Ex-Mountie, accused of helping China, pleads not guilty to security offence

VANCOUVER — The trial of a former RCMP officer got underway in British Columbia Supreme Court Monday, with prosecutors alleging William Majcher prepared to coerce a resident of the province to return to China, where he was wanted for financial crimes.

Majcher stood as he pleaded not guilty to one count of committing “preparatory acts” for an offence under Canada’s Security of Information Act.

The prosecution alleges his actions in May and June of 2017 were done for the benefit or at the direction of the Chinese government as he prepared to induce Hongwei Sun, also known as Kevin Sun, by “threat, accusation, menace or violence.”

The court also heard testimony that shed light on how RCMP initially tried to assist Chinese authorities as they sought to get in contact with Sun.

That included trying to set up a meeting with Sun that he refused to attend, a former RCMP liaison officer in China testified.

A ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court earlier this month said the Crown’s “central piece of evidence” at the trial would be an email Majcher sent to an associate in June 2017.

The April 1 ruling includes what it calls the most pertinent passages of the email, which related to an effort to recover proceeds from a fraud allegedly committed in China by someone who had become a real estate mogul in Vancouver.

“The Chinese police have opened a task force and standing by to issue a global arrest warrant,” the email said, according to the court ruling.

“I hope to have a copy of the warrant before it is issued so we can impress upon the crook that we hold the keys to his future,” it said, adding “the Chinese want to use this as a precedent case to settle economic crimes quietly and expeditiously.”

The ruling includes a further email in which Majcher apparently wrote that if the unnamed “target” co-operated, he hoped to settle the matter within a few weeks.

“If he fights then (there) will be extradition request and lengthier process but we feel he is motivated to co-operate as we can guarantee him his passport and no jail time.”

The ruling followed another from a few days earlier in which Justice Martha Devlin found Majcher’s warrantless arrest at Vancouver’s airport in 2023 was unconstitutional, occurring without reasonable and probable grounds.

The earlier ruling, dated March 26, said the RCMP began investigating Majcher in September 2021, after he had retired from the force and moved to Hong Kong.

Devlin found the grounds for Majcher’s arrest “amount only to a hunch or generalized suspicion” that he engaged in a conspiracy to assist China’s efforts in a manner that would contravene Canadian law, the ruling said.

She said the decision to arrest Majcher came at a time when the investigation was still “premature,” a term used by the team commander of the RCMP probe.

The investigation focused on whether the former Mountie was facilitating the efforts of the Chinese government in Canada to target Chinese nationals for repatriation as part of anticorruption operations, Devlin’s ruling said.

The ruling described a police report that said Sun was wanted in China for financial crimes “ranging into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

It said the report indicated Sun, a Vancouver resident, “allegedly used the proceeds of his financial crimes to purchase large amounts of real estate” in the city.

RCMP Supt. Peter Tsui testified Monday that he first heard about Sun when he was working as a liaison officer in China in February or March 2016.

He told the hearing Chinese authorities alerted him to a “historical fraud” case dating back to the late 1990s or early 2000s in which an individual had allegedly defrauded the Industrial Commercial Bank of China of RMB$2.8 billion, which is now worth about $560 million.

Tsui said the summary of the case was “quite brief,” but Chinese authorities indicated auditors in Jilin province had noticed irregular loans and missing money, and the alleged fraud “might have involved, basically, government officials.”

Chinese authorities believed about $120 million had left China, alleging Sun had taken it, and indicating he was living in the Vancouver area, Tsui said.

Tsui said they wanted RCMP to arrest Sun on the strength of their warrant or “red notice” submitted to Interpol, but the Mounties wanted more information.

Chinese authorities then “changed their tactic” and asked if they could speak to Sun, prompting a request to federal Mounties in Vancouver to find him.

Tsui testified that sovereignty was a “regular” part of his communication with Chinese Ministry of Public Safety officials during his time as a liaison officer in Beijing, and he made it “abundantly” clear they could not undertake any extraterritorial policing operations in Canada or they would face consequences.

Tsui said police in B.C. located Sun and an appointment was made for him to meet at the RCMP detachment at the University of B.C., but he refused to attend and indicated Chinese authorities “couldn’t touch him” in Canada.

Tsui told the hearing RCMP then advised Chinese authorities the Mounties were “concluding our assistance to this file” around February or March of 2017.

Asked about further communication with Chinese authorities after that, Tsui said they indicated Sun may have been negotiating for a new passport, as his had expired, and he couldn’t travel.

“They would be working with Mr. Sun directly to see if they can negotiate something for his return,” he said, furthering testifying that the Mounties received notice about a year later that China’s “red notice” about Sun had been cancelled.

Tsui was also asked whether Chinese Ministry of Public Safety officials ever told him about taking actions such as calling alleged “economic fugitives” wanted by the Chinese government while living in Canada in order to put pressure on them.

He responded that Chinese authorities indicated in a meeting that they had spoken to certain fugitives in Canada.

“We in no (uncertain) terms advised them that that was against the laws of Canada and that was against the sovereignty of Canada,” Tsui said.

He said Chinese authorities were told to “cease and desist, and that we would not accept it.”

Tsui said “that happened a few times” in the summer of 2016, when Chinese authorities were running two anticorruption initiatives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2026.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press