BREAKING: Beijing Intelligence Operation Promotes PM Carney’s Strength Against U.S. to Sway Chinese Canadian Voters, Election Monitor Says

OTTAWA, Canada — An information operation linked to the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party—disseminated through one of WeChat’s most popular news accounts and tied to Chinese intelligence propaganda—is attempting to alter the opinions of Chinese Canadian voters about Liberal candidate Mark Carney, including by promoting his strength against the United States, an official said Monday, as Canada’s election threat monitoring unit revealed new findings.

“This information operation had contrasting positive and negative narratives, first amplifying Mr. Carney’s stance with the United States, and then targeting his experience and credentials,” a SITE Task Force representative told reporters, adding they assess “the foreign state-backed information operation was intended to influence Canadian Chinese communities and look to mold perceptions about the candidate.”

The election monitor said the activity does not currently affect Canada’s ability to hold a “free and fair” election.

SITE said articles posted on March 25 were amplified in a coordinated and inauthentic manner by 30 smaller WeChat accounts. Posts received between 85,000 and 130,000 interactions, with total views estimated between 1 and 3 million. A Liberal Party official was briefed yesterday on the concern, SITE said.

While reticent to characterize the full details of China’s disinformation—much of which appeared to promote Carney as the ideal Canadian leader to take on President Donald Trump, according to a quick review of material shared with reporters—a SITE official said:

“I think what is important for all of us to take away from the information being presented today is that intelligence links this account to entities of the People's Republic of China. And so whether that's the narratives about Mr. Carney, any other public figure in Canada, or anything else, it's important for Canadians to understand this link that has been covert.”

In a comment posted to X, Dennis Molinaro, a former Canadian national security analyst, suggested that Beijing’s information campaign could spread beyond the Chinese diaspora.

“Here we go again,” he wrote. “The PRC is trying to assist Carney. If you think that somehow this influencing campaign stays confined to one community—it doesn’t. The point is to mold opinions, have them spread, and be shared with others.”

Elaborating, Molinaro wrote: “It also doesn't mean [Carney] is complicit in it. But it does signal [the WeChat posts are] meant to influence and help his campaign. You don't run positive stuff about a candidate that you want to lose.”

One of the Chinese intelligence propaganda pieces cited by SITE is a 2,000-word WeChat post titled “The United States is Facing a Tough Prime Minister from Canada.” The post circulated widely and presented a favorable portrait of Carney that aligned with China’s messaging in the context of an escalating trade war with the United States.

“Facing Trump’s ‘tariff stick,’ Carney issued a ‘revenge’ declaration after his election,” the article states. “Trump is trying to weaken Canada’s economy and has imposed unreasonable tariffs on Canada. He is attacking Canadian families, workers, and businesses, and Canada cannot let him succeed. The Canadian government is imposing retaliatory tariffs until Americans show respect to Canada—until they join Canada in making a credible and reliable commitment to free and fair trade.”

The article also quotes Carney as saying that Americans “want Canada’s resources, water, land and even the country.” If the United States succeeds, it says, “they will destroy the Canadian way of life.” It adds: “Health care is a big business in the United States, but it is a right in Canada.”

During the briefing, a National Post reporter pressed the SITE team to explain its characterization of the Chinese intelligence content:

“From the examples that are in the backgrounder, it appears that the content is mostly promoting Mr. Carney’s strength. You mentioned something about negative and positive, but I didn’t see that. It appears to me from what’s in here that the content… casts him in a positive light. Is that broadly what this content you’ve seen in this particular campaign is doing overall?”

The SITE official reiterated: “We monitored over the period specified and we saw positive and negative narratives.”

Asked by reporters whether the current federal election is any safer than the last two—both of which, in hindsight, were vulnerable to interference from the People’s Republic of China—an official responded that this election includes active disclosures of disinformation to the Canadian public from the SITE Task Force.

According to SITE, the disinformation operation was carried out on WeChat by Youli-Youmian, the platform’s most popular news account. Intelligence reporting links the account to the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, they said, adding the blog is anonymous and does not disclose its provenance.

SITE assesses that the campaign aimed to influence Chinese-language communities in Canada—specifically Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka speakers—by manipulating narratives around political figures.

Similar malign activity by Youli-Youmian was previously observed during federal by-elections in June 2023, targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong, and again in January 2025, targeting Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, according to SITE and Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism.

A 2023 China Digital Times report, cited by SITE, stated that content from Youli-Youmian is frequently distributed by employees of Chinese state-owned enterprises as part of their work responsibilities. SITE assesses that a similar approach was likely used in the Carney operation.

more to come on this breaking story