Founder of Canada-China relations group, Liberal donor faces deportation for ‘war crimes’

Since arriving in Canada almost two decades ago, Rong Xiang Yuan has championed closer ties between Ottawa and Beijing, spoken at community events and rubbed shoulders with politicians.

The founder of an advocacy group called the Canada-China Association for Promoting Friendly Relations, he met Justin Trudeau and donated to the then-prime minister and the Liberal Party.

But Canada’s immigration enforcement department is now alleging the Chinese community leader, also known as “Tiger” Yuan, is a war criminal who lied his way into the country.

Global News has learned the Canada Border Services Agency has launched deportation proceedings against Yuan, who was born in China and is not a Canadian citizen.

Yuan has denied the allegations.

But the border agency is claiming the 63-year-old committed crimes against humanity in the 1980s when he was a member of the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party.

The CBSA is also accusing Yuan, who lives near Vancouver, of misrepresenting his military record to Canadian immigration authorities when he applied for permanent residence, which he received in 2008.

In a statement to Global News, an Immigration and Refugee Board spokesperson said Canada’s border security agency had referred Yuan to the tribunal for a deportation hearing.

“We can confirm that the IRB has received a referral from CBSA in the matter of Rong Xiang Yuan for an admissibility hearing under paragraphs 35(1)(a) and 40(1)(a) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” the Board said.

“A hearing date has not yet been scheduled.”

The first paragraph is the section used to deport those who have committed acts outside Canada that constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, according to the legislation.

The second is for those accused of “misrepresenting or withholding material facts relating to a relevant matter,” which resulted in an error in the decision to approve their immigration status.

Yuan served in the People’s Liberation Army during China’s 1979-to-1991 war against Vietnam, according to a communist party newspaper report and social media posts.

His lawyer said in a letter to Global News that Yuan was wounded in the Sino-Vietnamese conflict and was later awarded a citation of merit, but denied any involvement in war crimes.

“He denies in the strongest terms having committed any war crimes, and he has never been charged with or convicted of any such offence in China, Canada, or elsewhere,” Daniel Reid said.

An expert said foreign citizens who have committed war crimes are not allowed in Canada, and failing to disclose involvement in such atrocities on immigration forms was considered misrepresentation.

“Any investigation concerning a non-citizen living in Canada being alleged of committing war crimes is exceptionally serious,” said Kelly Sundberg, a criminology professor at Mount Royal University.

A former CBSA officer who specializes in border security issues, Sundberg said such cases underscored the importance of rigorous immigration screening and sound immigration policies.

“Equally concerning is how a non-citizen facing such serious allegations could apparently gain access to senior politicians and political networks,” Sundberg said in an interview.

B.C. court records show that Yuan has other legal troubles as well: the Abbotsford Police Department charged him with two criminal offenses in July.

He appeared in provincial court on Sept. 14 to face charges of dangerous operation of a conveyance and refusing to comply with a roadside demand. He returns to court this week.

“I can confirm that Mr. Yuan was arrested on July 19, 2026, shortly before midnight on Highway One,” Abbotsford police told Global News. “Mr. Yuan failed to comply with a lawful roadside demand and was subsequently arrested.”

“At the time of his arrest, he was operating a pickup truck.”

The case comes five years after court records indicate he was fined and banned from driving for three months after being charged with driving while prohibited in Maple Ridge, B.C.

Also in July, the B.C. government placed a lien on the Fraser Valley property listed in Yuan’s arrest records as his home address, alleging $507,000 in unpaid provincial taxes.

The war crimes allegations date to the Cold War conflict that began in 1979 when China invaded Vietnam, which had broken away from Beijing’s orbit to align with Moscow.

Vietnam had further upset China’s communist party by overthrowing totalitarian dictator Pol Pot’s murderous pro-Beijing Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

The war was in its final stages, but hardly over, when Yuan, then in his mid-twenties, was allegedly deployed to the Vietnamese border region in 1987.

“Certainly there was artillery going back and forth, there were border incursions,” said Université du Québec à Montréal history Prof. Christopher Goscha, who is writing a book about the Indo-China wars.

A March 23, 1988 news report in the Chinese communist party’s People’s Daily newspaper described Yuan as a platoon leader who took part in a deadly encounter with Vietnamese forces.

After China and Vietnam made peace in 1991, they erased the conflict from official history, but veterans have begun filling the void by telling their stories, Goscha said.

According to those online accounts, Yuan led the PLA’s 13th Reconnaissance Platoon on the frontline in Yunnan province, and took part in combat missions and the capture of Vietnamese prisoners.

A Saskatchewan-based Vietnamese community leader said if the allegations of war crimes were accurate, he supported the CBSA’s actions.

“If that is true, I agree with that,” said Vietnamese Canadian Federation president Dong Van Tran, who recalled living through the conflict, which caused tens of thousands of casualties.

Yuan was discharged from the military in 1991. His lawyer said he “has had no involvement or affiliation with the Chinese military since then.”

He went on to what his lawyer called a “successful business career in China and Hong Kong,” and immigrated to Canada in 2008 due to “uncertainty in China,” Reid added.

Once in Canada, Yuan moved into a $4.3-million, 10,000-square-foot house with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, according to court and corporate records. The property has made headlines as the priciest property in Chilliwack, B.C.

A local reporter who visited the seven-acre estate, which has an adjacent four-acre wedding venue, counted 32 security cameras. An outbuilding reportedly houses a collection of vintage vehicles.

Government records list Yuan as a former director of Tiger Arms Ltd., a gun retailer in Port Coquitlam, as well as a “real estate company owner” and a “high risk” gambler.

In 2015, Yuan’s cash buy-ins at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C. exceeded $4 million. His heavy gambling got him flagged by the province’s anti-money laundering unit, records show.

He was among a group of casino patrons notified they could no longer gamble unless they could prove the source of their cash with bank or ATM withdrawal slips.

The action was taken because “the nature of the cash that they presented at the casino suggested that the money did not come from a recognized financial institution and may be of questionable source,” B.C. Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch records show.

He was never charged with any casino or money laundering-related crimes.His lawyer said Yuan “denies any involvement in money laundering.”

He has claimed to have had a gambling problem that cost him US$10 million.

“Yuan says he borrowed large sums of money, in cash, from a Jiuxiao Wang to support his gambling at the River Rock Casino,” according to a court ruling.

“Yuan says he repaid Mr. Wang in China.”

According to his lawyer, Yuan was targeted by loan sharks due to “permissive oversight” at casinos, and denies “any unlawful conduct in connection with his gambling or financial transactions.”

“Mr. Yuan’s gambling resulted in substantial net losses and personal embarrassment,” said Reid, adding that no casinos, lottery regulators or law enforcement had “sought to interview Mr. Yuan about his gambling activities.”

Around the time Yuan was frequenting casinos, the Canada-China Association for Promoting Friendly Relations (CCAPFR) was formed. Yuan is listed in corporate records as a founding board member.

The organization’s mission was “to promote friendly relations between Canada and China,” according to a copy of its constitution.

Yuan represented the group at Chinese community events, giving speeches at functions attended by elected officials from all three levels of government, as well as Chinese consular officials.

“Tiger Yuan is a successful businessman who has been an active member of the Chinese-Canadian community for many years,” his lawyer told Global News in 2020.

According to the lawyer (Yuan is suing Corus Entertainment, the owner of Global News, over a 2018 news reports, Yuan has “met many individuals.”

One of them was allegedly Trudeau, who reportedly met Yuan at a Richmond hotel during his first term as prime minister. Yuan was photographed sitting next to Trudeau at a 2016 Liberal party event.

Yuan later donated $1,500 to Trudeau’s Montreal riding association. Three other Tiger Arms directors also contributed $1,500 each to Trudeau, although all lived in B.C.

He gave another $2,800 to the Liberal Party of Canada in 2016, while the other three Tiger Arms directors, and a Canada-China association board member, donated $11,500 in total, according to Elections Canada records.

The Canada-China Association for Promoting Friendly Relations, meanwhile, donated $1,050 to the B.C. Liberal Party in 2017, Elections B.C. records indicate.

Media coverage and social media posts also show Yuan alongside then-Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido at a 2018 Canada-China boxing event hosted by the CCAPFR.

They were side-by-side again at the opening of what press coverage called a “high-end private club for Chinese” that featured “celebrities from all walks of life.”

His lawyer said Yuan had contributed extensively to Canadian and Chinese Canadian communities and had raised $30,000 to support Alberta communities affected by wildfires in 2016.

“The value of those charitable contributions substantially exceeded the value of his limited political donations, and reflects
Mr. Yuan’s deep attachment to his adopted home,” Reid said.

“Mr. Yuan also attended public, social, and community events at which municipal, provincial, and federal politicians were present,” he continued.

“Importantly, although he attended events at which sitting Members of Parliament and the former Prime Minister were also present, he has never had a personal relationship or private meeting with a Canadian politician.”

“He has never lobbied or otherwise sought to influence the Canadian democratic process beyond making lawful political
donations, all of which complied with applicable electoral law.”

Although the B.C. government dissolved the Canada-China association in 2019 for failing to file the required paperwork, Yuan continued speaking at community events.

In one address, he referred to China as “our great motherland,” while opining that “as overseas Chinese, we are strangers in a foreign land.”

At the 2023 gala of the Canadian Community Service Association, a non-profit that Trudeau wrote in a letter had “greatly contributed to our nation,”  Yuan took to the stage once again.

Dressed all in red, Yuan spoke in Mandarin to the audience, which the hosts said included two Liberal MPs, a B.C. cabinet minister, two provincial MLAs and the local mayor.

Yuan encouraged community members to “actively participate in politics,” and to “make our due contributions to the Canadian community by obeying the law.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca