China allies paid $2,000 to attend Carney fundraiser

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.

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. One guest’s presence evoked memories of the famous “dumpling-making” photo of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a controversial fundraiser a decade ago.

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 2025, then drew controversy last month by pointedly challenging parliamentary testimony about the well-documented phenomenon of forced labour in China.

The fact China-friendly figures paid $1,750 each to attend a gathering with Carney is a worrisome reminder of Beijing’s reach, indirectly at least, into federal politics, China critics charge.

“By paying for that expensive ticket, you get the face-to-face acquaintance with the political VIP you like to associate with,” said Gloria Fung of the group Canada-Hong Kong Link.

“There are steps — step by step — how these politicians could be lobbied and lured into the acceptance of the narrative promoted by donors,” she said. “I don’t want any of our government officials to run into this evil cycle again, because it won’t end there. It won’t end with a fundraising dinner.”

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.

But Fung said the recent dinner came as China-boosting forces seem to be stepping up their influence efforts once more. 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.

Meanwhile, a new organization – called 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. Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China said he’s not surprised such figures would pay to associate with the governing Liberals, especially after Carney’s recent mending of fences with Beijing.

“I am not surprised but I am also very, very concerned.”

Matteo Rossi, a spokesman for the Liberal Party, did not comment on questions around some of the attendees, but said information on the event – including names of donors – will be released as usual on the Elections Canada website.

“The Liberal Party of Canada has committed to the strongest standards in federal politics for openness and transparency with political fundraising events,” he said.

The 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.

The Liberals eventually responded by introducing new 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.

She and Carney discussed the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit planned for Shenzhen this November and Qi told the prime minister her group could “provide support and assistance to the Canadian delegation,” according to an article posted online  by the confederation.

Another attendee at the Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ont., was Hong Wei (Winnie) Liao, a prominent and controversial personal-finance entrepreneur who has been the guest of Chinese consulates here.

Liao actually hosted some of the contentious fundraising get-togethers with Trudeau, according to the Globe and Mail. She’s well-known in Toronto and Vancouver Chinese-Canadian communities as chair of Respon International, an insurance and wealth-management company. She’s also won kudos from Chinese diplomats, with the Vancouver consulate praising her for supporting “overseas Chinese” groups and promoting Chinese culture. Her company sponsored a New Year’s gala put on by the Council of Newcomer Organizations, a group that paralleled China’s narrative when it decried a Parliamentary motion calling Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur minority a genocide, and lambasted pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Liao has been in the news for other reasons. The Insurance Council of B.C. ordered her licence suspended for half a decade in rulings over the last two years, after she falsely claimed to have received a Masters in Business Administration degree, and was found guilty of other wrongdoing in her work with clients.

Liao garnered more unwanted publicity when her daughter, Lucy Li, was charged and later convicted alongside Li’s husband of murdering a man in Hamilton, Ont.

Neither Qi nor Liao could be reached for comment about their attendance at the Liberal event.

Also at the fundraiser last month was Thomas Qu, a former Ontario Power Generation official who organized a 2018 news conference at which John McCallum, then Canada’s ambassador to China, triggered a storm of controversy by largely mirroring Beijing’s stance on the arrest of Huawei-executive Meng Wanzhou. Trudeau fired McCallum days afterward.

Qu also spoke vigorously in favour of the Toronto public school board working with the Confucius Institute, a language-instruction and cultural agency of the Chinese government widely accused of being  a tool of CPP influence, or even espionage. Qu was a founder of the Chinese Professional Association of Canada, cited in the report of the federal inquiry on foreign interference as possibly being allied with the Communist Party’s UFWD. Qu could not be reached for comment.

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.

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