OTTAWA — The federal elections monitoring task force says the Chinese government appears to be behind a “coordinated and malicious” disparagement campaign against Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland on China’s largest social media platform.

A Canadian task force said on Friday that malicious news articles originating on Chinese social media tried to disparage former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is running to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party.

Chrystia Freeland's leadership campaign has been targeted by "co-ordinated and malicious activity" traced back to a WeChat account accused of having ties to the Chinese government, according to the task force set up to monitor foreign election interference.