Sam Cooper

“The PRC uses its UFWD in Canada and around the world to stifle criticism and manipulate Canadian communities. These activities constitute a threat to Canada’s sovereignty and to the safety of Canadians.”

A powerful new investigative map released by diaspora researchers traces political ties reaching from Chinese Communist Party-controlled intelligence networks to the highest levels of British Columbia’s government. The visual exposé centers on Senator Yuen Pau Woo and his pivotal role in welcoming Chinese state-linked entities into Canadian institutions—an effort that resonates in a secretly recorded 2020 meeting obtained by The Bureau, in which Woo assured United Front figures he would help shield them from critical scrutiny.

These same United Front entities have been credited by Beijing for their role in promoting Chinese Canadian candidates during federal election campaigns.

Listen now · 2:30

Woo was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016, with an official announcement citing his work with the same entities now identified by diaspora researchers as Chinese-influenced trade lobbies.

The map, titled “From Ottawa to Victoria,” is part of the ongoing Dotting the Map series from Canadian Friends of Hong Kong and Found in Translation, two diaspora-led civil society groups. Built from open-source records, the map draws direct lines between United Front-aligned business, political, and media organizations and prominent Canadian leaders, including Senator Woo, former BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark, ex-minister Teresa Wat, Premier David Eby’s advisor Ding Guo, and Rise Media journalists.

The researchers caution that no individual named in their report is alleged to be knowingly involved in Chinese influence activities. Rather, the mapping effort is designed to educate voters by highlighting verified affiliations to Chinese state or military-linked organizations.

Rise Media—as reported by The Bureau—played a key role in supporting Mark Carney’s current Liberal candidate Parm Bains in the 2021 contest, in which Bains upset Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu. That Richmond riding is one of the top three examples of Chinese election interference overturning Conservative candidates, according to former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole.

At the center of the new Dotting the Map diagram is Senator Woo, shown helping open pathways for China Poly Group, a state conglomerate tied to the People’s Liberation Army, and Poly Culture, its cultural diplomacy arm. The map shows that under the Liberal Christy Clark government—with Woo’s active involvement—British Columbia approved multi-million-dollar partnerships with numerous shadowy Chinese entities via HQ Vancouver, a Canadian “public-private” entity created to draw foreign investment into Canada.

Woo’s name is also linked through board roles and event partnerships to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and various CCP-aligned think tanks, including those tied through joint programming to the International Liaison Department, a CCP foreign intelligence arm.

According to the map, Woo co-organized a 2010 event in Canada with Henry Huiyao Wang, founder of the Centre for China & Globalization—a think tank under the ILD that directly advises the Chinese State Council. Wang and Woo co-wrote articles and maintained overt links through the Asia Pacific Foundation during Woo’s tenure as president and CEO.

According to political scientist Anne-Marie Brady, the ILD is “tasked with gathering intelligence on foreign politicians and political parties, and developing asset relations with them.”

In Justin Trudeau’s October 2016 appointment notice, Woo is credited for works including:

According to the map, Teresa Wat, while serving as a minister in Christy Clark’s Liberal government, extended Belt and Road cooperation to British Columbia, joined Huawei and a local telecom firm in 5G research initiatives, participated in multiple PRC-affiliated delegations, and came from a background in Chinese state-linked media. She is also listed as having facilitated the involvement of Chinese real estate tycoons in provincial-level discussions on infrastructure and housing.

The map identifies Ding Guo, founder of the Canada Committee 100 Society (CCS100), as a critical node. Guo is shown as a journalist from Shanghai who transitioned into a leadership role in B.C. Chinese-language media and political mobilization.

As previously reported by The Bureau, in December 2021, then-Attorney General David Eby approved a $20,000 provincial grant to CCS100, citing its anti-racism and Chinese diaspora engagement goals. The grant was awarded while Guo served as a Chinese community advisor to Eby. A February 2021 report from a Chinese Communist Party organ cited CCS100 among several Canadian groups praised for “voter education, mobilization, and fundraising” efforts during the 2019 election cycle.

Premier Eby also awarded Ding Guo the King Charles III Coronation Medal, the researchers found.

Kenny Zhang, also named in the map, is shown occupying a dual role as a former executive director of HQ Vancouver and head researcher with Ding Guo’s CCS100. He was affiliated with Rise Media, which promoted Liberal candidate Parm Bains over MP Kenny Chiu during the 2021 federal election campaign—and Zhang was also awarded a King Charles III Coronation Medal by Senator Yuen Pau Woo.

The Bureau’s publication of the “Woo Tape” forms part of the evidentiary spine of the researchers’ latest map. All three—Ding Guo, Kenny Zhang, and Senator Yuen Pau Woo—were present in this groundbreaking piece of evidence.

In the May 2020 recording, Senator Woo tells CCS100 leaders, including Ding Guo, that he will help protect their organizations from scrutiny in Canadian public discourse, including inside Parliament.

The remote-online meeting, captured on audio and visual files held by The Bureau, included figures tied to United Front-linked institutions and media outlets aligned with PRC narratives. In the meeting, Woo states: “Whether you belong to an organization, that happens to be listed as a United Front organization, should not be a litmus test.”

He continues: “I am fighting very hard,” against this type of criticism.

The statements closely mirror the PRC’s own foreign messaging, which frequently defends its overseas political networks as benign civic or cultural organizations.

When The Bureau sent detailed questions to Senator Woo regarding the recording, Woo advised that questions should be directed to the Hogue Commission.

The Bureau also provided the tape-recorded evidence to CSIS and asked the Service to comment on whether the statements are relevant to Woo’s intervener status in the Hogue Commission.

“Individuals purposefully aligning themselves with United Front Work Department (UFWD) designated organizations should understand its ongoing actions targeting members of Canadian communities with harassment, manipulation or intimidation,” spokesman Eric Balsam wrote, in a statement that didn’t name Senator Woo. “The PRC uses its UFWD in Canada and around the world to stifle criticism and manipulate Canadian communities. These activities constitute a threat to Canada’s sovereignty and to the safety of Canadians.”

The researchers’ findings—meant to educate voters during a Canadian election in which Prime Minister Mark Carney has already been boosted by disinformation from elite Chinese Communist Party intelligence entities—take on added significance in light of sections of the map that link Senator Woo, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and affiliated organizations to the International Liaison Department (ILD).

The ILD is a powerful arm of the Chinese Communist Party that experts identify as a covert influence and foreign intelligence agency operating globally on behalf of Beijing’s political interests.

In his 2022 book, Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World, author and analyst Alex Joske details how the ILD has historically conducted clandestine activities aimed at shaping foreign perceptions and policymaking in favor of the CCP. His research shows that the department plays a central role in executing covert influence operations targeting political, business, and academic elites abroad.

Meanwhile, as previously reported by The Bureau, a report that praised Premier David Eby’s advisor Ding Guo for helping mobilize Chinese Canadian voters in 2019 also highlighted the importance of the Liberal Party leader’s outreach to the Chinese community in that contest. It noted that “Trudeau Jr. personally went to seek votes at a Chinese supermarket in Markham, an area of Toronto where Chinese people live, demonstrating that Chinese votes play an important role in the general election.”

The report, published by ACFROC (a United Front-linked organization), also emphasized the key role of WeChat in rallying voters. It said 41 federal election candidates seen as “of special interest” to Beijing were nominated by different parties in the 2019 race—an increase from “only 27 and 23 in 2015 and 2011.”

Charles Burton, a respected China expert and Mandarin-language analyst, reviewed the report for The Bureau. He said the document “identifies 41 ‘distinguished’ Chinese candidates nominated in 2019, so I judge that the use of ‘distinguished’ implies identification of candidates potentially useful to the United Front’s aims.”