made several attempts to contact Xu for comment but never heard back.
At the Sept. 10, 2022, library unveiling, Xu signed contracts with 11 Chinese-language schools and four education institutions in B.C. to create more book drifting stations, according to several Canada-based Chinese media outlets. The event was co-hosted by the CWACA, the CJOFS, and the Universal Chinese Education League.
Bains also attended a CWACA award ceremony in Vancouver on Nov. 25 that celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of the organization, reported Dawa News.