B.C. Premier’s advisor claims journalists investigating China’s election interferences racists
But other Chinese Canadians refuse to be fooled anymore.
Ding Guo (丁果), a Chinese Canadian community leader and an advisor to B.C.Premier David Eby (尹大卫), claims Canadian journalists investigating China’s interference in Canada’s elections are racist.
B.C. Premier’s advisor claims questioning China’s interference in Canadian elections to be racist.
This claim was made in a commentary published on “Rise Weekly (高度)”, a Chinese-language WeChat channel on Tuesday (Feb 28, 2023), headlined “Breaking: How should we respond when public opinion untruely attacks Chinese Canadian politicians and voters?”
This is exactly the same tactic employed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he was pressured by the media on this issue in late February.
In Ding’s piece, he didn’t spare his support for Trudeau on this issue,
“On Monday, February 27, PM Justin Trudeau and the named federal Liberal MP Han Dong teamed up to fight back, calling the media irresponsible for their accusations, and this fightback was well-taken. I expect the Prime Minister to stand up not only to his own party's MPs when they are subjected to false media accusations, but also to condemn the media when they make false attacks on others in the Chinese community. This is not to hinder the media's freedom to report news, but to defend the media's true freedom of press and credibility, and not to become a tool of racism and anti-Chinese hate.”
Ding continued to claim that Canadian journalists' investigation will harm Canada’s democracy. He said,
“There is nothing wrong with the internal investigations of the CSIS being overbroad or overdone; it is their job to sound the alarm on national security issues to the government and all parties. However, if the investigation is leaked without factual evidence, it will create a big problem. In addition, if journalists with a bias and a certain pre-set agenda write numerous reports with such information that should not be leaked to mislead readers and viewers, that will be a big problem, and will let innocent people suffer, and even harm our democracy.”
It is interesting to see Ding, who works full time at the media company OMNI TV, ferociously defends politicians and the CSIS, but attacks Canadian journalists only.
At the end of the piece, Ding called on all Chinese Canadian representatives to say no to “baseless smears” that paint some certain Chinese Canadian politicians “red”.
Ding is a producer at OMNI TV Mandarin News, a productive media commentator, a member of the B. C. premier’s Chinese-Canadian Community Advisory Committee, and a board member of the Chinese Canadian Museum. After the establishment of the Chinese Canadian Museum, Guo Ding co-founded the Canadian Chinese Heritage and Future Foundation (CCHFF), an organization to raise funds for the Chinese Canadian Museum.
Ding is often dubbed as a Chinese Canadian community leader, although many of his commentaries mirror Beijing’s viewpoints instead of the Canadian ones. As a matter of fact, Ding has a very long track record of defending Beijing when there are conflicts between China and Canada, or when China is criticized by the international community for its human rights violations.
Ding often claims he’s a good friend of B.C. Premier David Eby. Eby has written prefaces for Ding’s books, and attended multiple events promoting Ding’s books. On September 23, 2021, when Ding launched the English version of his book “Canada’s Chinese Gene” in a winery in interior B.C., Eby and 6 other BC NDP ministers all joined the party, including George Chow (周炯华), Anne Kang (康安礼), and so on.
How David Eby, an award-winning human rights lawyer, becomes a close friend of a genocidal regime defender, remains a mystery.
Ding met with MP Han Dong in August 2022 when Dong and his wife Sophia Qiao (乔桥) visited various community leaders in B.C. In the office of Ding’s fundraising organization CCHFF, they took a group photo with many community leaders, including Harris Niu (牛华), president of the Canadian Community Service Association (CCSA).
The Chinese Canadian community refuses to be fooled by the racism claim.
But Ding’s racism narrative doesn’t resonate well in the Chinese Canadian community. Instead, a number of community figures in the Chinese Canadian community have spoken up against it.
Bill Chu (朱伟光), an anti-racism advocate in Vancouver, said criticizing the Chinese government is not racism. On the contrary, intentionally conflating criticism against the Chinese government with racism, is a classic deflection technique also employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Other Chinese Canadians such as Fenella Sung (辛智芬), also said they don’t fall for the CCP’s narrative of equating criticizing the CCP to anti-Chinese racism. Instead, Trudeau’s response of using racism to answer all the questions involving the Chinese government and therefore ignoring the real issue affecting the Chinese Canadian community is a true form of racism.
They believe Trudeau should focus on Canada’s national security, instead of pulling off the racism card.
This weekend, three leading political commentators in the greater Vancouver area, Kenny Chiu (赵锦荣), Gabriel Yiu (姚永安) and Ken Tung (董达成), unitedly said Canada is in an urgent need of a foreign agent registry, in order to counter China’s interference in Canada including the elections.
None of these Chinese Canadians ever mentioned racism.
The only Chinese Canadians who still parrot the anti-China racism narrative today, are those who root for Beijing, directly or indirectly.
Over the weekend, a lot more Canadians have joined the call for an independent public inquiry into China’s possible interference in Canada’s elections. The Trudeau government and everyone involved will keep facing scrutiny; crying racism is not going to stop it.
Sharing with you the below media release:
MEDIA RELEASE
February 28, 2023
Do Not Let the CCP Deflect Criticisms with Disingenuous Racism Accusations
As early as 2019, national security officials and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have been warning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office about serious risks of foreign interference. A recent Globe and Mail article further reported that “China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign” through Chinese diplomats and their proxies.
According to the Globe and Mail, secret and top-secret documents shared by CSIS revealing the “full extent of the Chinese interference operations” were shared among senior government officials. The classified documents reveal that former consul-general in Vancouver Tong Xiaoling has boasted that she had helped defeat two Conservative MPs. Report also noted that former consul Wang Jin made “discreet and subtle efforts” to “encourage members of Chinese-Canadian organizations to rally votes for the Liberals and defeat Conservative candidates.”
Earlier reports by Global News and recent coverage by the Globe and Mail has prompted public responses from Member of Parliament Han Dong, Senator Yuen Pau Woo and former Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang. Han Dong criticized the media for not providing details about the consular general in Toronto’s interference with the 2019 elections. Senator Woo accused the media of “fake news” and a “witch hunt.” They all claim that media coverage on PRC interference will place the entire Chinese-Canadian community under public suspicion and make them targets for discrimination.
Former Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang has likewise recently written in critique of CSIS, claiming that CSIS comments has “no proof”, and “put the whole Chinese community under suspicion again.”
The Chinese-Canadian Concerned Group on the Chinese Communist Party’s Human Rights Violation (hereafter referred to as “Concern Group”) is issuing this media release in critical response to the above-mentioned politicians of Chinese and Asian heritage, and others who are similarly using accusations of racism to obfuscate well-founded public concerns about the integrity of our democratic institutions integrity, and assist the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by using the same to deflect criticism and scrutiny.
Concern Group spokesperson Victor Ho states that political and monetary interference with Canada’s democratic institutions through PRC Consulates in Canada is a subject of the gravest concern. The government’s Rapid Response Mechanism Canada, CSIS, academic studies, and journalistic investigations have all clearly indicated that the CCP is actively attempting to interfere with Canada’s elections and domestic affairs. Even when the former Consular General in Vancouver has openly admitted to such actions, there remain politicians who continue to defend the CCP. Of notable concern is the recent usage of racism accusations to intimidate and silence the English language media.
It is of the Concern Group’s opinion that the CCP’s framing of well-founded scrutiny of the regime as racism is a tactic to stop the Western media by equating criticisms of CCP as attacks on Chinese Canadians, whose identity is exploited to deflect criticisms.
Chinese Canadian communities in Canada have been subjected to racism and rising anti-Asian hate long before the CSIS findings became public knowledge. Pinning the blame for rising racism onto those raising concerns for electoral interference, instead of addressing root causes of systemic racism, further victimizes a community already struggling with racism. Moreover, deflecting criticisms of the PRC’s rampant human rights abuses, including acts against Chinese-Canadians who are outspoken against, or are victims of China’s human rights abuses, actively hurt these vulnerable members of the Chinese Canadian community.
Bill Chu, another spokesperson of the Concern Group explains that the Group is issuing this press release to urge the Canadian public to not fall for the CPP’s narrative manipulations. Investigating and reporting on the Chinese government’s abuse of human rights, international laws and Canadian laws is not racism directed against Chinese Canadians.
The Concern Group notes that recent media investigations and coverage have revealed that the Chinese government’s political influence in Canada is far more widespread than what was previously known. The Prime Minister, rather than addressing public concerns through increased transparency about the true depths of the CCP’s infiltration and the Canadian government’s recourse, has instead responded by downplaying the serious nature of the concerns and giving the appearance of attempting to conceal information from the Canadian public. It is disturbing that the Prime Minister continues to insist that foreign interference, from China or elsewhere, did not change the results of the federal elections in 2019 or 2021 in a “significant way.” Of even greater concern is that the Prime Minister’s current priority appears to be finding the source of the information leak instead of taking immediate and vigorous actions to counteract the Chinese government’s offenses and infiltration.
The Concern Group believes that to counteract the Chinese government’s political infiltration, the Canadian government should launch a robust investigation and public inquiry into election interferences and offences. All offenses under the Canada Election Act and National Security Act must be prosecuted to their full extent. Under the Canada Elections Act, solicitation of partisan donations through a third party is an illegal offense. Persecuting CCP agents in accordance with Canadian law will send the clear message that Canadian laws and elections will not be meddled with, and will serve as a deterrence for future attempts of election interference.
At the same time, the Concern Group is of the opinion that the government should immediately work towards implementing a registry of foreign agents, similar to those of Australia and the United States, to combat foreign interference. We also urge the public and stakeholders to continue to closely monitor the Liberal government’s response to this threat, including whether or not the government will continue to downplay national security concerns or to pass legislation with loopholes that allow for continued foreign interference.
Regarding the concern that politicians of Asian or Chinese heritage would become targets of scrutiny and discrimination following media coverage of China’s human rights abuses, the Concern Group believes that politicians who refuse to speak out against genocide against Uyghur Muslims and other actions of human rights abuse, and those who abide by PRC’s actions and abuses despite those being clear acts of political and electoral interference, will naturally face scrutiny and concerns about their interests and allegiance. The Concern Group call on these politicians to cease actions that serve to further the CCP’s political agenda in Canada, and to stop tokenizing the entire Chinese Canadian community to deflect criticisms of their own individual actions and the actions of the CCP regime.
How does Eby still have these CCP apologists on his staff or even connected at an advisory level? Meggs is somewhere laughing his ass off.