Pro-Beijing community leader said Chinese Canadians will “punish bad politicians with votes”
As an advisor to B.C. Premier David Eby, Ding Guo (丁果) constantly sides with Beijing and defends its human rights abuses.
Ding Guo (aka David Ding, 丁果), a Chinese community leader in British Columbia and an advisor to B.C. Premier David Eby, said Chinese Canadians will “punish bad politicians with their votes” in future elections at three levels of the government.
Pro-Beijing columnist published an article to send a threatening message to Canadian politicians
Ding’s statement was made in a commentary published in the Rise Magazine (高度杂志) on April 19, 2023, amid the heated public discussion about China’s interference in Canada and Canadians’ raging call for a public inquiry and a foreign agent registry.
Before we delve into the details of Ding’s article, here is some background info about the author: Ding Guo is a former TV host and producer with OMNI TV, as well as a productive columnist. Many of Ding’s political commentaries are aligned with Beijing’s talking points. Ding has a very very long track record of defending the Chinese government, and its human rights abuses. Ding is also a close friend and advisor to David Eby (尹大卫), Premier of B.C. and a prestigious human rights lawyer.
In Ding’s Rise Magazine piece, he claimed there’s a growing trend of criticism directed towards the Chinese community, which he labeled as racism and "red-smearing" due to the perceived connections between prominent individuals and Communist China.
However, Ding did not include the information in the article that Canadian media investigations and public scrutiny of the Chinese community were about China's interference in Canada and its Canadian enablers. There are also non-Chinese individuals examined in foreign interference cases but Ding said nothing about that.
Ding has published a number of articles claiming criticism of the Chinese government and pro-Beijing Chinese Canadians to be racist. But many Canadians including Chinese Canadians are not buying it.
Ding did not explain what “bad politicians” exactly meant but he sang ardent praises of a Canadian politician, Senator Yuen Pau Woo in the article.
Ding said,
“Chinese Canadians, including some political figures, who have an international outlook and are also true patriots of Canada, have stood up with unprecedented courage to speak the truth and tell the truth. For example, Senator Yuen Pau Woo called on people to take active participation in Canada's legislation, to express their opinions through community consultation, and to oppose "temporary" legislation based on geopolitical or ideological positions so as to protect the freedom of expression and the rights and interests of ethnic minorities. A number of media professionals and commentators have also sounded the alarm and called for the rejection of any overt or covert anti-Chinese racism, and the prevention of the resurgence of the "Chinese Exclusion Act" in any contemporary form.”
The “temporary” legislation Ding mentioned here apparently referred to the establishment of a foreign agent registry in Canada. Over the past months, Senator Woo has repeatedly advocated against such a registry, calling it a “modern form” of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Senator also helped draft Petition e-4395, a parliament petition initiated by B.C. resident Ally Wang (aka Li Wang, 王立).
Ding seems to be a close ally of Senator Woo, judging by the variety of articles he published to praise or defend Woo. When Senator Woo was criticized by Canadian media or fellow politicians for siding with Beijing on issues like Meng Wanzhou, Xinjiang genocide, and South China Sea, Ding would promptly stand out defending Senator Woo and call critics racists.
In November 2016, Ding published a piece in Asia Weekly (亚洲周刊) about an interview between him and Senator Yuen Pau Woo. In the conversation, newly appointed Senator Woo clearly stated that his role in the Senate was to reposition Canada's China policy and help China find its leadership position in the world.
In the later half of Ding’s Rise Magazine article, he listed the behavior features of several types of politicians and claimed Chinese Canadian voters would make the decisions accordingly.
Ding said,
“They (Chinese Canadian voters) are intensely watching the behaviors of politicians so as to put them into different categories.
Which politicians contributed to the undercurrents of racial discrimination?
Which politicians and community leaders who may run for elections stood up for the unfair treatment of the Chinese?
Which politicians and political elites who may run for elections show no interest in the stigmatized Chinese community and shun it completely?
Which politicians have asked the Chinese community for election donations and votes in previous elections but now started to attack them for no reason?
The performance of these parties or politicians will be evaluated by the voters' ballots in every level of elections in the future.”
It is noticeable that in a previous paragraph, Ding encouraged Chinese Canadians to participate in politics by signing petitions.
He said,
“.... there are many ways to participate in Canadian politics. The first one is to participate in petitions, which are highly effective in pre-legislative community consultations. Especially when the number of signatures reaches 10,000 and 100,000 or more, the government and people at all levels of government cannot afford to wait around because it is an important expression of public opinion. This kind of petition does not require people to stand in the media spotlight, or take to the streets with arms raised, or put pen to paper, but it does fulfill the responsibility of an immigrant and citizen who loves Canada and is committed to its multiculturalism and equality.”
Ding’s comment was published on April 19, five days after Petition e-4395 went open for signature. Ding sounded very confident at that moment about community leaders’ capability in mobilizing Chinese Canadians and discussed the prospect of signatures reaching 10,000 and 100,000 or more.
Three months after that, Petition e-4395 closed with 2450 signatures, which was only ¼ to 1/40 of the number Ding talked about.
English translation of Ding Guo’s commentary
Below is the full text of the English translation of Ding Guo’s commentary, generated by DeepL Translator with minor edits for grammatical purposes.
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