CANADIAN Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has claimed China is interfering in the country’s elections, based on unsubstantiated allegations by security officials.

Mr Trudeau picked up on a local news report citing unnamed sources who claimed China had organised a “clandestine network” of Beijing-backed candidates across parties.

The furore is reminiscent of the scare in Britain last January when spooks alleged a Chinese businesswoman, Christine Lee, was buying influence in Parliament, though no evidence of illegal activity was ever provided.

The PM accused China and other unnamed countries of playing “aggressive games with our democracies.”

China dismissed the claim.

Like Britain, Canada is a member of the US-dominated Five Eyes intelligence-sharing gang, meaning its security services are in constant collaboration with those of the United States.

Accusations of US influence circulated when in 2018 it arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver airport, holding her until late 2021 under threat of extradition to the US for alleged complicity in the Chinese firm breaching US sanctions on Iran.

Fiona Edwards of No Cold War told the Morning Star that hysteria over alleged Chinese influence had dangerous repercussions.

“There is an ominous trend developing in countries that are following the US’s new cold war agenda to demonise the participation of people of Chinese heritage in public life,” she said.

“The Chinese diaspora in Canada, the US, Australia and Britain are being targeted in an anti-democratic witch-hunt for engaging in politics and academia.

“This cold war posturing to smear and exclude people of Chinese heritage has directly fuelled a horrific rise in anti-Asian hate crime in Europe and North America.”