Former CSIS chief warns that China ‘will acquire’ all information about you in Chinese EVs

OTTAWA — As Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers boost exports to Canada, the country’s former spy chief warned that everything you do in or around one of those cars will be acquired by China.

In a rare interview with the BBC last month, former CSIS head David Vigneault did not mince his words: China’s theft of Western intellectual property amounts to a “lost generation of prosperity” for Canada. Furthermore, the Chinese government will use Chinese electric vehicles to further harvest data on Canadians and foreigners.

“Not to overhype it, but there is the reality that all of your data, what you say, where you go, with whom you are, who you associate with, everything you do around your car, will be acquired by China,” Vigneault said if had concerns about Chinese electric vehicles.

“It is not a question for me, it is a reality,” added Vigneault, who headed CSIS from 2017 to 2024.

Vigneault is not the first current or former Five Eyes intelligence chief to express concerns about Chinese-made electric vehicles. But he is the most high-profile recent Canadian intelligence official to plainly state grave concerns about how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will use them as intelligence-collecting devices.

The Chinese government has consistently denied any claims that its domestic companies can be used as information-gathering platforms.

Vigneault’s comments come as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government works to attract joint-venture Chinese EV manufacturing to Canada in a bid to replace fleeing U.S. automakers.

Earlier this year, Carney travelled to China where he announced wide-ranging new deals with PRC President Xi Jinping to boost trade between both countries, including dropping Canadian tariffs to the lowest level for nearly 50,000 Chinese EVs annually.

“To make Canada a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing, we’re working to attract significant new joint-venture Chinese investments,” Carney said in a statement at the time.

Last week, Chinese EV manufacturer Geely Auto — which also owns brands Lynk & Co and Zeekr — announced it would be introducing its vehicles into the Canadian market for the first time next year.

When asked about concerns linked to Chinese tech and espionage, the prime minister has repeatedly said he is entering “eyes wide open” into the new strategic partnership with China.

During the podcast, Vigneault said he understands that Canada “absolutely needs” to do business with the Asian economic behemoth. But “eyes wide open” isn’t quite enough.

“You need to have more than your eyes wide open; you need to also make sure that you’re protecting your wallet in your back pocket,” said the current chief intelligence officer at Strider.

That’s because China’s longtime efforts to steal intellectual property from Western governments, companies and research facilities has cost tens of billions to Canada and its allies, Vigneault told BBC.

CSIS and other Canadian intelligence agencies have also warned of increased Chinese efforts to steal Canadian IP, such as vaccine research during the COVID-19 pandemic or information that could be militarized by the PRC’s military.

In the interview, Vigneault suggested most people don’t fully comprehend the scope, value and impact of the PRC’s IP theft.

“The amount… of intellectual property that has been taken away from the West, from Great Britain, from Canada, the U.S. is essentially a lost generation of prosperity,” he said. “It’s not the amount of job losses in our society now, but also in the future.”

“Any new information innovation technology that comes into China is looked through the prism of, ‘Can we industrialize it to make to create jobs and opportunities’, but also, is there a way to weaponize it to essentially give new capabilities to the People’s Liberation Army.”

Vigneault also expressed his concern about the rise of antisemitism across the world, noting that some anti-Jewish terrorists in Canada are radicalized by ignorance.

“With Israel, you can absolutely disagree with policies. Unfortunately, I’ve seen some of the more extreme groups recuperate some of the legitimate angst against those policies and turn that into anti-semitism,” he explained.

“I’ve seen that in terrorist attacks in my country, in Canada, where people who honestly have no idea what they’re talking about, but the radicalization online essentially brings them… to become anti-semite.”

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.