BEIJING'S ATTEMPTS TO INFLUENCE CANADIANS

But it was when Guo decided to run for mayor in Richmond last year, campaigning in part on strengthening ties with China, that her perspective on the country came startlingly into focus.

Asked by The Breaker news website about China’s human-rights record, she insisted that reports of rights abuses were an invention of foreign media like the New York Times and CBC.

“I think China has lots of freedom of speech,” she told the site. “The Chinese media in China, they have very much freedom, to talk and to criticize and to make suggestions.”