A Bank of Canada staff working paper on monetary policy lists a professor affiliated with China’s central bank and a university allegedly implicated in a Chinese cyberespionage operation as an author.
People’s Bank of China School of Finance associate professor Ji Zhang was one of several cited in a staff working paper published by Bank of Canada researchers on Feb. 6.
The research paper was titled “The Role of International Financial Integration in Monetary Policy Transmission.”
It lists Jing Cynthia Wu from the University of Notre Dame and National Bureau of Economic Research, Yinxi Xie from the Canadian Economic Analysis Department and Economic and Financial Research Department of the Bank of Canada, and Ji Zhang from the People’s Bank of China School of Finance at Tsinghua University as authors.
However, against the backdrop of this collaboration, recent reports have shed light on growing concerns surrounding research affiliations with individuals connected to the Chinese government.
The Bank of Canada claimed it has “no connection” with the author or the People’s Bank of China.
“Researchers at the Bank of Canada routinely work with other researchers and academics at other institutions around the globe as part of their work. The Bank has no connection with the co-author of the paper you refer to or their affiliated institution,” said a Bank of Canada spokesperson.
Additionally, the Bank of Canada maintains that staff working papers are a “forum for staff to publish work-in-progress research independently from the Bank’s Governing Council” and that views contained in the research are not to be attributed to the bank.
In particular, both the People’s Bank of China and Tsinghua University have raised alarms from those following China’s espionage networks closely.
A July 2022 report submitted to the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee alleged that an espionage network called the “P-Network” specifically targeted Federal Reserve employees under the direction of Beijing.
One of the concerns highlighted by the report was the fact that several Federal Reserve employees had close ties with the People’s Bank of China.
“The investigation found multiple U.S. Federal Reserve employees with close ties to the People’s Bank of China – China’s central bank,” concluded the report tabled by US Senator Rob Portman.
Additionally, a cybersecurity research firm linked a covert cyberespionage operation targeting the Tibetan community to Tsinghua University, where the People’s Bank of China’s School of Finance is located and Ji is a researcher.
“Following our research uncovering the Chinese RedAlpha campaigns targeting the Tibetan community, Recorded Future’s Insikt Group identified a novel Linux backdoor called “ext4,” deployed against the same Tibetan victim group,” wrote Recorded Future’s research division, Insikt Group.
The cybersecurity firm discovered that repeat connections emanate from infrastructure registered to the elite Chinese post-secondary school.
“We also identified network reconnaissance activities being conducted from the same Tsinghua University infrastructure targeting many geopolitical organizations, including the State of Alaska Government, Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, the United Nations office in Nairobi, and the Kenya Ports Authority,” said Insikt Group.
The Bank of Canada has organized joint conferences with Tsinghua University and the University of Toronto in the past, focused on the Chinese economy. The last one was held virtually in 2021 where Ji presented on a monetary policy panel with former Chinese central banker Sun Guofeng.
Late last year, Sun was arrested by Chinese authorities and sentenced to 16 years in prison for bribery, leaking secrets and insider training. The arrest came as Xi Jinping’s regime seeks to tighten its control over the country’s finances.
In Canada too, the spectre of academic espionage has cast a shadow over collaborations with Chinese researchers. Recent revelations have brought to light a disconcerting pattern of research associations between Canadian universities and entities affiliated with the Chinese government.
A damning report by Strider Technologies has unearthed a trove of research projects linking top Canadian academic institutions to scientists with ties to the People’s Liberation Army PLA.
The University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, McGill University, and the University of Waterloo stand among the implicated, their esteemed reputations tarnished by associations with Chinese military-linked research endeavours.
Canada’s top spy bureau, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has issued stern advisories to research institutions in the recent past in response to these threats, highlighting the insidious nature of Chinese government initiatives such as the Thousand Talents Plan.
Under the guise of academic exchange and talent recruitment, these initiatives serve as conduits for the infiltration of Canadian research institutions, laying bare the vulnerabilities inherent in the pursuit of so-called scholarly collaboration on the global stage.
The spectre of espionage looms large, casting a pall over the collaborative endeavours between the Bank of Canada and its Chinese counterpart.
