Ontario Politician Michael Chan Meets With Reps of China’s Notorious United Front

Deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., and former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan visited China recently to meet with representatives of the United Front Work Department—the department described as having “a leading role” in foreign interference and as one of Beijing’s “magic weapons” to further the regime’s priorities abroad. That description comes from a CSIS intelligence assessment declassified as part of Canada’s recent foreign interference inquiry. National security experts in the United States, Australia, and other places have also long flagged the UFWD as a threat. Mr. Chan’s meeting was hailed as a way to connect Markham and the two Chinese cities he visited, Nantong and Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu province, for economic and trade exchanges. The meetings were detailed on the Chinese social media platform WeChat by the accounts of the UFWD branches in both cities....