China now seen as influencing politics more than ever, on a global scale

The uproar over possible Chinese interference in recent Canadian elections is a reminder of what researchers and intelligence agencies have warned regarding Beijing's attempts to politically influence other nations.

The allegations of direct meddling and of money flowing from Beijing operatives into the hands of some Canadian federal candidates is indicative of China's ramped up strategy in recent years to attempt to interfere in the political processes of countries, some observers say.

In a 2017 report, Anne-Marie Brady, a professor of political science at the University of Canterbury and specialist of Chinese politics, wrote that China's foreign influence activities have accelerated under Chinese President Xi Jinping and have the potential to undermine the sovereignty and integrity of the political system of targeted states.

In terms of foreign interference by China, "we're not used to seeing this on such a global scale," she said in a telephone interview with CBC News. "We haven't seen anything like this from any country for a very long time."

Indeed, this is the first time since Mao's era that China is assertively trying to meddle in the internal politics and societies of countries on nearly every continent, according to Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Experts explain how China interferes in foreign politics, methods used and where such methods have been deployed:

China uses a wide range of direct and indirect resources in attempts to influence the political process of countries and "spent years developing strategies to influence politics and elections throughout the Pacific Rim," Kurlantzick wrote in an article for the Council on Foreign Relations.

"China often uses its state media and control of Chinese language media in other countries. Its toolbox also includes economic coercion, disinformation on social media platforms, its growing power on university campuses, and its wielding of influence directly over politicians," Kurlantzick wrote.

China's foreign election interference has included "sizeable Communist Party-linked donations to political parties, financial support for friendly research institutions, harassment of the overseas diaspora, monopoly of Chinese-language media ... and other avenues," China foreign policy experts Rush Doshi and Robert D. Williams wrote in a 2018 Lawfare article.

Jacob Wallis, an expert on election interference at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China will use financial inducement and at times coercion to "shift the playing field" by exploiting corrupt and malleable political elites.

"Here in Australia, we've had a number of scandals where politicians [were] being handed shopping bags full of cash. So if that's what works, then that's the kind of action that we'll see, just pure political corruption," he said.

Wallis said they have also observed how Chinese information operations are shifting in their use of Mandarin, Cantonese and English language.

"[They are] getting increasingly confident of working in other languages. And that tells us that they are trying to target beyond diaspora groups. They're trying to target kind of international political discourse."

The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is an official arm of the Chinese Communist Party that seeks to influence political activities domestically and abroad. But its importance was noted during a Sept. 2014 speech by Xi Jinping, who referred to it as one of CCP's "magic weapons."