The volunteer group was ostensibly created to assist Chinese nationals who run into legal trouble or physical danger in Canada

VANCOUVER — A recent decision by the consulate-general of the People’s Republic of China to form a corps of citizen volunteers in this city is raising concerns about improper foreign interference in Canadian affairs.

The volunteer group, whose recruits include some prominent Chinese-Canadian community leaders, was ostensibly created to assist Chinese nationals who run into legal trouble or physical danger in Canada. Being a consular volunteer is an “honour and a responsibility” and in keeping with the “watchful solidarity of the Chinese people,” says a recent posting on the consulate’s website.

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But some China watchers are suspicious of the initiative.

“I believe that there’s more to the consulate’s efforts than simply training consular volunteers, and that they may be looking to enlist Chinese citizens, and even Canadians, to promote the Communist Party’s political agenda,” said David Mulroney, Canada’s former ambassador to China and a senior fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

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The National Post invited Chinese consular officials to explain the role of the volunteer corps and to respond to critics’ concerns. In an email, they replied: “Please refer to our official website.”

On Dec. 11, the consulate posted on the Chinese-language version of its homepage a link to an article about a training symposium that had been held earlier in the month for volunteer recruits. The article is accompanied by a picture of more than two dozen people holding their certifications.

Defending the safety and legal rights of overseas Chinese citizens “is an important duty of the Vancouver consulate and a responsibility the consul general cannot shirk,” the article stated.

They could easily become foreign agents, and their given tasks may interfere with Canada’s internal matters,

“Greater Vancouver has many Chinese emigrants, exchange students and tourists, and incidents of injury, illness, disappearance, detention, fraud, and so forth involving Chinese citizens remain frequent. In order to adapt to a new era, and new higher expectations of excellence in overseas public service and effectiveness in overseas legal defence, it is necessary to innovate new approaches and elevate the effectiveness of consular protection.”

The article does not go into detail about how the citizen volunteers were chosen or what kinds of assistance they would provide, describing their roles vaguely as “creating a project of overseas people’s welfare“ and “constructing a system for overseas Chinese peace.”

“The volunteer mechanism is fully making use of the advantages of the emigrant community, developing working synergy, and helping the consulate to provide good consular services, giving overseas Chinese emigrants and Chinese citizens a feeling of safety and benefit,” the article states.

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In addition to “carefully paying attention to the safety situation of their home area” and “strengthening communication with the consulate,” the volunteers are expected to also be “excellent representatives of overseas Chinese people and encouragers of friendship between the Canadian and Chinese peoples.”

It is unclear what triggered the creation of the volunteer corps. But its existence comes one year after the high-profile detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is being sought for extradition to the U.S. on fraud charges, and amid Sino-Canadian political tensions.

The China Daily, an English-language newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, published an article in late 2016 announcing the launch of “consular liaison volunteers” who would serve Chinese embassies and consulates. The article cited “an increasing number of Chinese people travelling around the world for business or tourism” who “encounter problems as they go.”

It noted that 27 Chinese residents from around the world had arrived in Beijing for an 11-day training program.

Photo by Consulate of China

Experts said there may be occasions when Canadian consulates abroad enlist the help of Canadian residents to assist in emergencies or special events. But the creation of a standing group of volunteers, as in the case of the Chinese consulate, is something different.

“I have never heard of such an arrangement by any other nations,” said Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, who previously worked as a counsellor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing. “Of course most embassies and consulates would have locally engaged staff to assist their diplomats with this kind of thing.”

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The creation of a volunteers corps does, however, “fit into the official Chinese Communist Party rhetoric that Canada is a hostile and dangerous place for ethnic Chinese so they should identify with and seek the protection of the PRC authorities,” Burton said.

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said China has always shown an interest in the Chinese diaspora and where the government wishes to keep in touch with PRC nationals, that is allowed within Canada, as long as there is no coercion or improper pressure.

But where it becomes problematic is if there are efforts to rally Canadians of Chinese origin to support particular PRC policy positions.

“In short, contact with Chinese nationals in Canada is one thing. But where China might be engaged in efforts to shape the views of the broad Chinese-Canadian community or to push a particular point of view, that is another matter,” Houlden said.

It is true that Canadian missions abroad try to influence public views towards Canada, he said. “But if the point of the campaign is rather focused on loyalty to a foreign state that is quite distinct.”

Where China might be engaged in efforts to shape the views of the broad Chinese-Canadian community or to push a particular point of view, that is another matter

Among the volunteer recruits pictured on the Chinese consulate’s website are Hilbert Yiu and James Chu, the current and former presidents of the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver, an umbrella group for more than 100 Chinese associations.

The association made headlines earlier this year when it took out large ads in Chinese-language newspapers that denounced protesters in Hong Kong as “radicals” and appeared to support the Chinese Communist Party’s position on a proposed extradition bill between China and Hong Kong. (The association said the ads were not intended to promote the Chinese government’s point of view but to support “peace in Hong Kong.”)

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In a voicemail, Yiu said he was recovering from surgery and didn’t have time to chat. Jun Ing, the benevolent association’s vice-president, said he was not aware of Yiu’s involvement in the volunteer group and said he would reserve comment until he knew more details. Chu did not respond to requests for comment sent through two of the association’s members.

Another person who appears in the group picture is Harris Niu, president of the Canadian Community Service Association and a member of B.C. Premier John Horgan’s Chinese-Canadian Community Advisory Committee. Niu was said to be out of town and did not respond to an email.

Ivy Li, a member of the pro-democracy group Canadian Friends of Hong Kong, said the formation of the volunteer corps is alarming and could be a strategic way for the Chinese Communist Party to counter future anti-foreign interference legislation and to get more people to defend CCP interests.

“When Canadian community groups and citizens are being recruited, trained and given tasks by the Chinese consulate, they are working on behalf of the Chinese government. They could easily become foreign agents, and their given tasks may interfere with Canada’s internal matters,” she said.

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“It is very important for our government, our media and Canadian citizens to understand the potential serious consequence of this strategic move of the CCP.”

The sheer numbers of Chinese citizens who are travelling abroad are likely taxing the resources of Chinese diplomatic posts, Mulroney said. But the creation of a volunteer corps is linked to a second reality: the Chinese government is “something of a nanny state, endlessly preaching to and hovering over its citizens and assuming they will not be able to navigate a largely unfriendly and hostile world on their own.”

In Mulroney’s opinion, approaching Canadian citizens of Chinese ethnicity is “offensive and seriously divisive, and constitutes interference in Canadian affairs.”

Furthermore, “politically motivated outreach to Chinese citizens who are living short-term or studying in Canada is also questionable, especially if it encourages them to act against the interests or policies of their host country, Canada.”

Mulroney wondered if the Chinese consulate had consulted with Global Affairs Canada about “an activity that appears to involve recruiting people in Canada to work for a foreign state.”

Asked if the government had any comment about the volunteer corps, a spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada said: “We invite you to contact the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Canada for this request.”

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa referred questions back to the consulate in Vancouver.

With files from Postmedia News and translation assistance from Niko Bell