cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46972708

[…]

A man who spent a decade and a half working as a Chinese spy has shared details of some of his missions with Radio-Canada, including what he knows about a Chinese dissident who died in B.C., Canada, in 2022.

“From 2008 to 2023, my real job was to work for China’s secret police. It’s a means for political repression,” said “Eric,” who was interviewed in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. “Its main targets are dissidents who criticize the Chinese Communist Party.”

Eric shared a variety of documents — including financial records, secret money transfers and the names of spies — with journalists from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which CBC/Radio-Canada is a partner.

The records give an unprecedented glimpse at the inner workings of China’s overseas spy operations.

[…]

For 15 years, Eric worked for the 1st Bureau at China’s Ministry of Public Security, a unit that specializes in surveillance of dissidents abroad. He previously told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he spied on a Japanese-based cartoonist and a YouTuber exiled in Australia. Often, he said, his cover was working for real companies in the countries where he was deployed — companies that collaborated with China’s secret police.

[…]

In 2020, Eric said he was tasked with snooping on a dissident named Hua Yong, an artist and hardcore opponent of China’s Communist Party who eventually ended up on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast.

[…]

After several failed attempts to flee China, Eric finally succeeded in 2023. The former spy wanted to go to Canada to claim asylum but ended up in Australia because he was able to get a tourist visa there.

The world has a right to know what China’s secret police are up to, Eric said, adding that revealing it publicly actually buys him a measure of protection.

Meanwhile, the police investigation into Hua’s death isn’t officially closed because three years later, the B.C. Coroners Service still hasn’t completed its report, which normally takes about 16 months.

Eric said he’s had no contact with Canadian police but that he did confidentially send some documents to the Hogue commission, Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference.

“There are some strange aspects to this case that demand further investigation,” he said.