On Wednesday, the government released hundreds of pages related to the firing of Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Security Intelligence Service determined that one of two scientists fired from Canada’s most secure microbiology lab worked closely and covertly with Chinese government labs and collaborated with “institutions whose goals have potentially lethal military applications.”
On Wednesday, the government released hundreds of pages related to the firing of Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng from the national microbiology lab in Winnipeg. The pair were escorted out of the lab in 2019 and fired in 2021.
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The hundreds of pages of documents include CSIS assessments created after the pair were marched out of the labs. The spy agency recommended the Public Health Agency of Canada revoke the security clearances of both scientists.
For Qiu, in particular, they found there were strong ties between her and the Chinese government.
“The Service assess that Ms. Qiu developed deep, cooperative relationships with a variety of People’s Republic of China institutions and has intentionally transferred scientific knowledge and materials to China in order to benefit the PRC government,” reads a letter from January 2021 recommending her security clearance be revoked.
CSIS discovered Qiu had applied for and likely received a position under China’s Thousand Talents Program, a government sponsored program to recruit Chinese experts, which also allows them to keep jobs in Western countries.
Qiu’s position came through the Wuhan Institute of Virology and CSIS determined that the Thousand Talents Program offers researchers up to $1 million in research subsidies and better access to visas and Chinese health care.
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CSIS found Qiu has several positions as a visiting professor with Chinese institutions, but would leave those positions off her CV when applying for jobs within Canada. It found in interviews about all of this Qiu repeatedly lied even as she was given every opportunity to come clean.
“Qiu continued to make blanket denials, feign ignorance or tell outright lies,” the CSIS letter wrote.
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CSIS was also critical of Cheng, finding that he must have been aware of his wife’s subterfuge and found that he had also likely applied to one of the Chinese government’s talent programs. They found he too lied during interviews with CSIS.
“Despite being given ample opportunities to provide truthful statements to the interviewers, regarding topics of concern relating to his security clearance, the service assesses that Mr. Cheng failed to tell the truth in areas where he most needed to,” they wrote in July 2020.
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The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) started a lengthy process to get to the bottom of the story that led to multiple investigations and CSIS reports, as well as a grievance from both individuals alleging that they were victims of discrimination because they were Chinese.
PHAC’s National Security Management Division was advised on September 2018 that Qiu appeared as an inventor of a Chinese Patent that may contain scientific information produced at the Canadian Sciences Centre for Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH) in Winnipeg.
She was then found to have shared scientific data without the necessary authorities.
Qiu was found to have shipped sensitive materials outside of the national microbiology lab without approval, including antibodies to the China National Institute for Food and Drug Control as well as some others to the United Kingdom and the United States for testing.
She also admitted to having sent several emails to research associates through personal email accounts on Gmail or Yahoo instead of her personal corporate account.
As for Cheng, he not only used his personal email accounts and unauthorized external drives to conduct government business but also breached security policies regarding students under his supervision by giving them access to the scientific network through a computer in the laboratory.
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He was also found to have allowed those students to work in the laboratories unescorted and did not prevent them from improperly removing laboratory materials on at least two occasions in October 2018.
A CSIS Security Assessment noted that Cheng had “circumvented” government policies and guidelines regarding the sharing of sensitive information as it pertains to assisting his spouse, Qiu, in communicating with foreign entities and in applications to foreign-sponsored talent programs.
It is not known whether Qiu and Cheng are still living in Canada.
In the last Parliament, the Liberals fought efforts to have these documents revealed including at one point taking the Speaker of the House of Commons to court to prevent them from being released.
Last fall, the Liberals agreed to have an ad-hoc committee of opposition MPs review the documents with any disputes over redactions being sorted out by a panel of judges. In an introduction to the hundreds of pages, the MPs on that committee said the recommendations were not necessary.
“The information appears to be mostly about protecting the organization from embarrassment for failures in policy and implementation, not legitimate national security concerns, and its release is essential to hold the government to account,” the MPs wrote.
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Health Minister Mark Holland defended the lengthy process to get the documents released.
“That ad hoc committee rightfully did its work and released the documents that we have today. It’s a success of that process. The reason it took time is because we’re dealing with national security,” he said.
He said it was clear what happened at the labs was wrong, but assured Canadians the lab is now safe.
“Since that period of time extraordinary efforts have been taken to ensure that nothing like it will occur again and those protocols are well in place.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called it an “unprecedented and terrifying security breach” and said he would make it a priority to secure Canada’s labs against these kinds of breaches.
“This is a massive national security failure by Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government, which he fought tooth and nail to cover up, including defying four parliamentary orders and taking the House of Commons Speaker to court,” said Poilievre, in an emailed statement to the National Post.
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