Has China been caught trying to manipulate the elections in other countries than Taiwan?

Question

Although senior Taiwan officials, including the head of the National Security Council, Wellington Koo, have this year warned that China could try to sway the presidential and legislative elections with influence campaigns including misinformation, details of how Taiwan thinks China may use illicit funding have not previously been reported.

"They hope to influence Taiwanese people by reaching out to the grassroots," said one Taiwan security official with direct knowledge of the matter. "They hope to influence swing voters who don't have particular political affiliation and would vote for whoever gives them benefits."

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-alert-chinese-funded-election-interference-2023-06-21/

Has China been caught trying to manipulate the elections in other countries than Taiwan? The article suggests that China has been trying to actively try to sway the elections in their favor through various means according to the Taiwanese government. Has there been any allegations or factual evidences that China has been trying to manipulate the elections in other countries than Taiwan?

Answer 1

There's a big unwinding scandal in Canada, where the Conservatives allege the 2021 Parliamentary elections had China backing non-Conservative (i.e. Liberal) candidates. Trudeau supposedly ignored CSIS leads concerned about Chinese electoral interference.

It might in fact be more backing whoever is running against a candidate that disrespects China, especially if they are of Chinese background themselves.

Still pending, but seems somewhat solid.

Five things we learned in David Johnston’s first report on foreign interference

Johnston’s report said China is generally “party agnostic” and intelligence suggests its intention was to marginalize anti-China candidates rather than favouring certain parties.

Why Did Trudeau Dawdle on Chinese Election Meddling?

IIRC, a Hong Kong-origin, CCP-critical, MLA complained of intimidation and trying to figure out the addresses of his family members, for example.

Answer 2

I don't know in general, but China is confirmed to not have meddled in the 2020 US presidential elections at all, unlike Iran or Russia.

According to the relevant DNI report:

China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election. We have high confidence in this judgment.

It also outlines the reasons for that:

China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools— primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying—would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping US China policy regardless of the winner.