(Central News Agency reporter Cheng Aifen, Vancouver, 21st) The father of the victim, Guo Li, who was imprisoned for defending his rights in China's "poisoned milk powder" incident and was eventually rehabilitated, lives in exile in Canada. He has been framed and attacked in Canada because of his continued exposure of injustices in China. Guo Li believes that he has become one of the targets of China's cross-border suppression.
In 2008, the melamine-tainted milk powder incident in China shocked the world. At least 30 million infants and young children suffered from kidney stones as a result. Guo Li's daughter was one of the child victims. After the incident, he insisted on defending his rights and demanded compensation from the company responsible for the incident. However, he was sentenced to five years in prison by the authorities for extortion. While in custody, he was tortured and even beaten to become disabled. However, he was unwilling to compromise and insisted on appealing, and the court eventually acquitted him.
During his long years of rights protection, Guo Li has seen all the shady operations in China's political and business relations. In order to expose the truth, he chose to live in exile in Canada in 2022. He often speaks out for injustices in China on social media. At the same time, he also sorted out the unknown details of the tainted milk powder incident into a book. The Chinese and English versions of "Flying Dad" have been published one after another.
Unexpectedly, he began to face inexplicable suppression in Canada.
Guo Li told the Central News Agency that his landlord suddenly changed his attitude in 2024. First, while the lease was still valid, he cut off the water and electricity in his rental place and interfered with his normal life, with the intention of forcing him to move out voluntarily; later, he even secretly helped strangers come to attack him and his family.
Due to personal safety concerns, Guo Li moved out of his original rental apartment, but the landlord he met later was in a similar situation and illegally evicted and suppressed him and his family.
Guo Li said that while living in Canada, he was followed, watched, verbally warned, and even threatened through the Internet. "This is an organized act. I believe it is the intervention of Beijing. Their agents in Canada may have paid off the landlord and thugs, trying every means to silence me and give up my rights protection."
He filed a complaint with the Canadian law enforcement agencies and the British Columbia Tenancy Tribunal against the landlord and the attacker. After investigation and trial, he successfully obtained a "personal safety protection order" issued by the court. Subsequent related criminal, civil and human rights infringement cases were also scheduled for trial in local legal proceedings.
Canada's "Foreign Influence Transparency Registry" officially came into effect on August 4. This is a mechanism established to prevent foreign interference.
On the eve of the system taking effect, personnel from the Canadian national security system proactively contacted Guo Li to inquire about his experience. Guo Li said: "I think many Canadians are very naive and have many beautiful illusions about China. However, China's intervention and penetration are very detailed and not easy for ordinary people to detect. I think the new system can at least play a protective role."
Guo Li said that Canadian law enforcement officials initially thought that he had just encountered a bad landlord. However, after the multiple evidences he provided and the suspicion of collusion between the two landlords, and even the witnesses who were originally willing to testify for him suddenly lost contact, all signs showed that this was by no means a simple rental dispute.
A research report published by the Canadian think tank "Montreal Institute for Global Security" in May this year revealed that the Chinese government has carried out "systematic and adaptive" long-term penetration of the Group of Seven Major Industrial Countries (G7), including Canada. This strategy combines legal and covert activities to carry out various actions locally, ranging from interfering in elections, manipulating public opinion, persecuting dissidents in exile in these countries, to stealing industrial secrets.
