How China is paying big bucks to target Ottawa power brokers

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OTTAWA — Beijing is shelling out big bucks to spread its message deep inside the Ottawa bubble, buying ad space to publish editorials in a niche Parliament Hill newspaper directly targeting Canada’s top policymakers.

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Since 2022, China’s embassy in Ottawa has published 37 editorials in The Hill Times, a twice-weekly newspaper distributed on Parliament Hill with content often of interest to federal political insiders

With a few exceptions, nearly all of the columns were published as paid advertisements, almost exclusively op-eds signed by China’s Ambassador to Canada Wang Di or his predecessor Cong Peiwu.

The frequency of these advertorials has seen a dramatic increase in recent times, with the embassy publishing 26 of them in the past 18 months.

Topics range from benign to threatening

While some advertorials were benign cultural outreach pieces typical of many embassies around the world, many lean heavily into Beijing’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy, particularly concerning Taiwan and the South China Sea.

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Many of the op-eds appear to set aggressive “red lines” for Ottawa lawmakers, issuing warnings that aligning with U.S. security policy in the region would carry severe diplomatic consequences.

Published in the July 2, 2025 edition of The Hill Times, “The One-China Principle Must Not Be Challenged and the Outcomes of World War II Must Not Be Tampered With” warns Canada and the world that Taiwan is an immutable part of China, and that “no one and no force” will prevent Beijing from “reclaiming” the sovereign nation.

“All necessary measures in response to the provocations and coercion of the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces are acts of justice to safeguard our national sovereignty and territorial integrity and to thwart attempts to divide the country,” Ambassador Wang wrote in the paid advertisement. 

“No external interference will be allowed in this process.”

Other topics include warnings to western nations against interfering in China’s land grabs in the South China Sea, warnings that western attempts to meddle in Taiwanese affairs are doomed to fail, and another targeting U.S. tariffs while lauding Ottawa for standing up to President Trump’s trade war while employing terms like “opposing unilateral bullying” — thinly-veiled diplomatic code targeting western sanctions and Canada’s foreign influence laws.

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Embassy seemingly reluctant to admit columns were advertorials

While most were paid-for advertorials, some columns were published with attribution in the newspaper’s comment section — including an op-ed by Wang — including an op-ed by Wang entitled “China-Canada relations: setting sail towards a brighter future,” published in the Hill Times’ Oct. 13 2025 edition.

Screenshots of each op-ed are also re-published on the Chinese embassy’s website — and while advertorials in the print edition feature the word “ADVERTISEMENT” clearly visible across the top, many were cropped to remove it before being posted on the embassy’s website.

One such piece, entitled “The farce of the South China Sea arbitration must stop” published in the paper’s Aug. 10 2026 edition, had the word “ADVERTISEMENT” removed before appearing on the Chinese embassy’s website.

Invitations to the Chinese embassy by the Sun went unacknowledged.

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Beijing’s targeted audience

After years of frosty relations, summary detentions of Canadian citizens and accusations of interference in Canada’s democracy, the relationship between Ottawa and Beijing has greatly improved over the past year, particularly as Canada seeks new trading partners in the face of the Trump administration’s trade war.

That hasn’t, however, stopped Beijing from inserting itself into Canadian affairs, including recent warnings from Amb. Wang to Canadian parliamentarians against visiting Taiwan.

Alan Kessel, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former Canadian diplomat, said the embassy’s overt campaign is all about targeted access. 

“If you want to influence a policy conversation, you don’t necessarily need a mass audience — you need the right audience,” Kessel told the Toronto Sun, suggesting the embassy’s goal is to drip-feed its geostrategic worldview to Ottawa policymakers until it becomes background noise.

“The pattern is hard to ignore.”

Kessel, who previously served as deputy high commissioner of Canada to the United Kingdom, said it’s common for embassies to take out ads in local newspapers to promote activities or initiatives, but said the medium matters.

“We wouldn’t buy space in a newspaper that’s geared towards the political elite and influencers,” he said.

“The difference is not so much the quantity of what they’re doing, it’s really the vehicle they’re using.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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