Canada task force says Freeland, running to replace Trudeau, targeted by China-linked campaign

OTTAWA, USA – A Canadian task force said on Friday that malicious news articles originating on Chinese social media tried to disparage former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is running to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party.

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) said it detected “coordinated and malicious activity” targeting Freeland that was traced to an anonymous but popular news account on Chinese social media platform WeChat.

The anonymous WeChat blog has been previously linked by experts at the California-based China Digital Times to China, the federal elections monitoring task force said in a statement.

“I will not be intimidated by Chinese foreign interference,” Freeland said on social media platform X. “Having spent years confronting authoritarian regimes, I know firsthand the importance of defending our freedoms.”

The Chinese embassy in Canada said it was not aware of any such campaign. Beijing has repeatedly denied all allegations of attempted interference in Canadian affairs.

“I want to emphasize that it is absurd and makes no sense to attack and smear China merely based on the fabricated remarks of some so-called experts. China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes this,” a Chinese embassy spokesperson said.

The operation against Freeland flagged by SITE adds to Ottawa’s accusations of election meddling against China.

Last month, an official probe concluded China tried to interfere in previous Canadian elections, though the outcome of the votes was unaffected. China views Canada as a high-priority target and is the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting all levels of government, the probe said.

SITE said over 30 WeChat news accounts were taking part in the campaign against Freeland, and received very high levels of engagement and views.

WeChat news articles disparaging Freeland garnered over 140,000 interactions between January 29 and February 3, and an estimated 2 million to 3 million WeChat users saw the campaign globally, according to SITE.

Freeland entered the contest to replace Trudeau as leader of the ruling Liberal Party after he announced his resignation last month. Freeland, who was one of Trudeau’s closest political allies for a decade, quit in December and wrote a letter denouncing his governing style.

The party plans to announce Trudeau’s successor on March 9. – Rappler.com