2%Y nature, I’m not a
conspiracy theorist.

Nor do J see bogeymen
around every corner. But the
events of the past couple of
months have me wondering
what’s going on.

The boatloads of refugees
from the Fujian province of
the People’s Republic of China
have focused a fot of attention
on Asian immigration especial-

. ly the illegal kind.

“The issue of illegal alien
smuggling and the influence of
Asian organized crime was
underlined by the revelations
of former foreign services offi-
cer Brian MacAdam and
RCMP Corp. Robert Read
concerning corruption in our
Hong Kong consular opcra- -
tions and reaching into the

- upper echelons of the federal i
government, “ :

«Then came S the shocking
disclosure of the CSIS investi-

"gation into high-level links’
between triad’ crs an
senior levels of the Chinese’ *~:

_ government and the connec-.

© tions to Canada. -

._.. The project, dubbed
Sidewinder, was designed to

- look into suspicions thac the
Beijing government. and Hong
- Kong-based criminal gangs
were actively making political:
contributions in Canada, forg-

ing links with elected officials
and attempting to purchase a
Chinese-language media outlet

OC Fatheked in 1995,

Sidewinder was in licably
terminated in 1997 because of
concerns of political interfer-
‘ence.
_ Last week came a story in.

crime and
punishment

the Toronto Globe & Mail
claiming the director general
of CSIS, Barry Denots|
ordered the destruction of all
copies of the report and,
amazingly, all other material
associated with the file — e-
mails, drafts, notes and all
other bits and pieces with any
link to the investigation.

CSIS spokesman Phillip
Gibson confirmed the destruc-
tion of the material, saying,
“We do not report conspiracy
theories ... rumour and innu-
endo.”

.. What would be the point
Of ‘saving it, Gibson said in a

‘media interview.

‘According to my sources, -

there were a lot of good rea-

sons to save it even if the ©

agency disagreed with its con-
usions. Realistically, it’s

inconceivable that a bureaucrat

‘would destroy anything urless

there was a cover-up | of sone
sort. Frankly, it’s against tie

- religion of the civil service. not

to mention federal legisl?tion-
governing how long file: are
to be kept and when they vai
be accessed. -

“The Sidewinder report con-

~ cluded that CSIS and the fed-. .

cral government needed to ~
recognize that the’ People’s «

Republic of China and the ti-

. ads w were increasing their hold-

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north shore news

VIEWPOINT
Report raises concems over gov't, triad links

ings in Canada through legiti-
mate business entities and the
national security of this coun-
try could be affected.

Yet, if CSIS management
felt the report was little more
than rumour and innuendo,
why then did CSIS publish a
report in 1998 analyzing the
aims of the Chinese govern-
ment?

The report, authored by
Holly Porteous, 2 specialist
analyst in tracking missile and
nuclear-related trade in China,
Taiwan, and the Korean penin-
sula, looks at the so-called
united front strategy espoused
by Mao Tse-tung and re-insti-
tuted by Deng Xiao Ping to
expand the influence of the
Chinese Communist Party.

Hong Kong Spccial
Administrative Region
(HKSAR) has been a challeng-
ing test for the modern day
application of united front
strategy by China.

United front work in Hong
Kong and elsewhere aims to
extend the influence of the..
Chinese Communist Party by
winning over non-Cummunist
community leaders and using
them to neutralize party crit-
ics, Porteous saidin her =~

report.
Because they are interna-

. Gignal in scope and occasional-

ly coercive, activities associated
with chis work can amount to.
uaterference in the internal

” affairs of other nations, she

continued.

Tire united front strategy is
defined in the Porteous report:
United front work is essentially
about taking power from a
position of weakness.
‘Temporary alliances of conve-
nience with non-Communist
entities empowered a fledgling
Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) to first establish and
then maintain its hold on
power in China.

Rather than “kicking out in
all directions,” the party iden-
tified clement: of Chinese
society it could ally with to
destroy the handful of “die-
hard” clements who posed the
greatest threat to its existence.

In this manner, the voice of
one political adversary after
another was systematically qui-
eted.

* Later, having established
the Peoples” Republic, the*
CCP continued to use the
united front to‘ensure that no
potential opposition bloc .
could exist .or wong outside
the party-dominated system.

Portcous’ analysis demon-
strates how the temporary
alliances of convenience were
in fact the major Hong Kong
and Macau triads who were

given the wink by the govern- ©

ment to continue their illegal
activities with the proviso they
would not work against the
aims of the communist gov-
emment of China:

But this is not simply an

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Wednesday, Cctober 13, 1999 — North Shore News - 7

effort by the communist
Chinese government to solidi-
fy control in post-takeover
Hong Kong, nor is it simply
about repatriating Taiwan.

Let’s go back vo the
Porteous report.

Inducing Chinese abroad,
by threat or by appeal to patri-
otism, to conduct economic
and technical espionage is also
an aim of united front work,
says the CSIS report.

This is frightening stuff.

It becomes even more
frightening in light of the alle-
gations by MacAdam and
Reed and the subsequent ces-
sation of the Sidewinder inves-
tigation and destruction of ali
relevant documentation.

CSIS investigators are
angry about what's going on.
They asked their superiors for
the resources te conduct a full-
blown investigation into the

_inforrsation derived from

Sidewinder. But they. were
shut down, The speculation as

to why has much to do with
the energy and political capital
the prime minister has poured
into cultivating improved trade
ties and business investment
with the communist govern-
ment of China.

When one considers that
the initial prime motivation of
Sidewinder was to look at a
single, significant triad Icader
in Canada and the political
donations made to increase
influence here, the intelligence
probe quickly expanded into
analyzing how the triads and
the Chinese government were
attempting to gain a financial
foothold in Canada via signifi- -
cant ingestrmenits in shipping,

rts, oil and gas companies
Banks and brokerage Houses
and real estate holdings

Clearly the government
doesn’t want any light shone
on any of this. Equaiiy clear is -
-the need to get to. the. bottom

. “of this mess.

—— eighteen ca

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