David Eby (left) and Guo Ding at the 2018 Wenzhou Friendship Society banquet (John Yap/Twitter)
Guest contributor
The next scheduled provincial election in B.C. is more than a year away, but Premier David Eby’s friend and advisor Guo Ding (aka David Ding) is already trying to influence provincial politics on the Chinese social media platform, WeChat.
On March 17, Eby said he believed Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents revealed by the Globe and Mail are “very troubling” and he is willing to learn “about any issues that they’ve identified in British Columbia, so that British Columbia can act to close any gaps that we may have.”
On the other hand, Ding published an article on Rise Weekly’s channel on WeChat on March 21 in which he claimed that Eby is challenging CSIS’s documents and demanding CSIS to provide the investigation report to “prove” that the result of the 2022 Vancouver municipal election was “meddled” by the Chinese Communist Party. Obviously, Ding’s claims are very different from what Eby said on mainstream media like the Globe and Mail.
Excerpt from Ding’s commentary from March 21 (WeChat)
Ding believes the Chinese community should really appreciate Eby as he challenged CSIS’s leaked documents reported by investigative journalists, while other politicians wouldn’t do the same. We don’t know if Eby told a different story to Ding or Ding was acting on his own. Either way, Eby’s words spread on WeChat in a very different way from what he told the Globe and Mail.
Since Global News broke a story regarding alleged foreign interference networks involving MP Han Dong and Ontario MPP Vincent Ke, Ding has been attacking Canadian journalists and independent media by labeling them as “racist,” “unethical,” and/or “biased.”
On Feb 28, Ding claimed media shouldn’t “become a tool of racism and anti-Chinese hate” and that “biased journalists with special agendas shouldn’t report on documents leaked from CSIS to mislead readers.”
On March 7, Ding claimed that “CSIS with leaked documents colluded with journalists with ulterior motives, attacked Chinese Canadian elected officials.”
Excerpt from Ding’s commentary published March 7.
On March 14, Ding said “the most fundamental issue is that the right of Chinese-Canadians to participate in and discuss politics can’t be ‘smeared red’ or ‘smeared black.’ The unfounded charges to smear Chinese elected officials and Chinese voters has created a situation that everyone fears. Excuse me, is this not racism? Isn’t this McCarthyism?”
On March 28, Ding said “MP Han Dong’s lawsuit against Global News put this traditional media to the test: is it a qualified Canadian media or is it a ‘fake news’ media that imposes a political ‘witch hunt’?” Ironically, Ding failed to mention that MP Han Dong’s statement actually referred to the Tiananmen Square “incident” and “culture” revolution, because of CCP censorship on WeChat. Ding also mentioned the history book he co-authored last year.
In November 2022, Ding’s organization, Canada Committee 100 Society, hosted an event to launch the book, “History of Overseas Chinese Immigration in Canada: 1858—2001.” Eby and NDP MLAs Katrina Chen and George Chow showed up to support. However, Ding’s book was published by Huaxia Publishing House in Beijing. Ding’s book failed to mention the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the pro-democracy movement that it sparked in the Chinese community in Canada. The 1989 protests are routinely censored by the CCP.
Ding has a history of making comments that are aligned with Beijing’s interest in Canada, echoing the CCP. Do Eby and his caucus members actually support this?
Excerpt from Ding’s commentary published March 28.
Ding wrote about the Chinese consulate’s November 2021 condemnation of Vancouver city hall’s exploration of a special relationship with the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. It was another case of Beijing seeking to diplomatically isolate and intimidate the self-governing island nation.
On Nov. 15, 2021, Ding wrote a commentary titled “This Canadian mayor is playing political fire? Friendship Cities with Kaohsiung, will it tear the community apart?”
Ding blamed Stewart for refusing to meet with the Ambassador of China and Consul General of China while pushing for a friendship city relationship with Kaohsiung. Ding also claimed that the friendship-city relationship with Kaohsiung would hurt Vancouver’s interest, and eventually hurt Kaohsiung’s interest as well.
It’s very concerning that Eby has someone with the CCP’s best interest in mind as his advisor.
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