Peter Mattis, president of The Jamestown Foundation, made the comments during a Canadian parliamentary committee hearing.
Chinese paramilitary police officers patrol on Tiananmen Square before the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
Olivia Gomm
4/21/2026|Updated: 4/21/2026
The Chinese Communist Party has rapidly expanded its United Front work system in Canada, which it leverages for political purposes, due to a lack of direct pushback against the regime, says Peter Mattis, president of U.S. think tank The Jamestown Foundation.
Mattis testified on April 20 before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights, which is currently studying the global impact of transnational repression.
Peter Mattis, president of U.S. think tank The Jamestown Foundation, testifies before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights in Ottawa on April 20, 2026. House of Commons/Screenshot via The Epoch Times
His testimony comes after The Jamestown Foundation released a report in February that said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has built a global network of more than 2,000 organizations linked to its United Front system, including at least 575 such groups in Canada.
Mattis told MPs at the committee meeting that the CCP’s “main instrument” is the United Front work system, which it uses as a “tool for political struggle and conflict” and to create or control social groups that can be leveraged for its political purposes.
The United Front system targets civil society organizations, wealthy proxies, universities, companies, politicians, local governments, media organizations, celebrity personalities, and any other institution that might shape interactions with the CCP, Mattis noted, adding that this is a “never-ending process” to identify threats and ensure control of ideas that could be “dangerous” to the CCP.
Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar, who is vice-chair of the subcommittee, commented on Mattis’s testimony, saying the United Front Work Department (UFWD) is “deploying a swarm approach” in democracies like Canada and a 24/7 political campaign that “never ends and constantly looks for opportunity.”
The Jamestown report revealed Canada has the highest per capita density of UFWD organizations, which it said the party also uses to carry out transnational repression by “monitoring, harassing, and directly attacking those it considers to be threats.”
Majumdar noted the density of UFWD organizations in Canada is “five times the size of the United States’” and targets Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Falun Dafa, and others in Canada. He asked Mattis what “unique risk” this created for North American security.
“I think that this kind of expansion, in terms of it being open and being accessible, is a product of a lack of direct pushback,” Mattis responded. “If you go back to the controversial report Project Sidewinder in the 1990s, this was sort of a speculative effort. It was a sense that something could happen.”
Project Sidewinder, a 1997 report by a joint task force of the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, investigated the collaboration between Chinese intelligence, wealthy Chinese tycoons, and criminal triad gangs in infiltrating Canada to influence business and politics. However, the report was dismissed by Canadian authorities at the time, who expressed skepticism about its findings.
Mattis said the Jamestown report indicates “what happens when there is no pushback, when there are no investigations, and there are no discussions about what takes place.”
“Unless there are consequences, Beijing is running no risks whatsoever by continuing their operations,” he added.
Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar rises during question period in Ottawa on Nov. 3, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
Meanwhile, Senator Yuen Pau Woo has criticized the Jamestown report, calling it “disinformation” that “undermines Canadian democracy,” and promotes “a modern form of Chinese exclusion.”
When asked by Majumdar to respond to Woo’s criticism, Mattis said he views the senator’s response as a “kind of laziness” to not look at the methodology behind the report or at the CCP. He said Canadians should be able to have conversations about the appropriate channel for engagement with organizations associated with Beijing.
Mattis noted Mao’s framing of the United Front work system has been “consistent and clear” across all his successors, up to Xi Jinping today, characterizing United Front work as “a magic weapon or talisman to facilitate China’s rise in the midst of an international and ideological battleground.”
The UFWD is also used to support transnational repression, including surveillance and intimidation, as well as other harms, such as trying to “insert itself” between democratic citizens and governments “so that they speak with the party’s voice,” he added.
In addition, the CCP undermines the integrity of decision making by influencing politicians through its UFWD, and uses United Front organizations to facilitate intelligence operations and technology transfer, Mattis said.
“This is an all-purpose tool for creating and applying political power while hiding the party’s hands,” he said. “Even though some elements of the system are open to the public and are visible, the ultimate aim is still subversion and control.”
Asked by Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi to comment on the evolution of transnational repression in Canada, Mattis said there has been a “steady expansion” of United Front work.
In early phases, it involved targeting a handful of individuals, he said, adding that it has now “increasingly become an effort at mobilization” with more efforts to control, including by mobilizing groups around Canadian politicians and through Confucius Institutes on university campuses.
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Chinese paramilitary police officers patrol on Tiananmen Square before the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
Olivia Gomm
4/21/2026|Updated: 4/21/2026
The Chinese Communist Party has rapidly expanded its United Front work system in Canada, which it leverages for political purposes, due to a lack of direct pushback against the regime, says Peter Mattis, president of U.S. think tank The Jamestown Foundation.
Mattis testified on April 20 before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights, which is currently studying the global impact of transnational repression.
Peter Mattis, president of U.S. think tank The Jamestown Foundation, testifies before the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights in Ottawa on April 20, 2026. House of Commons/Screenshot via The Epoch Times
His testimony comes after The Jamestown Foundation released a report in February that said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has built a global network of more than 2,000 organizations linked to its United Front system, including at least 575 such groups in Canada.
Mattis told MPs at the committee meeting that the CCP’s “main instrument” is the United Front work system, which it uses as a “tool for political struggle and conflict” and to create or control social groups that can be leveraged for its political purposes.
The United Front system targets civil society organizations, wealthy proxies, universities, companies, politicians, local governments, media organizations, celebrity personalities, and any other institution that might shape interactions with the CCP, Mattis noted, adding that this is a “never-ending process” to identify threats and ensure control of ideas that could be “dangerous” to the CCP.
Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar, who is vice-chair of the subcommittee, commented on Mattis’s testimony, saying the United Front Work Department (UFWD) is “deploying a swarm approach” in democracies like Canada and a 24/7 political campaign that “never ends and constantly looks for opportunity.”
The Jamestown report revealed Canada has the highest per capita density of UFWD organizations, which it said the party also uses to carry out transnational repression by “monitoring, harassing, and directly attacking those it considers to be threats.”
Majumdar noted the density of UFWD organizations in Canada is “five times the size of the United States’” and targets Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Falun Dafa, and others in Canada. He asked Mattis what “unique risk” this created for North American security.
“I think that this kind of expansion, in terms of it being open and being accessible, is a product of a lack of direct pushback,” Mattis responded. “If you go back to the controversial report Project Sidewinder in the 1990s, this was sort of a speculative effort. It was a sense that something could happen.”
Project Sidewinder, a 1997 report by a joint task force of the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, investigated the collaboration between Chinese intelligence, wealthy Chinese tycoons, and criminal triad gangs in infiltrating Canada to influence business and politics. However, the report was dismissed by Canadian authorities at the time, who expressed skepticism about its findings.
Mattis said the Jamestown report indicates “what happens when there is no pushback, when there are no investigations, and there are no discussions about what takes place.”
“Unless there are consequences, Beijing is running no risks whatsoever by continuing their operations,” he added.
Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar rises during question period in Ottawa on Nov. 3, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
Meanwhile, Senator Yuen Pau Woo has criticized the Jamestown report, calling it “disinformation” that “undermines Canadian democracy,” and promotes “a modern form of Chinese exclusion.”
When asked by Majumdar to respond to Woo’s criticism, Mattis said he views the senator’s response as a “kind of laziness” to not look at the methodology behind the report or at the CCP. He said Canadians should be able to have conversations about the appropriate channel for engagement with organizations associated with Beijing.
‘Subversion and Control’
Mattis told MPs the purpose of the United Front system is to “mobilize friends to isolate or strike at enemies of the party,” which he said the Chinese regime’s first leader Mao Zedong was explicit about in the 1930s.Mattis noted Mao’s framing of the United Front work system has been “consistent and clear” across all his successors, up to Xi Jinping today, characterizing United Front work as “a magic weapon or talisman to facilitate China’s rise in the midst of an international and ideological battleground.”
The UFWD is also used to support transnational repression, including surveillance and intimidation, as well as other harms, such as trying to “insert itself” between democratic citizens and governments “so that they speak with the party’s voice,” he added.
In addition, the CCP undermines the integrity of decision making by influencing politicians through its UFWD, and uses United Front organizations to facilitate intelligence operations and technology transfer, Mattis said.
“This is an all-purpose tool for creating and applying political power while hiding the party’s hands,” he said. “Even though some elements of the system are open to the public and are visible, the ultimate aim is still subversion and control.”
Asked by Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi to comment on the evolution of transnational repression in Canada, Mattis said there has been a “steady expansion” of United Front work.
In early phases, it involved targeting a handful of individuals, he said, adding that it has now “increasingly become an effort at mobilization” with more efforts to control, including by mobilizing groups around Canadian politicians and through Confucius Institutes on university campuses.
More in Attachment
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world...-front-in-canada-think-tank-president-6015241
https://mp3mp4pdf.net
