The People’s Republic of China is operating 54 so-called ‘service stations’ in countries around the world, including Canada, according to a report from human rights group, Safeguard Defenders..The word from Beijing is the stations are places Chinese nationals can go to renew identification papers or drivers’ licenses..Of one station in Dublin, Ireland, the Chinese Embassy told The Irish Times “...the pandemic made international travels not easy and quite a few Chinese nationals found their Chinese ID cards and/or driver licences expired or about to expire, and yet they could not get the ID renewed back in China in time.”.Officers working at these stations keep an eye on Chinese nationals living in Canada, according to the Safeguard Defenders report. .“There are very real concerns worries they are bullying Chinese people who simply want to live freely in Canada,” it says. “These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods.”.The report adds the stations are clandestine hubs in the Chinese program of ‘involuntary return’, a system China employs to compel expats to return home for punishment in instances where they’re deemed to have violated Chinese law while abroad..In the last year alone, China has boasted that 230,000 of their nationals have been ‘persuaded to return’ on various charges..The ‘service stations’, also referred to as ‘police stations’, came under heavy scrutiny in a meeting last week of the House of Commons committee on relations between Canada and the People’s Republic of China..“The activity that’s being alleged (the police stations) would be entirely illegal, totally inappropriate and would be the subject of very serious representations,” Weldon Epp, a China lead with Global Affairs Canada, told the committee, adding it would nevertheless fit within a pattern of growing Chinese interference in Canadian affairs..The hearing heard of reports that Chinese law enforcement had opened three ‘service stations’ in the Greater Toronto Area, in areas with large Chinese-Canadian populations..The three addresses, include a private home in Markham, a convenience store in Scarborough and an address also listed as the headquarters of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association. The addresses were provided to the National Post by Safeguard Defenders..Canada has not filed a diplomatic complaint with Beijing over the stations, Epp told the committee, pending the results of an RCMP investigation to confirm the allegations within the Safeguard Defenders report..He did emphasize to the committee there is “growing evidence of foreign interference” in Canada by China..“Evidence suggests that the largest source of foreign interference in Canada by state actors is coming from (People’s Republic of China) sources,” he said, referring to the latest report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians..Epp also said that a distinct chill to his usual contacts with People’s Republic of China critics or dissident groups based in Canada has emerged recently..“It’s really only in the last couple of years that the balance of conversation has shifted to them talking about how intimidated they feel within Canada, and the growing risk they feel for raising concerns, even within Canada,” he said..Questions regarding the alleged police stations took up most of the two-hour, multi-partisan meeting, with Conservative, Liberal and NDP representatives all asking Global Affairs what risk the stations pose to Chinese-Canadian constituents..“I don’t think any of us are, to be honest, surprised,” said Heather McPherson, the NDP’s Foreign Affairs Critic. “We’ve heard for a long time about people intimidated and threatened in this country.”.Aileen Calverley, head of the group Hong Kong Watch, said calling the operations ‘service stations’ was a misnomer, because Chinese expats could just as easily seek such services at a consulate or embassy..“With the police stations, they can intimidate people like us,” she said. “I’ve been living in Canada for many decades, now I feel frightened.”.Also addressed in the committee meeting was the heightened Chinese aggression towards Taiwan, including several incidents in which Chinese warplanes buzzed Royal Canadian Navy vessels transiting the Taiwan strait..Paul Thoppil, the assistant deputy minister for Global Affairs, called it “Beijing’s embrace of the view that international rules and norms don’t apply to ‘great’ powers in their spheres of influence.”.The Safeguard Defenders report also outlines tools for ‘persuasion to return’ include denying the target’s children in China the right to education and other limitations on family members; punishing those without suspicion of any wrongdoing by guilt by association; and government documents that say relatives in China who do not help police should be investigated and punished, either by the police or the internal Party police.
