Chinese Media in Canada Amplifies Divisions and Beijing’s Narratives, Commission Hears
Beijing aims to amplify conflicts in Canada including troubled history on Indigenous issues according to FIC testimony
OTTAWA, Canada — Beijing's takeover of Chinese-language media in Canada began with Ottawa's multicultural broadcasting policies of the 1980s and became strikingly apparent during the Tiananmen Square massacre, when agents of the Chinese Consulate visited community broadcasters to ensure it wasn't reported that students had died, the Hogue Commission heard Tuesday.
Former senior editor Victor Ho and veteran broadcaster Ronald Leung testified that Beijing’s near-total control over Chinese-language traditional and social media platforms is accelerating the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) election interference and diaspora repression campaigns on Canadian soil.
Furthermore, they warned that the CCP's media operations in Canada are advancing into a form of cognitive warfare, seeking to sow division among Canadians over sensitive topics such as the nation's troubled history with Indigenous residential schools.
“We are losing the information war, and urgent steps are needed to counter it,” Leung said.
The veteran journalists described how the CCP’s influence over Chinese-language media in Canada has evolved into a highly organized and effective propaganda network. This influence, they argued, is exerted through Beijing's leverage over media owners who live in Canada but have significant financial interests in China.
The control is deepened through the embedding of "pro-CCP" personnel in Canada-based media, the establishment of Chinese proxy stations, and the influence exerted over editors through advertising revenue and direct pressure from Chinese Consulate agents, who continuously lobby to ensure that news coverage aligns with Beijing’s interests.
"They will not broadcast anything that opposes the bosses’ investments in mainland China," Ho testified. "That is the highest level of control." He added that few, if any, Chinese-Canadian journalists are willing to “cross red lines” or discuss sensitive topics explicitly forbidden by the CCP, including democracy, the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, Taiwan’s sovereignty, and the persecution of Uyghurs.
In his own case, Ho said that after decades of strong criticism against Beijing’s authoritarianism, as of August 2022, he can no longer return to Hong Kong without facing arrest. "I would be arrested because I have been confronting CCP proxies since my college days," he stated.
"Advertising is the most important weapon"
Ho provided personal insight into these mechanisms of control, recounting his time as editor-in-chief at Sing Tao’s Vancouver office. He explained how media ownership with ties to Hong Kong and China influenced editorial decisions in his publication, even though Sing Tao was technically owned by the Toronto Star.
"My boss, who was based in Toronto, would sometimes call and ask why I had chosen a certain headline," Ho said. He noted that his boss had direct ties to a Hong Kong-based media company with substantial commercial interests in mainland China.