The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada's federal law enforcement agency, suspended its contract with a company linked to the Chinese Communist Party on Dec. 8 following political backlash.
RCMP's CA$500,000 ($366,200) contract with Sinclair Technologies was meant for a radio frequency filtering system to prevent eavesdropping. Sinclair is controlled by the Shenzhen, China-based Hytera Communications.
Concerns about Hytera being partly owned by the Chinese government raised the alarm bells on Chinese actors potentially accessing Canadian communications. Hytera had also been banned by the U.S. in 2021, with Washington explaining that it was among several Chinese companies that pose a national security risk.
"The RCMP has suspended the contract," confirmed a spokesman for Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, described the deal as "disconcerting" when asked about it. His reaction came amid his security agencies' warnings about Beijing's espionage and interference in Ottawa's affairs.
Canadian Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre remarked that the deal was an "astonishing" gaffe.
"I mean, it's almost something that you'd expect to be out of a spy novel. But characters in spy novels would never be that incompetent," he commented.
Hytera is also accused of conspiring to steal trade secrets from American telecommunications company Motorola Solutions, which the Shenzhen-based company denied. A key former Hytera director, however, pleaded guilty to taking part in the conspiracy as per filings made public on Dec. 7.
Hytera is not the only company banned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for being a threat to national security. Chinese technology firm Huawei, also based in Shenzhen, was also banned by the FCC. Canada has also banned Huawei.
LA County cuts ties with China-linked COVID testing firm
A similar instance happened in California's Los Angeles County a year ago. But instead of a contract for radio frequency filtering system, it involved testing and registration services for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).
Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who was still in the position that time, announced that the LA County Sheriff's Department (LASD) will no longer work with Fulgent Genetics Inc. for COVID-19 testing and registration. In a Nov. 29, 2021 letter to the county's Board of Supervisors, he defended severing all ties with Fulgent due to "very concerning information" relayed to him by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (Related: LA County sheriff cuts ties with China-linked COVID testing firm over data privacy concerns.)
"The DNA data obtained [by Fulgent] is not guaranteed to be safe and secure from foreign governments and 'will likely be shared with the [People's] Republic of China (PRC),'" Villanueva wrote.
"I was shocked to learn Fulgent had strong ties with BGI, WuXi [Biologics] and Huawei – all of which are linked to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the State Council, and are under the control of the PRC. I was even more shocked to learn Fulgent made no attempt to disguise the fact [that it] will use the genetic information obtained in future studies."
The then-sheriff slammed county officials over Fulgent being picked to conduct COVID-19 testing in the first place. It was awarded a no-bid contract for its work in the county.
"I am deeply concerned as to the vetting process – which either failed to discover this, or discovered it but chose to ignore it. A simple internet search would have uncovered all of the above facts."
Villanueva later lost his re-election bid this year, and was replaced by former Long Beach Police Department Chief Robert Luna as the new LA County Sheriff.
Head over to NationalSecurity.news for more stories about Chinese companies compromising the national security of other countries.
Watch this G News report about the FCC's ban on Hytera, Huawei and other Chinese firms due to national security concerns.
This video is from the Chinese taking down EVIL CCP channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Authorities: CEO of election software company sent American poll workers' data to China.
Trojan labs? Chinese biotech company offers to build COVID testing labs in six states.
Chinese company charged with sending defective face masks to the US.
Facebook fact-checker is funded by the Chinese.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.