Pro-Beijing group goes to bat for Hydro-Québec employee charged with spying for China
The group has actively lobbied for Meng Wanzhou, Huawei and the Beijing Winter Olympics
Yuesheng Wang 王跃生, the Hydro-Québec ex-employee who was accused of spying for China, is being defended by a pro-Beijing group in Canada, according to a report by CBC on Nov.15.
In CBC’s report about Wang’s first court appearance on Tuesday, it said,
“Tina Zhu, a representative of the Canada-China Friendship Promotion Association, was at the courthouse Tuesday to learn more about the case.
She said the proceedings are likely to cause discrimination against the Chinese community in Canada, which is already reeling from an increase in racism tied to the pandemic.
"We have to fight that. It is discrimination," she said. "We are human beings, we are the same."
The CBC did not report on the group’s previous activities, nor did it question their motives.
There is nothing to indicate Tina Zhu is connected to Yuesheng Wang, and Wang’s case has yet to go to court.
Zhu and her Canada-China Friendship Promotion Association (CCFPA) are quite noteworthy, according to the Chinese language media in Canada.
Tina Jiuru Zhu 朱九如：a Canadian realtor who has lobbied for the release of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s 5G in Canada and the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Canada-China Friendship Promotion Association (CCFPA, 加中友谊促进会) is a legally registered non-profit organization in Canada, founded in July 2021 with members from different provinces in Canada and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, according to its official website.
Tina Jiuru Zhu, a licensed realtor in Montreal, is the founder and president.
The former name of the CCFPA was the "FREE Meng Wanzhou in Action" WeChat group, which frequently called for the release of Meng Wanzhou, CFO of China’s tech giant, Huawei. One of their events involved soliciting the Canadian public to sign an open letter to release Meng Wanzhou at the Norman Bethune Square in Montreal.
At the CCFPA’s inauguration Zoom meeting in July 2021, there were quite a few recognizable attendees that included Jianhong Li 李建宏, an executive at the Communist Party of Canada; Xian Hu 胡宪, the editor-in-chief of the Canadian Symbiosis International Media, a pro-CCP Chinese-language website; and Jonathan Dai 戴为群, a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2000 election.
On CCFPA’s official website, there are multiple reports praising Canadians who are deemed as good friends of China, including Dr. Norman Bethune 白求恩 (a member of the Communist Party of Canada who died in China in the 1930s during the China-Japan war), Dashan 大山 (a Canadian comedian who gains popularity in China with his excellent language skills in mandarin) and Lisa Carducci (a Canadian writer and translator who lived in China for decades and became one of the first foreigners awarded a Chinese PR card)
The website also promotes Jeffrey Sachs’s speech at East Asia Strategy Forum 2021 sponsored by the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IDP). Sachs, a Columbia University professor, is well known for his pro-CCP stance.
In a recently published piece, the CCFPA harshly criticized Canada’s decision to pick “Eternal Spring 长春,” an anti-CCP movie, to compete for an Oscar.
On November 26, 2021, Tina Zhu, as the representative of the CCFPA, attended the “Canada-China Friendship Forum” via Zoom. Other attendees included Ms. Lu Xu 陆旭, China’s Consul-General in Calgary; Jianhong Li, a high-level member of the Communist Party of Canada; and Mike Wu 吴穹, a Columnist for Rise Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine in B.C.
At the Zoom meeting, Consul-General Lu told the attendees that the Canadian government's similar stance to the U.S. on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan issues was not helping Canada-China relations, and called on Canadian organizations to contribute to promoting the China-Canada friendship. After that, columnist Mike Wu said the Canadian Parliament had smeared China with Xinjiang and Taiwan issues, so the Canadian Communist Party and other educated Canadians should unite and tell the general public the truth and resist the new Cold War.
On January 17, 2022, Tina Zhu participated in the Zoom meeting "Together for a Shared Future Montreal All-Community Support for the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022," along with nearly 100 community leaders in Quebec. China’s Acting Consul-General in Montreal, Zhang Heng 张珩, delivered a speech at the Zoom meeting. Zhang said the Beijing Winter Olympic Games had received strong support from the international community including Canadian friends. It is touching for him to see the overseas Chinese community express their support for the Beijing Winter Olympics in various ways, and he believed that with everyone's effort, China would be able to offer a simple, safe, and wonderful Olympic event to the world.
On January 21, 2022, Tina Zhu and her CCFPA published an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging the government to support the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, which claimed to be representing (but likely unauthorized by) the Chinese Canadian community.
Zhu has met Chinese diplomats in Montreal on more than one occasion, research shows. As early as 2015, she was one of the board members of the Quebec Chinese Writers Association and met with the Chinese Consul-General in Montreal, Zhao Jiangping 赵江平.
In February 2022, Zhu signed a petition “Allow Huawei Canada to participate in Canada's 5G rollout,” initiated by the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. After that, Zhu tweeted this petition on the CCFPA’s Twitter account.
On Sept. 24, 2022, a few weeks after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Zhu participated in the "Quebec Peace Movement" in Montreal, which bills itself as an anti-imperialist and anti-war event.
Standing beside the banner “Mainland China and Taiwan are a family,” Zhu delivered a passionate speech in French, telling the audience that the U.S. has overstepped China’s red line by Pelosi’s visiting Taiwan, and U.S. imperialism is the root cause of the global chaos. She called on peace-loving Canadians to oppose U.S. imperialism and strengthen Canada’s friendship with China.
Watch Zhu’s French speech here (from 2:12):
On Oct.22, 2022, Zhu, along with other Chinese Canadian community leaders, attended a Zoom meeting celebrating the successful conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s 20th Congress. Wang Hong 王红, China’s Deputy Consul-General in Montreal called on the community leaders to continue supporting the great cause of Taiwan’s reunification with the motherland. The attendees expressed their firm belief that under the strong leadership of the CCP, the complete reunification of Taiwan and the motherland will undoubtedly be achieved and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will be realized.
The latest event promoted by the CCFPA is an ongoing contest called "Walking along footsteps of Norman Bethune: CCFPA writing, photography and video competition", which declares to give cash to people who are exiled at praising Canada-China friendship in the forms of texts, photos and video clips. The contest is co-organized by the CCFPA and the Confucius Institution in Waterloo.
The Confucius Institution in Waterloo interacts with the CCFPA frequently. Yan Li 李彦, the director of the Confucius Institution at Waterloo University since 2007, is a good friend of Tina Zhu. Yan Li is also a popular Chinese Canadian writer, and her works include “The Canadian woman who wants to marry Mao Zedong”.
The latest post on CCFPA’s WeChat channel is an angry commentary posted on Sunday condemning Canadian journalist Sam Cooper, headlined “Smearing China discredits the Chinese community and undermines Canadian democracy”. This 5000-word-long rant was written by Xiaoming Guo 郭晓明, a Chinese community leader in Ontario after he read Cooper’s report on China’s political interference in Canada’s election by covertly funding 11 candidates.