The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Thursday announced it will investigate the death of Wei Hu, a 57-year-old Chinese dissident who ostensibly committed suicide in July 2021.
More than two years later, the RCMP is digging into the case because it has new evidence that the Chinese government targeted Hu for harassment, possibly driving him to suicide.
The case has obvious political resonance because Canada is embroiled in a rapidly escalating diplomatic confrontation with India over the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused the Indian government of complicity in Nijjar’s assassination on Tuesday.
Canada also began a public inquiry into China’s manipulation of its political system in September. Last week, the U.S. Congress heard testimony from Michael Chong, a Canadian member of parliament who was targeted for harassment by Chinese operatives because he sponsored a resolution against the Uyghur genocide.
Canada’s Global News reported the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) launched a probe into Hu’s death because witnesses said he complained about the Chinese Communist Party harassing him.
A friend of Hu’s who was interviewed by the police detailed the harassment allegations to the Global News:
He may have been targeted because he “knew things” that China didn’t want exposed, the friend said. “Hu told me that there was something regarding corruption at a very high level.”
Hu once complained that security authorities had visited his father in China, a common Operation Fox Hunt tactic. “He told me his father had pressure from the government,” the friend said.
He also said that if anything happened to him, it would not be an accident, said the friend, who feared repercussions and agreed to speak on the condition of not being identified.
The source said Hu told him about being followed by “suspicious people” and receiving warnings online that threatened his three children.
The Global News suspected Hu was targeted by Operation Fox Hunt, a notorious Chinese government operation that coerces Chinese citizens living abroad to return home. Operation Fox Hunt has been accused in U.S. courts of using heinous tactics to pressure expatriates, including intense harassment and psychological warfare. In both the U.S. and Canada, Fox Hunt agents have hired former police officers as investigators and muscle.
Operation Fox Hunt has targeted thousands of victims using an overseas infrastructure that includes illegal Chinese “police stations” established in Canada, the U.S., and European countries.
“Chinese agents have a history of counseling suicide as part of Operation Fox Hunt. According to the FBI, a message sent to a U.S. target warned that his only options were to ‘return to China promptly or commit suicide,’” the Global News observed.
Another common Chinese tactic has been issuing Interpol “red notices” against targets, asking Interpol member nations to arrest and deport the subjects. Hu was the subject of a red notice asking Interpol states to arrest him for financial crimes.
The RCMP “declined to comment” on the case, but then it seemingly did comment on the case by remarking at length on “foreign actor interference” in Canadian politics.
“It is important for all individuals and groups living in Canada, regardless of their nationality, to know that there are support mechanisms in place to assist them when experiencing potential foreign interference or state-backed harassment and intimidation,” the RCMP stated.