Tuesday, Nov. 02

ANDREW MITROVICA
The Globe and Mail
Tuesday, November 2, 1999

Toronto -- The Chinese government has angrily denied accusations that elements of that country's military are linked to criminal gangs operating in Canada.

"It's nonsense," Jin Zhenda, press secretary with China's embassy in Ottawa, said yesterday. "The Chinese government never engaged in such activity and would not engage in such activity."

Mr. Jin was responding to comments by Charles Svoboda, a former senior Canadian diplomat and spymaster, who told The Globe and Mail last week that connections between the People's Liberation Army and criminal groups known as triads constitute a serious and growing threat to national security.

Mr. Svoboda, who from 1991 to 1996 headed up the analysis branch of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Canada is being harmed by the involvement of the PLA and triads in prostitution, people smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering in this country.

He added that members of Canada's large and growing Chinese community routinely provide the spy agency with information about the PLA's links to triads. Mr. Svoboda retired from CSIS in 1996 and now lives in Valencia, Spain.

The frank remarks by the former senior espionage agent have surprised many in the intelligence community who said the comments mark the first time anyone in the Canadian government has ever spoken publicly about the alleged involvement of the PLA in criminal activity in North America.

"You can believe me that we would never do such a thing," Mr. Jin shouted repeatedly during a brief telephone interview yesterday.

He declined to comment, however, on why a growing number of senior police officers, former diplomats and intelligence analysts have publicly expressed concern in recent weeks about the nature and extent of China's intelligence and criminal activity in Canada.

Robert Fahlman, the RCMP's former officer in charge of criminal activity, said last month that the relationship between the Chinese government and the Hong Kong-based triads requires further investigation.

Mr. Svoboda said CSIS is being starved of the resources to do its work and that internal bickering at the intelligence agency is also hampering efforts to combat the threat to "civil society" posed by the PLA and the triads.

Brian McAdam, a former Canadian diplomat, who first raised concerns about the role played by Beijing and triads in criminal activity, particularly at Canadian embassies abroad, welcomed Mr. Svoboda's comments.

"I feel vindicated," he said yesterday from Ottawa.

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