Thank you, Mr. Chair
Thank you, members, for the opportunity to testify before this committee.
Far too often, the relationship between Canada and the PRC is framed through the narrow lens of trade and business. The public is told that China is too much of an economic opportunity for us to risk alienating the Chinese government by raising human rights, yet Canadian trade with China in 2021 accounted for just over 4.6% of our total exports.
Similarly, what is often ignored in this debate is that much of the goods we export to China are the raw materials that its economy relies on. For example, even at the height of its trade war with Australia, the PRC continues to import substantial amounts of iron ore it cannot source elsewhere. This reflects the limited ability of the PRC to put countries with export-led economies in what it calls the “economic freezer”.
Hong Kong Watch’s ESG report—our new research—shows that the passive investment strategies pursued by both the leading Canadian federal and provincial pension funds, as well as university endowment funds, have failed to properly factor in human rights considerations when investing in portfolios for our Canadian pensions. The holding of emerging market funds includes Chinese companies linked to forced labour. I hope this is an area that this committee can investigate further in a separate inquiry.
Canada continues to have a special interest in the human rights situation in Hong Kong, not least because of the 300,000 Canadians who have made Hong Kong their home and the 500,000 Hong Kong Canadians who continue to worry about the safety of their families and friends. The human rights situation in Hong Kong has been deteriorating rapidly since the introduction of the national security law in 2020. Beijing continues its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
The 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, along with five other trustees, including Canadian Denise Ho of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, stood trial a week ago. Forty-seven pro-democracy Hong Kongers are charged under the national security law simply because they joined a primary election. Five speech therapists who published a children's book series called the “Sheep Village” were recently convicted of sedition.
With the situation on the ground continuing to deteriorate by the day, Hong Kongers are looking for a way out of the city, not only to preserve their own safety and security but to seek a better future for their families. The Hong Kong pathway open work permit scheme announced by Canada two years ago is a start, but there are many gaps that need to be addressed.
For example, the five-year restriction poses a barrier to many Hong Kongers, even for recent graduates who meet the requirement at the time of application. By the time their work permit is received and the hours of work requirement is fulfilled, they might already have fallen out of eligibility to apply for permanent residency under stream B of the scheme.
Canada has set the immigration target of over 400,000 immigrants per year in the coming few years. Expanding and extending the Hong Kong pathway can help meet this target. The founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, is in custody. His arrest and detention is the evidence of the CCP's crackdown on press freedom in the city. According to the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the press freedom index is at a record low. The Hong Kong government is also now looking to enact a “fake news” law, under which the government can be empowered to issue a decree for false information to be removed.
Many frontline human rights defenders—such as journalists, pro-democracy activists, lawmakers and medical professionals—are currently not covered by Canada's open work permit scheme. We recommend that the government create a human rights defender category to address this gap, similar to the current policy for Ukraine.
Even Hong Kongers who are able to immigrate to Canada are not free from the far-reaching hand of the CCP regime. Chinese police are setting up offices in Canada where dissidents continue to be harassed and intimidated by agents acting on behalf of the CCP. The threat is not faced by Hong Kongers alone, but also by Uighurs, Tibetans and Chinese dissidents alike. The CCP's United Front overseas department has one of the most sophisticated foreign interference operations in Canada, which is discussed at length in China Unbound by Joanna Chiu and in Hidden Hand by Clive Hamilton.
This operation is not only designed to keep Chinese citizens, Hong Kongers, Tibetans and other activists under close supervision and, in some instances, used to target and intimidate them, but it also is used to actively interfere in Canadian politics.