CCP Media Control and Election Interference Drive Canada’s Largest Global Surge in Dependence on Beijing

Domestic politics influence jumped 54.6 percent as intelligence confirmed PRC meddling in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections, while a media score of 90.9 percent drives Beijing narrative controls.

OTTAWA — A measure of Beijing’s political influence surged more than 50 percent in Canada over the past two years, an international study finds, after media reports of China’s clandestine election interference were confirmed in public reviews. The China Index 2024, produced by Taiwan’s Doublethink Lab and its global research partners, shows that Beijing’s presence in Canadian politics, academia, media, and society is advancing at a faster pace than almost anywhere else in the democratic world.

The Bureau reported yesterday on the global results of the survey, which maps PRC influence across 101 countries. Specific data on Canada’s vulnerabilities to Chinese Communist Party interference, released to The Bureau, reveals that Ottawa is not only confronting evidence of interference in its federal elections but is now ranked 19th overall — one of the steepest increases worldwide.

The most alarming takeaway is that China’s increasing grip on Canadian institutions is driving dependence — a factor that could pull Canadian decision makers closer into Beijing’s orbit on economic, security, and social policies.

As Doublethink Lab’s research note explains, the “Dependence Cluster increased by +22.7 points, the largest rise among all measured countries, driven primarily by growing exposure in Technology and Domestic Politics.”

Between 2022 and 2024, Canada’s overall influence score climbed from 137 out of 396 possible points to 192, the largest increase in North America.

The results reflect a “triple movement” in Canada’s relationship with Beijing: greater exposure through academic, media, and technology ties; sustained pressure through China’s diplomacy and retaliation; and rising alignment in the two nations’ policy positions.

“Canada experienced rising exposure and alignment with the PRC alongside sustained high levels of coercive pressure,” the report says, “highlighting a complex mix of engagement and influence dynamics.”

The sharpest spike came in domestic politics, which jumped by 54.6 percent. The shift mirrors the timeline of intelligence disclosures and parliamentary hearings confirming that Chinese state actors interfered in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. “Canada’s spies found China ‘clandestinely and deceptively’ interfered in the last two federal elections,” one public report cited in the study notes put it.

Among the nine domains of influence, media is especially striking: Canada scored 90.9 percent, compared to a global index average of just 31.3. Domestic politics, where election interference revelations drove scores sharply upward, is now measured at 77.3 percent in Canada, compared to a global index average of 34.3. Society also ranks high, at 75 percent, more than double the global average of 35.8.

At the cluster level — a combined measure of influence across national domains — Canada ranks second globally in the Ideology cluster, which captures PRC influence in academia, media, and society.

This confirms a longstanding pattern documented by The Bureau: pro-Beijing Chinese-language outlets in Canada continue to echo Beijing’s lines on Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang. Diaspora-linked cultural organizations, often connected to PRC diplomats or United Front groups, are also highly active. The Index notes that between 2022 and 2024, diaspora cultural events tied to PRC entities nearly doubled worldwide, rising from 38 percent of countries surveyed to 72 percent. Canada is among the cases where these events are expanding and carry political overtones.

Unlike the United States — which has unsealed a number of indictments targeting clandestine United Front groups, including the case against Linda Sun, a senior aide to Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo, accused of influencing New York state policy against Taiwan while laundering secret payoffs from Beijing — Canada has prosecuted no Chinese influence cases, although community group leaders in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal have been investigated in relation to so-called Chinese Communist Party police stations.

Beijing’s penetration of Canadian technology sectors, from consumer electronics to PRC-linked equipment in infrastructure, remains high. Globally, PRC-linked technology is now embedded in 78.8 percent of critical infrastructure sectors, up from 65.4 percent in 2022, and Canada is part of that trend.

The Economic domain, by contrast, declined slightly for Canada between 2022 and 2024. This may reflect Ottawa’s incremental steps to tighten foreign investment reviews and limit acquisitions in sensitive sectors. Still, the decline in the economic category did not offset the steep rise in politics and technology, which now dominate Canada’s dependence profile.

Perhaps most striking are the shifts across the three layers of influence:

• Exposure rose from 39 to 47 percent, moving Canada up to 28th globally.

• Pressure climbed from 54 to 70 percent, placing Canada 5th worldwide for intensity of PRC coercive actions. This category includes diplomatic retaliation, public denunciations, and what Canada has directly experienced as hostage diplomacy.

• Alignment leapt from 15 to 43 percent, shifting Canada from 66th place in 2022 to 34th in 2024. In other words, Canada now accommodates Beijing’s positions more often than before — even as public inquiries highlight the risks.