US President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs has come into force, with imports from China hit by a 104% rate amid an escalating standoff between the world’s two biggest economies.
Tariffs ranging from 11% to 104% now apply to imports from around 60 US trade partners, which Trump has dubbed the “worst offenders” for what he considers unfair trade practices.
China has since hit back by raising import duties on US goods arriving in China to 84%.
Having spent decades in intelligence and security, and through the research presented in “The Mosaic Effect,” the book I co-authored, I’ve seen firsthand how Beijing uses sophisticated non-military tools—what we now define as hybrid warfare—to infiltrate and influence democratic institutions. At the core of this strategy is the United Front Work Department, an agency of the CCP that specializes in co-opting elites, manipulating diaspora communities, and shaping foreign policy in target nations.
OTTAWA — Canada’s election security watchdog has accused the Chinese government of promoting Liberal Leader Mark Carney in what it’s calling an “information operation” taking place on Chinese-language social media.
In a Monday morning press conference, Laurie-Anne Kempton, of the Privy Council Office, said the operation is currently being undertaken by Youli-Youmian — the most popular news site on the WeChat social media platform.
It’s official: China is currently INTERFERING in the Canadian election to help Mark Carney become Prime Minister.
Vote Mark Carney, sell out to China.pic.twitter.com/gnWOXaMD4w
— mistersunshinebaby (@mrsunshinebaby) April 7, 2025
h/t Neocon
The ache of Donald Trump’s Liberation Day noir will go beyond disaster for thousands of Canadians who lose their jobs and see their savings debased by stagflation and battered markets. There will also be historic political implications for whoever forms Canada’s next government.
While we were “spared” the heavier blows that Trump placed on many other countries, Canadian households very much face a painful future of reduced incomes, diminished nest eggs and higher living costs.
Canada is entering its greatest existential upheaval since Confederation. Besides Trump duties that will make Canadian autos, steel and aluminum less affordable to U.S. customers, China has slapped exorbitant tariffs on Canadian canola, seafood and pork exports that will punish farming and commercial fishing families.
The Liberal Party under Prime Minister Mark Carney have seen three MP candidates drop out of the election race over allegations of foreign interference.
The latest to resign was Liberal MP Paul Chiang from Ontario. Chiang, who Carney defended as a “person of integrity” before the MP decided to drop out, dominated headlines after news broke that he suggested Canadian citizens turn rival Conservative candidate Joe Tay over to the Chinese embassy in Toronto to cash in on the communist regime’s HK$1 million (CA$183,915) bounty on the Conservative.
Liberal MP Paul Chiang said something profoundly unpardonable. Liberal Leader Mark Carney was perfectly content to pardon him for it. But public outrage ensued, so Chiang fell on his sword and resigned. End of story.
Except it isn’t the end of the story. It’s only going to get darker from here on in, as China waits, hopes and plans for Canada to return to the Trudeau-era embrace of the motherland.
Chinese News (posting under 大中生活 on WeChat) releases a glowing endorsement of Mark Carney. It’s described as being headquartered in Toronto, with a Chinese Canadian audience of 800,000.
There’s only one issue. Its IP address shows the account is being run from Shandong,… pic.twitter.com/HFVSlMPVM8
— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) April 4, 2025
Canada may still be reeling from a bout of political and diplomatic shock—call it Post-Disruption Stress Disorder (PDSD)—following the April 2 announcement in the Rose Garden by President Trump.
But for both Canada and Mexico, the news was less damaging than feared. Despite the sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs unveiled that day, our two nations were spared. So were American grocery shoppers.
Despite an eventual resignation, the initial decision by Liberal Leader Mark Carney to back a candidate after learning he had made light of a Chinese government bounty on the head of a Conservative rival has diaspora community advocates on the front lines of the foreign interference threat saying they’ve lost confidence in the party’s commitment to protect them from transnational repression.
Yet, while Paul Chiang, the incumbent Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville, Ont., eventually announced late on March 31 he would be standing aside so as not to “cause a distraction in this critical moment,” his delayed departure and Carney’s initial confidence have already caused damage.
A fundamental moral principle: You don’t get a s’okay, all forgiven, for a stupendous lapse of judgment.
You don’t get to erase the delinquency only after the conduct breach has become public.
You don’t get to offer a palpably expedient (unsolicited and unaccepted) apology when the wrongdoing is exposed.
And you especially don’t get to do any of that — in an X post at two minutes to midnight, following reports that the RCMP is looking into the matter — when you represent a political party that has been steeped in ethical violations.
OTTAWA — Former Liberal MP Paul Chiang’s decision to take himself off the ballot only proves the Liberal leader instinctually puts his own interests ahead of the country’s, Pierre Poilievre said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters from St. John’s, the Conservative leader commented on the news overnight that Chiang, seeking re-election in his riding of Markham-Unionville, announced he would be stepping aside — just hours after Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he saw no issue with the former York Region cop staying on as a candidate.
CTV Alerting Canadians that:
1) The Liberals knew about Chiang since January, and chose not to act on it.
2) 40 international human rights agencies and the RCMP, put pressure on Mark Carney to do the right thing. He still didn’t fire him.
Some Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/LFnDkcTRWt
— An Oil Exec (@CanadianOilExec) April 2, 2025
Liberal MP Paul Chiang’s announcement that he would step down as a candidate just before midnight Monday shows a massive failure of leadership by Mark Carney.
It took four days for Chiang to be removed as the Liberal candidate in Markham-Unionville and it came after Carney had spent all morning defending him.
WATCH: A few years ago, Sir Lord Mark Carney told Parliament that “it will be important that China is center stage to shape this new, global, sustainable financial system.”
I’m not making this up guys.
This man is a CHINESE-SHILL.pic.twitter.com/kkPc1Lhrt0
— mistersunshinebaby (@mrsunshinebaby) March 31, 2025
Liberal incumbent Paul Chiang will not be running in the ongoing federal election after suggesting earlier this year that people should try to claim a Chinese bounty on a Conservative candidate.
In a statement posted to X late Monday night, Chiang called the federal election “uniquely important,” saying he does “not want there to be distractions in this critical moment.”
h/t Mauser
On Monday morning, Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he had “confidence” in his candidate who, in January, called for his Conservative opponent to be turned over to the Chinese consulate in order to receive a bounty.
Mr. Carney said that Paul Chiang – who at once issued a veiled threat, encouraged foreign interference and trivialized the horrors Beijing has inflicted on dissidents – was a “person of integrity,” noting that he served for decades as a police officer and MP for the riding of Markham-Unionville for the last several years. Mr. Carney said that Mr. Chiang “made a terrible lapse in judgment,” as if he had gotten testy with a waiter at a restaurant, and not that he had suggested his political opponent be kidnapped by a violent and repressive foreign regime.
Liberal candidate in Markham to stay on with party despite ‘deplorable’ comments about former Conservative rival
OTTAWA — Mark Carney’s Liberals say they won’t turf Markham-Unionville candidate Paul Chiang, despite calls for his ouster after it emerged that he told a diaspora media outlet earlier this year how to claim a bounty Hong Kong had placed on a Conservative rival.
“Paul Chiang recognized that he made a significant lapse in judgment. He apologized and has been clear that he will stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong as they fight to safeguard their human rights and freedoms,” a spokesperson from Carney’s campaign told the Star in a statement.
This is so fecked up! The Liberals aren’t even trying to hide their Chicom allegiance.
Calls are mounting for Liberal Leader Mark Carney to fire Toronto-area candidate Paul Chiang, who said people should bring a Conservative politician to the local Chinese consulate to collect a bounty on him for criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong.
NDP candidate Jenny Kwan urged Mr. Carney to drop Mr. Chiang for his comments on Conservative candidate Joe Tay. “He advocated for people to bring him to the Chinese consulate to collect the bounty,” Ms. Kwan told reporters Sunday during a campaign event in Port Moody, B.C. “In what universe is this normal?”
