Canadian politicians spent Saturday congratulating a new effort to “spread the voice of the CCP”
PM Justin Trudeau sent a letter of congratulations to the event, as well as China's Top Diplomat in Vancouver.
Multiple Canadian politicians spent their Saturday at a grand party in Richmond, B.C. to celebrate the establishment of a new library, which was founded by organizations claiming to represent Chinese Canadians, and aims to “spread the voice of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” according to various Chinese language media outlets in Canada and China.
According to Lahoo.ca, a B.C.-based Chinese language website, the event “Night of the Mid-Autumn Festival'' was held on September 10, 2022, in Richmond. Mid-Autumn Day, which fell on Sept. 10 this year, is an important festival in Chinese culture.
But it was the establishment of a library with some intentions to spread Beijing’s gospel that garnered much attention.
Maria Xu, a well-known Chinese community leader, was a key person who facilitated the establishment of the Universal Chinese Education League and the library project. Her Chinese education and library projects have enjoyed immense support from Canadian politicians including those who attended Saturday’s event. B.C. NDP MLAs Henry Yao and George Chow, Richmond councilors Alexa Loo and Andy Hobbs and Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie all attended. Liberal MP Parm Bains sent his assistant to the show.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and China’s Acting Consul-General in Vancouver Wang Chengjun sent congratulatory letters to the event.
Winnie Liao, the president of Respon International Group Corp. and mother of Lucy Li (suspect of the shooting murder of B.C. resident Tyler Pratt), also attended the grand party. Respon was the title sponsor of the entire event.
The “Universal Chinese Education League” was established at the event, as well as the Book Drifting Station of Overseas Chinese Library Vancouver Station, a library project.
What is the Drifting Book Stations library project about?
Xu’s library project is closely working with the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library, a library based in China’s Jiangsu province, founded by Zhen Xiang, the former Vice Chairman of the Federation Of Jiangsu Returned Overseas Chinese. This main library collects and receives donations of Chinese-language books in China, before sending the books packages to a network of organizations outside China that agree to sign a cooperation agreement with the Nantong Library. These boutique libraries in cities outside China, are called “drifting book stations”.
A report on a Chinese local government site indicates that by August 2022, the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library had clinched agreements with overseas Chinese organizations and Chinese language schools in 27 countries to build a combined 42 book stations where they had or would send books. Zhen Xiang plans to build 100 book stations outside China by the end of 2023.
At the event on Mid-Autumn Day in B.C., Xu signed agreements with 10+ local Chinese language schools or educational organizations on-site, with the coordination of Marcia Wang, president of the Chinese Language Association of B.C.. All of these organizations received Chinese books donated from China.
What kinds of books are collected in China and then sent to overseas book stations?
According to the official website of the headquarter library in Jiangsu, the foremost book category (1A) is publications on “Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory,” spearheading other categories such as philosophy, religions, social science, politics & law, economics, etc..
The Nantong Overseas Chinese Library is also the archive and collection centre for the International Chinese Media Union, which collects Chinese language publications produced by more than 200 Chinese language media outlets worldwide.
Another source of books in the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library are original books published under specific situations. A report on ChinaToday.com shows that Haicheng Wang, a Chinese Canadian, launched a book publication project to recognize the overseas Chinese community’s contribution to fighting against the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
In the report published in August 2021, Wang said affectionately, “This book is being printed in batches and we will send the books to the library as soon as possible so that the library can collect this precious story.”
Wang, a Canadian community leader, immigrated to Canada in the 1990s as a businessman. But “he always puts the motherland and hometown in his heart, actively participating in investment and construction projects in China, and often taking enterprise groups to attend Canton Fair, Import and Export Fair and economic and trade exchanges in various provinces and cities in China. Wang repays the motherland with practical actions and shows the strength of the compatriot overseas Chinese. ”
According to a report on the website of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), one of the purposes of the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library is to “pass on the Overseas Chinese patriotic love to their motherland”.
The ACFROC is a peak united front body for ethnic Chinese with overseas links, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)’s report “The party speaks for You”. Zhen Xiang, the founder of the Overseas Chinese Library, worked as the vice chairman of the Federation Of Jiangsu Returned Overseas Chinese, the Jiangsu provincial branch under the ACFROC.
Xu visited the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library in 2021 and met Zhen Xiang in person, according to Ourjiangsu.com, a Chinese website directly owned by the Jiangsu Branch of the United Front Work Department.
In the last paragraph of the report about Maria Xu's visit, Zhen Xiang said, "In the future, we will establish book stations around the world, and the first one will be located in Vancouver, Canada. We will send our library books there… we will spread the voice of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the country, and the Chinese culture to other countries."
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