{"id":341989,"date":"2026-05-28T15:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=341989"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:42:13","slug":"vancouver-city-hall-retracts-claim-ottawa-approved-meeting-with-chinese-consulate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/vancouver-city-hall-retracts-claim-ottawa-approved-meeting-with-chinese-consulate\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver city hall retracts claim Ottawa approved meeting with Chinese consulate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Vancouver city hall now says Global Affairs Canada didn&#8217;t approve a gathering held last month between one in every of its employees and Chinese officials regarding an event by performers critical of Beijing.<\/p>\n<p>In an unsolicited email to Global News, town admitted it had falsely claimed the federal government had deemed the meeting with China\u2019s consulate in Vancouver a standard diplomatic interaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGlobal Affairs Canada didn&#8217;t take an official position in regards to the meeting,\u201d city spokesperson Cecilia Ho said in the e-mail sent Tuesday correcting its previous statement in regards to the matter.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson blamed an \u201cinternal misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Global Affairs Canada didn&#8217;t reply to questions on the incident, which some have branded an example of China\u2019s continued efforts to interfere in Canada\u2019s domestic affairs.<\/p>\n<p>On May 4, Global News reported that Chinese consular officials had requested a gathering with town worker answerable for the Vancouver theatre where dance group Shen Yun was scheduled to perform.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sources told Global News the diplomats wanted the worker to cancel the show. Beijing has long targeted Shen Yun due to its ties to the Falun Gong movement and unflattering portrayal of Chinese communist party rule.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to the report, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim\u2019s office said in a May 5 statement that the meeting was \u201cnot a breach of protocol, nor was there any pressure\u201d by consular officials to cancel the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStaff discussed the meeting with Global Affairs Canada and confirmed that the meeting falls inside the bounds of a standard diplomatic interaction with China,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>But town now says its statement was inaccurate and that Global Affairs Canada didn&#8217;t actually give the thumbs as much as the meeting upfront, because the mayor\u2019s office had claimed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"l-article__part\" data-shortcode=\"tp_video\">\n<div class=\"c-video c-videoPlay \" data-iframe-receiver=\"\" data-autoplay=\"\" data-displayinline-featured=\"false\" data-displayinline-type=\"video\" data-displayinline-player-id=\"miniplayer_11828195_6a180b8c8bb15\" data-displayinline-video-id=\"11828195\" data-displayinline-ratio=\"16:9\" data-displayinline=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/video\/embed\/11828195\/#autoplay&#038;stickyiframe=miniplayer_11828195_6a180b8c8bb15\" data-displayinline-sticky=\"true\" data-permutive-data='{\"content\":{\"name\":\"Exclusive: Chinese consulate allegedly tried to cancel Vancouver arts showu00a0\",\"type\":\"video\",\"sections\":[\"videos\",\"national\",\"politics\"],\"keywords\":[\"china\",\"chinese-communist-party\",\"chinese-consulate\",\"dance-performance\",\"falun-gong\",\"queen-elizabeth-theatre\",\"shen-yun\",\"short-clip\",\"vancouver\"],\"iab\":{\"categories\":[\"Law and Government\/Government\",\"Law and Government\"],\"tags\":[\"Anita Anand\",\"Authoritarianism\",\"Beijing\",\"Bomb\",\"Bomb threat\",\"Bus\",\"Canada\",\"Canadian Opera Company\",\"Canadian Security Intelligence Service\",\"China\",\"Chinese Communist Party\",\"Communism\",\"Communist party\",\"Consul (representative)\",\"Consulate\",\"Dance\",\"Decision-making\",\"Diplomat\",\"Ecosystem\",\"Elizabeth II\",\"Email\",\"Email spam\",\"Explosive\",\"Falun\",\"Falun Gong\",\"Falun Gong outside mainland China\",\"Foreign electoral intervention\",\"G7\",\"Global Affairs Canada\",\"Global News\",\"Government of China\",\"India\",\"Intimidation\",\"Iran\",\"Ken Sim\",\"Mark Carney\",\"Mayor\",\"Montreal\",\"Opera\",\"Ottawa\",\"Pakistan\",\"Parliament Hill\",\"Police\",\"Political warfare\",\"Premiership of Mark Carney\",\"Press conference\",\"Prime Minister of Canada\",\"Russia\",\"Shen Yun\",\"Theatre\",\"Toronto\",\"Trade\",\"Vancouver\",\"Vancouver City Hall\",\"Wang Yi\"]}}}'>\n<div class=\"c-video__inner \">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__placeholder\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Exclusive: Chinese consulate allegedly tried to cancel Vancouver arts show\u00a0'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/media.globalnews.ca\/videostatic\/news\/08e1rhjnek-tpt33rt83b\/semple.jpg?w=1040&#038;quality=70&#038;strip=all\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"\" sizes=\"auto, \" data-sizes=\"(min-width: 1040px) 1040px,(min-width: 720px) 720px,450px\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__overlay\"><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"c-video__duration\">2:36<\/time><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__title\">Exclusive: Chinese consulate allegedly tried to cancel Vancouver arts show\u00a0<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The performance also faced bomb threats that were traced to China, but went ahead without incident on the Queen Elizabeth Theatre April 8-12 after a police search didn&#8217;t turn up explosives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Prior to the Vancouver leg of the tour, the Canadian Opera Company cancelled Shen Yun performances in Toronto following threats to attack the venue. The performances have since been rescheduled for June.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup\" data-newsletter-inline=\"\">\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__image\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__content\">\n<h2 class=\"c-inlineSignup__title\">Get day by day National news<\/h2>\n<p>Get day by day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you will never miss the day&#8217;s top stories.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The apparent attempts to silence a show critical of communist party repression got here as Prime Minister Mark Carney pursues a trade agreement with Beijing despite national security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Pro-democracy activists have asked the Carney government to deal with foreign interference with\u00a0China\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who&#8217;s scheduled to arrived in Ottawa on Thursday, the primary such visit in a decade.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter sent to Foreign Minister Anita Anand on Tuesday, the association representing Canadian Falun Gong practitioners asked her to boost China\u2019s attacks on Shen Yun shows with Wang.<\/p>\n<p>The letter asked Anand to demand that China \u201cstop consular pressure on Canadian officials and venues, and stop orchestrating threats targeting Shen Yun and Canadian politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It also said Anand should demand that China cooperate with Canadian police investigations into those behind bomb threats targeting venues hosting Shen Yun performances.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-tabs\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab c-tabs__tab--active\" type=\"button\">More on Canada<\/button><br \/>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab\" type=\"button\">More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Moreover, Anand should affirm that Canadians have the fitting to attend cultural performances and practice their faith \u201cfree from foreign intimidation,\u201d the Falun Dafa Association of Canada wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRaising these concerns directly and on the record would signal to Beijing that Canada recognizes and takes seriously foreign interference and intimidation targeting communities inside Canada, and that attempts to suppress lawful cultural and non secular expression through coercive means are unacceptable,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The group was to carry a press conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday to press the problem, together with the imprisonment in China of Falun Gong practitioners with relations in Canada.<\/p>\n<div class=\"l-article__part\" data-shortcode=\"caption\">\n<figure class=\"c-figure c-figure--aligncenter c-figure--expandable\">\n<div class=\"c-figure__inner\" style=\"width:1200px;\"><figcaption class=\"c-figure__caption c-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-caption__desc\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tShen Yun dancers pose with their tour bus.\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"c-caption__cite\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tShenyun.org\t\t\t\t<\/cite><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported on May 1 that China remained a top perpetrator of foreign interference against Canada, together with India, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>A report released Wednesday by the Montreal Institute for Global Security said Canada was a \u201csignificant goal\u201d of Chinese state influence operations that included meddling in elections.<\/p>\n<p>The report urged G7 countries to co-ordinate their responses to the threat, which it called \u201ca central national security challenge\u201d to the political systems, institutions and societies of democratic countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs strategic competition intensifies, authoritarian states are increasingly leveraging covert, coercive, and non-transparent tools to shape decision-making abroad,\u201d said the report, Guarding the G7: Countering Beijing\u2019s Influence Operations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe Chinese Communist Party leverages a broad ecosystem of affiliated organizations, intermediaries, and informal networks that span political, economic, academic, and societal domains to influence and interfere in G7 countries,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese actors often operate under the guise of legitimate exchange, enabling influence to be exercised in ways which are difficult to detect, attribute or regulate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n\t\t&#038;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vancouver city hall now says Global Affairs Canada didn&#8217;t approve a gathering held last month between one in every of its employees and Chinese officials regarding an event by performers critical of Beijing. In an unsolicited email to Global News, town admitted it had falsely claimed the federal government had deemed the meeting with China\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[10745,7531,1055,6146,31046,1012,7165,8497,20766,8136],"class_list":["post-341989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-approved","tag-chinese","tag-city","tag-claim","tag-consulate","tag-hall","tag-meeting","tag-ottawa","tag-retracts","tag-vancouver"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341992,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341989\/revisions\/341992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}