A recent study has found that despite similar intelligence reports about China’s interference in all levels of government in Canada and Australia, Canberra took effective measures to push back while Canadian political leaders failed to act, allowing Chinese interference to grow. The study, titled “TikTok, ByteDance, and their ties to the Chinese Communist Party,” was submitted to the Australian parliament’s Select Committee on Foreign Interference Through Social Media, which was created in November 2022 by the Australian Senate to inquire into and report on the risk of foreign interference towards the country’s democracy through social media. The report highlighted concerns among the Five Eyes alliance about China’s “data cultivation, influence, and political interference activities” and warned about Chinese Leader Xi Jinping and the PLA’s increased discussions about the use of social media platforms like TikTok to advance China’s interests abroad. The authors of the study confirmed that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is “subject to all the influence, guidance, and de facto control” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—similar to all other technology companies in China. This has led several countries, including Canada, to ban TikTok from government devices. The study also touched on reports of Beijing’s interference in Canada’s elections, citing several news reports and leaks from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that showed how the Chinese regime sought to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, and the 2022 municipal election in Vancouver. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to appoint an “independent special rapporteur” to investigate these reports, but the damage to Canadian democracy has already been done, the study said.
Canada’s leaders failed to address CCP interference, report says, compared to Australia.
