Canadian Press: Beijing keeps tabs on Chinese Canadians: report

July 1, 2005

OTTAWA - Beijing cultivates informants in the Canadian Chinese community and gathers intelligence on key economic sectors, including the biopharmaceutical industry, says a security official who defected from China.

Guangsheng Han [...], 52, served 14 years with the Public Security Bureau in Shenyang, a major centre in Liaonang province in northeastern China, and another five with the city's Judicial Bureau.

He gradually became disillusioned with the justice establishment's crackdown on dissenters and the harsh policies toward some prisoners.

In his first media interview since defecting during a September 2001 visit to Toronto, Han spoke of inmates receiving electric shocks, facing detention for years and, in some cases, being beaten to death.

"The ill-treatment of prisoners happens quite frequently," he said. "Whoever Public Security wants to arrest will be arrested."

[...]

Han promptly resigned from his job upon arriving in Canada but, fearing retribution, waited more than a year before seeking refugee status.

At the Judicial Bureau, Han supervised several labour camps and prisons in Shenyang.

The federal Immigration and Refugee Board recently turned down his asylum claim, saying he was a willing accomplice in crimes against humanity.

Han, who believes he will be imprisoned or executed if sent back to China, is taking steps to appeal the decision in Federal Court of Canada.

"There was no evidence before the tribunal indicating that I had been personally involved in the alleged crimes against humanity," he said in an affidavit filed with the court.

Han decided to speak out in an interview with The Canadian Press and the Epoch Times newspaper, which publishes in several countries, to help muster public support and to warn Canadians about Beijing's alleged tactics.

He echoed accusations from some in the Chinese-Canadian community, particularly practitioners of Falun Gong, that Beijing's officials continue to meddle in their affairs.

"They're interested in what happens in the ethnic Chinese community in Canada, and pay a lot of attention to this," Han said.

"The diplomatic missions will cultivate many informants to keep watch on what goes on in the Chinese community in Canada."

Han also confirmed the widely argued view that Chinese spies are determined to collect economic and scientific intelligence from industrialized countries.

"China would like to have the most advanced technology in its hands from around the world."

He singled out the Canadian biopharmaceutical industry as one sector of special interest.

Countries have come to accept that a certain amount of economic espionage will occur, said Wesley Wark, an intelligence historian at the University of Toronto.

However, Canada should take a hard line against Chinese harassment of Falun Gong devotees or other immigrants from China, he argued.

"We should let the Chinese know very clearly that we won't tolerate it."