China Canada Photo: VCG

After Canada released an assessment smearing China for "interference" on Thursday at a hearing investigating "foreign influence" in its past two elections, Chinese experts on Saturday pointed out that this is actually an attempt by the Canadian government to fool its people into supporting the policy of following the US to engage in strategic competition with China.

According to media reports, the assessment was released by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service at a hearing held to investigate whether foreign countries interfered in Canada's past two elections, after the country smeared China as "meddling" and set up a commission to conduct an inquiry.

However, Canada's repeated hype about China's "intervention" in its elections was refuted by Chinese experts as an attempt by the Canadian government to gain social consensus supporting the country's policy of following the US' strategic competition with China.

Canada hopes that through such hype, its people's fear and resistance to China will increase, so that they will give strong support to the Canadian government's current policy and future direction toward China, which is to have competition and confrontation, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Saturday.

"Canada is blindly following the US, and wishes to show its "loyalty" through such acts," Li added.

The expert also pointed out that by smearing China, Canada is sending a warning to local Chinese, as well as those who have extensive economic, trade and people-to-people ties with China, to reduce their contacts with the Chinese side. "This is a very unwise and foolish approach that undermines the comprehensive connection and mutual understanding between China and Canada," Li said.

In response to Canada's smearing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in May 2023 that China follows a foreign policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, and is also firmly against interference by any country in other countries' internal affairs.

"We have no interest in interfering in Canada's internal affairs, including its elections, nor will we do any such thing. We urge Canada to abandon its ideological bias and Cold War mentality and stop making an issue of China," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

Analysts noted that Canada's repeated smearing will undoubtedly have a destructive impact on China-Canada relations. "Since elections involve politicians as well as high participation from all sectors of society, Canada's false accusations against China not only undermine mutual trust and communication at the government level, but also disrupt people-to-people exchanges between the two countries," experts said.