The Conservatives are condemning Ottawa’s funding of a Canada-China scholars exchange program that requires participants to show allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), following an Epoch Times report on the matter.
On April 9, the federal government issued a notice about the 2024–25 Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program for Chinese applicants. The notice, posted on a website managed by a division of Global Affairs Canada, provides a link to a corresponding notice on the Chinese regime agency’s website specifying the conditions for applicants.
The first condition states in Chinese: “[Candidates should] support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics; love the motherland; have good moral character; abide by laws and regulations; have a sense of responsibility to serve the country, serve the society, and serve the people; and have a correct world view, outlook on life, and values.”
Under the scholarshipprogram, typically lasting 4 to 12 months, participants serve as visiting scholars at Canadian universities without formal enrolment. Canada provides candidates $2,200 per month in living expenses along with health-care coverage. The Chinese side covers travel expenses and visa application fees.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic Michael Chong raised concerns about Canada funding a program that requires support for the CCP, saying the Liberal government is ignoring advice from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and intelligence experts “about the threats Beijing poses.”
“It’s unacceptable but comes as no surprise that [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau is using Canadian taxpayers’ money to fund a program which requires participants to support the Chinese Communist Party and uphold its ideology,” Mr. Chong said.
“Common sense Conservatives will stop the flow of money to hostile states, and we will put that money toward the safety and security of Canadians.”
Global Affairs Canada has not returned The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Conservative MP Michael Cooper also voiced concerns, saying “it’s outrageous” that Canadian tax dollars fund the exchange program, while calling for the funding to stop.
“The government of Canada must stop funding this program,” he said.
The Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program was created in 1973 as part of an agreement between then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. The program is open to academic staff, master’s or doctoral graduates, as well as non-academics holding “senior professional posts” in China, such as judges, broadcasters, and economists.
On the Chinese side, the program is managed by the China Scholarship Council, an agency under China’s Ministry of Education that oversees international academic exchanges. On the Canadian side, the program is administered by the Canadian Embassy in Beijing and promoted by EduCanada, a federal organization under Global Affairs that collaborates with the provinces to help international students looking to study in Canada.
National Security Threats
Conservative MP Michael Cooper speaks at a press conference on Feb. 26, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)
In a recent interview with The Epoch Times, human rights lawyer David Matas said Beijing’s requirement for participants in the scholar exchange program to “support the leadership” of the CCP could result in self-censorship among applicants, contradicting human rights laws and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
He noted that the requirement to support the Chinese regime could also imply supporting Beijing’s hostile activities abroad. China’s National Intelligence Law requires Chinese citizens and organizations, including private businesses, to provide support, assistance, and cooperation in the regime’s intelligence operations.
“Supporting communist leadership means supporting what they’re doing, and supporting what they’re doing means complying with their requests,” he said. “If the Communist Party leadership asks [the successful candidates] to spy and they don’t, that is not supporting the Communist Party leadership.”
Mr. Cooper has voiced concerns in Parliament about China’s threat to Canadian academia, including through the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP). Launched in 2008, the TTP is the most well-known among the Chinese regime’s 200-plus global talent recruitment programs aimed at attracting leading scientists worldwide to bolster Chinese economic and military development.
The program attracted attention in 2023, when a Harvard professor was convicted for lying about his ties to the TTP.
Security concerns about China’s talent programs were in the spotlight once again following the recent declassification of federal documents revealing that two Chinese scientists dismissed from Canada’s top-security National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg had lied about their links to China. The scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng, a married couple, were involved in the TTP and other Chinese talent programs.
Following the revelation, Mr. Cooper sought confirmation from Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc on whether there were other Thousand Talents recruits currently employed by the Canadian government.
“I don’t know those details,” Mr. LeBlanc said in his response during a meeting of the House of Commons special committee on the Canada-China relationship on April 15.
Speaking with The Epoch Times, Mr. Cooper noted that Ottawa has not provided a clear answer to this question to date.
