Bloomberg reported on July 13 that the Canadian government recently completed a preliminary detailed investigation into the activities of Chinese police in Canada, and plans to discuss response plans with G7 members in the coming weeks.
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Suspected Chinese "secret police" stations in Western countries to monitor and intimidate Chinese nationals have become a growing problem as Canada, the United States, Italy, Germany and Britain try to figure out how to respond.
The Defenders, a human rights organization based in Madrid, Spain, published a report in 2022 stating that China operates at least 54 police stations of the same type on five continents. In April 2023, British Secretary of State for Police Philip pointed out that the British government is aware of about 100 Chinese secret police stations around the world.
The report noted that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated allegations of Chinese secret police operations within Canada, including "credible" information from Quebec, Canada's second-largest province.
Jean-Sebastien Comeau, a spokesman for Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said in a statement that "foreign interference of any kind is clearly unacceptable." "Due to Canada's ongoing investigation into foreign interference, we will not be commenting further."
Bloomberg quoted two anonymous sources as saying that the Canadian government intends to share the results of the investigation with G7 members in the coming weeks in the hope of finding a unified response plan. Among them, the UK has responded enthusiastically to the coordination and cooperation on related issues; however, since other countries have already begun to deal with related issues, considering the differences in the judicial systems among G7 countries, it may be quite complicated to coordinate a unified response plan.
Take the UK as an example. In April last year, British Minister Philip pointed out that the UK does not accept such foreign forces operating in the UK and asked the Chinese government to immediately close these police stations. Then in June of the same year, Security Minister Tugendhat pointed out that China has closed all police stations in the UK and the investigation did not find any illegal activities of China in the UK. With the new British government taking office, it may take a different approach to the issue.
Italy also began investigating after a report by the Madrid-based rights group Defenders named it as the country with the most secret police stations, while Germany said it had found two police stations in its territory, but neither has disclosed the specific results. Last year, the United States indicted two Chinese nationals for allegedly operating a secret police station in Manhattan for China's national security department.
The Chinese Embassy in Canada denied the existence of overseas secret police stations to Bloomberg, and a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa even reiterated that "China strictly adheres to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, strictly abides by international law, and respects the judicial sovereignty of all countries."
Previously, in response to the accusations, the Chinese government said that there are indeed some centers run by local volunteers who are not police officers and mainly provide document updates and other services to Chinese citizens.