Another scandal between Canada and China
Canada says there is a disinformation campaign on China's WeChat targeting a member of the Canadian Parliament.
It is alleged that Michael Chong was the subject of posts containing "misleading narratives" about his background, his family's heritage, and political views on the WeChat app. Michael Chong is a Conservative Party member and politician who held ministerial positions in Stephen Harper's government.
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) said China is "highly probably" behind the campaign against Chong. This comes amid a scandal that is still fresh in the memory, involving accusations of China's interference in Canadian politics. The GAC said, however, that because of the nature of the campaign against the politician, it is difficult to unequivocally attribute the "attacks" to China.
"Unequivocal proof that China ordered and directed the operation is not possible to determine due to the covert nature of how social media networks are leveraged in this type of information campaign," Global Affairs Canada said.
China expectedly rejected accusations of spreading "misleading information" about Michael Chong.
The GAC said it discovered false information about Chong when it monitored social media and other online resources for foreign interference. They were spread by news accounts on WeChat. Global Affairs Canada concluded that the attacks were coordinated and the volume of attacks was abnormal.
According to the GAC, one-third of the accounts that amplified attacks on Michael Chong were accounts from prominent state media outlets or accounts possibly linked to the Chinese state. The rest were anonymous and had not previously made any posts about Canadian politics.
The full article is only available to members of the Immigrant.Today community. Log in to your account to read it for free.
