A fired-up Jenny Kwan attacked Liberal MP Paul Chiang on Sunday for his controversial suggestion that Canada should send a Conservative candidate to Hong Kong and collect a “bounty” from China. Read More
The Vancouver East MP and candidate in the April election made the comments at an event about low-interest homeowner loans on Sunday
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A fired-up Jenny Kwan attacked Liberal MP Paul Chiang on Sunday for his controversial suggestion that Canada should send a Conservative candidate to Hong Kong and collect a “bounty” from China.
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In comments to Chinese-language media that were released by a pro-democracy group on Friday, Chiang took a swipe at Conservative rival Joe Tay, a former Hong Kong resident who’s been charged in the Chinese enclave for running a YouTube channel in Canada critical of the city’s Beijing-dominated government.
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“If you can take him to the Chinese consulate general in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward,” Chiang said to laughter from his audience. It’s unclear if he meant the remarks as a joke. Hong Kong police have actually placed a bounty of $183,000 on Tay, who switched Ontario ridings after the comments were made in January.
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Kwan, the NDP MP for Vancouver East, called Chiang’s comments “absolutely astounding. He is a police officer, and he ought to know that when the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) went out and put a bounty on anybody, including Canadians, that cannot be acceptable. That is intimidation at its worst.
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“And yet, he played right into it. He advocated for people to bring him to the Chinese consulate to collect the bounty. In what universe is this normal?”
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Kwan said it’s especially problematic when Canada is facing “active, sophisticated foreign interference activities targeting Canada’s democratic institutions.”
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Kwan, who was born in Hong Kong, was told by CSIS in 2023 that she is an “evergreen” target of Chinese electoral interference for speaking out about its “draconian” national security law and other CCP human rights violations.
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Chiang said he was sorry soon after the comments came to light, writing on X: “The comments I made were deplorable and a complete lapse of judgment on the seriousness of the matter. As a former police officer, I should have known better. I sincerely apologize and deeply regret my comments.
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“I will always continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong in their fight to safeguard their human rights and freedoms.”
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Kwan said people from Hong Kong in Canada fear for their lives if they speak out against “China’s Communist, repressive regime. That is what transnational repression looks like, and we need to stand together to fight against it, not peddle it” as Chiang did.