China swaying politicians with gifts, sex: MP

CBC News Friday, July 30, 2010 | 4:08 PM MT

A Calgary Conservative MP is accusing Chinese authorities of attempting to buy the influence of Canadian politicians and government officials with financial incentives and prostitutes, suggesting some officials may have been compromised. "I know politicians who have done things that I think are antithetical to their character and I know those politicians to have been offered things — whether they were lucrative business deals or sexual favours while they were over on foreign trips," Rob Anders told CBC's Power & Politics. "Now can I give you the smoking gun to say that I definitely know there's a link between the two? Probably not. But can I tell you that I think these things go on and I think it's fairly obvious, yes." Anders said MPs have told him how they had women follow them back up to their rooms in Shanghai and offer them massages. "I've had members of Parliament tell me about business deals they were offered that frankly were above market rates and that they should have known better, that were, you know, veiled attempts to create or curry favour and influence."

Anders said he wouldn't divulge names and that he didn't want to "engage in a witch hunt" against his colleagues. Anders said he himself has been offered sexual favours while in China but that he turned them down. He said he didn't address his concerns with the Prime Minister's Office, but that officials have been briefed by the department of Foreign Affairs about the issue.

In an exclusive interview with CBC News on June 22, Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Richard Fadden said foreign governments hold influence over at least two cabinet ministers in two provinces, and are also involved with municipal politicians in B.C. and federal public servants. Fadden did not provide any names, but implied that China was one of those foreign governments.

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China infiltrating Canada through gifts, women: MP

ALTHIA RAJ, Parliamentary Bureau Toronto Sun:

OTTAWA — A Conservative MP says some of his colleagues have fallen into traps laid by seductive Chinese spies, lavished with gifts of alcohol and too-good-to-be true business deals, and at least two MPs have been subsequently blackmailed. Calgary MP Rob Anders claims both cases occurred in Shanghai, where an MP was offered a rich but skeptical business deal. In the other case, he said, the MP accepted sexual favours. In return, Anders said, politicians can provide access to resources or rubber stamp business deals.

Anders said many current MPs have told him that on their trips to China they’ve been approached by stunning women half their age “offering them to go out dancing, go to dinner, get a massage.” “I know MPs who have taken up those offers,” he said, adding that that some ministerial staffers have also been compromised. “They have to understand that when they are being done, they are probably being taped (and) those tapes can, and will, be used,” he said. Anders has no physical proof and refuses to name names, saying he’s not out to create a witch-hunt. “My purpose in doing this is not to end colleagues’ political careers,” he said. “My purpose is to educated them so they are better aware of how they can be manipulated.”