Foreign Interference: RCMP investigate death of B.C. man targeted by China
globalnews.caThe RCMP is investigating the death of a B.C. man who was a target of Operation Fox Hunt, a Chinese government campaign to pressure expatriates and silence opponents.
Wei Hu, a 57-year-old father of three, lived in a gated $2.8-million property on B.C.’s Harrison Lake. According to a friend, he was a critic of Beijing who left China in 2000.
But even in Canada, he could not escape the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which issued a so-called Red Notice through Interpol seeking his arrest and return to China for supposed financial crimes.
He died in an apparent suicide in July 2021. The RCMP has now launched a national security investigation after a witness said Hu had complained the CCP was harassing him.
The probe is looking into whether pressure from the CCP was a factor in his death.
It is being conducted by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) in B.C., and was confirmed by multiple sources, including a friend recently interviewed by police about Hu.
According to the friend, the RCMP INSET said it was examining Hu’s death because they “suspected there might be some other reason than just a mental problem.”
“They didn’t have a conclusion yet.”
Operation Fox Hunt is a global anti-corruption campaign launched under President Xi Jinping. Beijing uses it to coerce expatriates into returning to China to surrender to authorities.
The Canadian government describes Fox Hunt as a “global operation which claims to target corruption but is also believed to have been used to target and quiet dissidents.”
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
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