Kenny Chiu responds to Wai Young’s “reckless, dishonest” statement

Bob Mackin

A former Conservative Member of Parliament on the comeback trail shot back at his opponent for the Richmond East-Steveston nomination.

Kenny Chiu called Wai Young “reckless, dishonest and unfit for public office” after her response to the Jan. 28-released Hogue Commission public inquiry final report.

Kenny Chiu at David Lam Park during the June 4, 2024 Tiananmen Square Massacre memorial (Mackin)

Young sent a Jan. 30 email to her supporters, headlined “No Evidence of Foreign Interference: Richmond Rift Can Now Heal.” In it, she claimed “thousands” of people in Richmond told her they accused Chiu of dividing the community and helping increase Asian hate and racism.

Chiu said in a Feb. 3 statement that, by equating discussions of foreign interference with racism, Young is mirroring “the exact language used by foreign regimes to shut down dissent and intimidate critics.”

“This is not about political games—it is about the security and sovereignty of Canada,” said Chiu, a guest on this week’s edition of thePodcast. “Every other major democracy has taken decisive action against foreign interference. Why is Wai Young fighting so hard to stop Canada from doing the same?”

The Hogue Commission confirmed Chinese government actors meddled in the 2019 and 2021 elections. The 2019-elected Chiu originally proposed a foreign agents registry, but became the target of a Chinese social media disinformation campaign before Liberal Parm Bains upset him in the 2021 election. A leaked Canadian Security Intelligence Service report said Chinese consul general Tong Xiaoling had worked to replace Chiu with a Liberal candidate.

“Young’s eagerness to declare the issue ‘resolved’ ignores the fact that the Conservative Party of Canada was among the victims of false narrative disinformation in 2021,” Chiu said. “Many Chinese-Canadians were targeted and harassed by foreign state actors—something she conveniently refuses to acknowledge.”

From Wai Young’s Jan. 30 email to supporters of her nomination campaign (Wai Young)

Investigators from the Commissioner of Canada Elections found indications that Chinese government officials directed an anti-Conservative campaign in 2021 that was “carried out and amplified by an array of associations and individuals using various communication channels.”

Former leader party Erin O’Toole testified before Hogue that foreign interference cost the Conservatives as many as nine seats in the 2021 election. In 2023, a Chinese diplomat was expelled for targeting relatives of Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong.

Young was a one-term, Vancouver South Conservative MP, elected in 2011 and defeated in 2015 by Liberal Harjit Sajjan. In 2018, she finished fourth in the race for Vancouver’s mayoralty.

Young’s Coalition Vancouver party received endorsement from the Wenzhou Friendship Society, a Richmond organization aligned with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Vancouver Consulate.

Hogue’s report said the Chinese government relies on proxies, individuals or organizations that take explicit or implicit direction to engage in foreign interference.

The Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, Hogue wrote, “tries to control and influence Chinese diaspora communities, shape international opinions and influence politicians to support PRC policies.”

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Bob Mackin A former Conservative Member of Parliament