Several Toronto-area business people aligned in various ways with the Chinese government were among guests who paid close to $2,000 to attend a Liberal party fundraiser with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month. Article content

The attendees included individuals and groups that have won praise from Chinese diplomats and agencies, echoed Beijing’s talking points on contentious issues and worked with Chinese Communist Party (CPP) organizations.

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Co-hosted by local MP Michael Ma, the dinner attracted attention even before it began. Ma crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in December 2025, then drew controversy last month by pointedly challenging parliamentary testimony about the well-documented phenomenon of forced labour in China.

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The Liberals are not alone in their interactions with pro-China figures here. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sat next to a prominent Beijing ally at a party-organized community-outreach event in 2023, while Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was endorsed by a Toronto group and a then-senator aligned with Beijing when he ran for the Tory leadership in 2022.

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But Fung said the recent dinner came as China-boosting forces seem to be stepping up their influence efforts. A recent letter urged Chinese Canadians to support the Liberals as they pursue “friendly cooperation between Canada and China.” It was signed by 36 groups, including two that espouse “reunification” of China and Taiwan, a key policy goal of Beijing. Most residents of Taiwan, a self-governing island that has never been part of the People’s Republic, oppose such a merger.

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Meanwhile, a new organization, Canadians United Against Modern Exclusion, has emerged to oppose government plans for a foreign-influence registry and other products of what it calls “foreign interference hysteria,” while evoking a law that excluded immigrants from China – and was repealed almost 80 years ago.

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The [Liberal] party has a fraught history with wealthy members of the Chinese-Canadian community in the Toronto and Vancouver areas. The Liberals faced a barrage of criticism when word got out in 2016 that Trudeau had held a series of fundraisers at the homes of rich donors. Some guests had business with government, others had ties to the Chinese state, prompting cash-for-access accusations.

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The Liberals eventually responded by introducing rules around fundraising events that they say are more stringent than those of any other party.

The episode was embodied by a photo taken at one of the events in a private home, depicting smiling donors hovering around the then-prime minister as he learned how to make Chinese dumplings.

Next to Trudeau in the widely distributed picture was businesswoman Jenny Qi, who has participated in events of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a Communist Party-controlled advisory body.

Qi was at last month’s event, too, a photograph in a Chinese-language article on the dinner showing her handing the current prime minister a business card.

She is head of the Canadian Confederation of Shenzhen Associations, which among other activities has hosted an “Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition” in Toronto designed to connect entrepreneurs here with companies in Shenzhen. The confederation promotes “peaceful reunification” of China and Taiwan, a key goal of Chinese President Xi Jinping but opposed by most Taiwanese, the group’s website says. And it is recognized by the Shenzhen section of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, a branch of the United Front Work Department, a huge agency of the CCP charged in part with extending the country’s influence worldwide. Qi has taken part in Shenzhen regional events of the party’s CPPCC.

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The fundraiser also drew former and current directors of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO) and the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC), both groups with a long history of echoing Beijing’s position on controversial issues. The CTCCO was even praised by Beijing’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office – now part of the UFWD – for its China support.