Breaking: Canada Election Monitor Detects PRC Cyber-Attacks on Liberal Leadership Candidate Freeland, Echoing 2021 Campaign Against Conservative Kenny Chiu

The evolving nature of these operations may signal a broader effort to influence not only Canada’s general elections but also to shape the selection of the country’s next unelected Prime Minister.

OTTAWA — Canada’s election security watchdog has uncovered a coordinated disinformation campaign linked to the People’s Republic of China targeting Chrystia Freeland, a leading candidate against Mark Carney for the Liberal Party leadership.

A statement released by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) revealed that the digital attack was launched on WeChat, a dominant Chinese social media platform, and amplified through at least 30 accounts linked to pro-Beijing influence networks. Experts have previously identified these sources as aligned with PRC-backed information operations.

Freeland has faced some pressure within Liberal circles for asserting that Carney is the favored candidate of Trudeau’s elite staff and the Liberal establishment, after making the statements in a CBC interview.

SITE has briefed the Liberal Party’s executive and Freeland’s campaign team on its findings, emphasizing that it will continue monitoring foreign digital threats that seek to manipulate Canada’s democratic process.

“We will continue to monitor the digital information environment for foreign information manipulation and shine a light on hostile foreign state-backed information operations,” SITE said.

The findings recall a similar interference effort detected during the 2021 federal election, as documented in evidence before the Hogue Commission. At the time, analysts determined that an online disinformation campaign had sought to discourage Canadians of Chinese heritage from supporting the Conservative Party and its leader, Erin O’Toole. The campaign particularly targeted Kenny Chiu, the former Conservative candidate for Steveston-Richmond East, falsely portraying him as anti-China in a coordinated messaging effort across WeChat and Chinese-language media.

In both cases—the 2021 campaign against Conservative candidates and the emerging attack on Freeland—SITE observed coordinated messaging patterns originating from WeChat accounts and Chinese-language news sources tied to Beijing.

However, unlike in Freeland’s case, SITE did not intervene to inform the public about the Chinese operations targeting Chiu and O’Toole, the Hogue Commission heard.

During the 2021 election, SITE assessed that false narratives about Chiu and the Conservative Party were widely circulated through WeChat, Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese counterpart), and other digital platforms. Three of the first Chinese-language news accounts to spread the false claims were members of a media partnership with China News Service, a PRC state-run agency operating under the United Front Work Department, Beijing’s key overseas influence arm.

SITE’s findings suggest a similar strategy may now be in play, with Freeland’s leadership campaign becoming a new focal point for online manipulation. The disinformation campaign generated significant engagement, with WeChat articles attacking Freeland drawing more than 140,000 interactions between January 29 and February 3, 2025. SITE estimates between two to three million WeChat users globally may have been exposed to the narratives. The false claims appear to have originated from WeChat’s most popular news account, an anonymous blog previously linked by experts at China Digital Times to Beijing’s influence network, according to SITE’s statement.

SITE’s analysis suggests PRC-linked actors may have viewed the 2021 effort as successful, particularly given the defeat of Chiu and other Conservative candidates in ridings with large Chinese-Canadian populations. If Beijing perceived that operation as effective, it could explain why a similar approach is now targeting an internal leadership race within the governing Liberal Party.

The evolving nature of these operations may signal a broader effort to influence not only Canada’s general elections but also its leadership contests—ultimately shaping the selection of the country’s next unelected Prime Minister.

Commenting on the breaking story in an X post, Dennis Molinaro, a national security expert and former Canadian intelligence analyst, wrote:

“If we have disinfo targeting Freeland, which favors Carney and is traced to China, some hard questions need to be asked about his position on China—and we need to know why this is occurring.”

He added: “Carney would be prime minister if he wins—and I don't know his position on a major Western adversary in China. Tonight, I just got a whole lot more curious.”

At 8 p.m. Friday Carney posted on X:

“I fully support Chrystia Freeland and her campaign in light of this disturbing report. I am fully committed to defending the integrity of this race and stand firm against any attempts to undermine our democracy.

My deepest gratitude to the national security and intelligence officials who lead this important work to sustain trust in our democratic process.”