But the key to Liu’s political career is not his stand on rights. The key to his career is his close ties to the Chinese regime, whose media outlets have worked hard to promote him.
Those ties became visible on a trip by Liu to China in 2007. In Beijing, he accepted “The World Is Beautiful Because of You Award for Chinese Influencing the World.” The award honors Chinese for achievements outside of China.
The award was staged by the Chinese-language Phoenix TV, together with other media companies. Phoenix TV is an outfit that broadcasts outside of China using high-end production values and a pose of editorial independence. Its Web site claims that Phoenix TV “is a key player in the process of bringing to China the media freedom that is a natural consequence of China’s economic reforms.”
Chinese audiences who watch Phoenix TV beamed in from Hong Kong and in Western countries around the world often think they are getting a real alternative to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda. In fact, its founder Mr. Liu Changle has said, according to People’s Daily, that “CCTV [the state-run China Central TV] is a big brother, and we are the younger brother.”
Phoenix TV has long been regarded by Party-propaganda insiders as “more loyal than CCTV,” according to Anne-Marie Brady, a New Zealand academic whose research focuses on China’s propaganda system, speaking at the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in April of this year. Phoenix TV’s polished appearance of independence masks its actual role in broadcasting the Party line.
On the list of award recipients, all were entertainers, athletes, and scientists—except two, who were elected officials. One is John Liu, who was then a councilman for Flushing, in New York City. The other is John So, then the mayor of Melbourne, Australia.
There are many mayors, councilmen, and other elected officials of Chinese heritage in Western countries. Why were these two selected? The organizers claimed that the final pick involved “putting the public votes for consideration.” This curious phrase in fact means that the selection of the “World Is Beautiful” awards were not decided by the vote of the viewers and readers of the media, although the public was allowed to vote, but by a closed group, a small number of people.
Their awards were not part of a media event, but were, instead, a political act. All the celebrities selected, including the two Johns, are considered by the Chinese regime as targets for its united front work—the effort by the regime to use independent organizations or individuals to advance its interests.
Party Line on Falun Gong
When needed, So’s and Liu’s decisions have followed the regime’s line. This was especially true when each dealt with Falun Gong. John So followed the Party line on Falun Gong before the award, while John Liu did so after the award.
In Melbourne, in 2003, So prohibited a group of Falun Gong practitioners from participating in the annual Moomba parade. Afterwards, Melbourne’s taxpayers had to pay a fine of $200,000 ordered by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal as compensation for So’s actions. In addition, So was ordered to make a public apology to the Falun Gong group.
In the Chinese community, Liu’s trademark claim is that he defends the rights of Chinese and other ethnic groups against hate crimes. In June 2008, when Sikh students were assaulted for their religious beliefs by fellow students in a New York City public school, John Liu made a very strong statement criticizing the assaults and the New York City Department of Education’s failure to protect the students.
In Flushing, New York, in May 2008, the CCP initiated attacks on Falun Gong practitioners. The incidents fit all the characteristics of a hate crime: The attack was based on religious belief, involved both physical and mental harm, was in line with the CCP’s policy, and had the Chinese regime’s direct involvement.
Liu failed to call for the enforcement of New York City’s laws against the attackers, to protect the rights of Falun Gong practitioners, and to defend the values of American society. Instead, he encouraged and supported the attackers.
When Falun Gong practitioners were attacked on the streets of Flushing in broad daylight for their religious beliefs—assaults much worse than what the Sikh students experienced—Liu never mentioned hate crimes.
Silent on Sweatshops
Liu has played the civil rights and immigrant card in his election campaign for city comptroller. His campaign has featured ads that tout his having worked in New York City sweatshops as a child in order to convince voters that he is someone who will fight for justice. According to the New York Daily News, however, Liu’s own mother says he never worked in a sweatshop.
When Liu has had chances to prove he is on the workingman’s side, he has not shown up. On July 30, the workers of two Wu Liang Ye Chinese Restaurants in Manhattan (not to be confused with a third, unrelated restaurant by the same name on West 48th Street) protested their employer. Earlier in the week they had filed a National Labor Relations Board complaint against the restaurants. The employees’ salary is as low as $1.10 per hour.
One year ago, 25 employees brought a lawsuit against the owners. According to the protesters on July 30, one by one, those who brought the lawsuit have been fired, forced to quit, or even been assaulted. Now, out of the original 25, only two still work in the restaurants. Liu, the civil rights defender and champion of the workingman, has been silent.
Jin Shun Incorporated, located in Queens, where Liu represents the 22nd district as a city councilman, got in trouble in July 2008. According to the state inspectors, it was one of the worst sweatshops that they have visited in years. Sometimes Jin Shun required its 100 employees to work seven days a week, sometimes for months in a row. It also cheated its workers of $5.3 million. Most employees, virtually all of them Chinese immigrants, only get paid $3.79 per hour in their typical 66-hour, 6-day work week.
Liu could have made his name in these cases. But the Wu Liang Ye restaurants are owned by a Chinese state-owned corporation. As for the workers at Jin Shun, Liu’s constituents and fellow Chinese, it appears he prefers not to offend their bosses by speaking out.
Darling of China’s Official Press
One would not know this by reading the state-owned Chinese press, which constantly promotes Liu. In mainland China, the state-level CCP mouthpieces, including People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, and China News Service (CNS), have reported Liu’s activities in New York since he was first elected in 2001. (When former CCP head Jiang Zemin was interviewed by Mike Wallace for “60 Minutes,” on CBS, Jiang said, “The press should be the mouthpiece of the Party.”)
Take CNS as an example. It has had 24 special reports on Liu’s campaign for this city election, with 13 reports after Liu’s decision to run for the city comptroller. It’s very unusual for China’ state media to pay such attention to a local U.S. election.
Liu’s campaign and activities are also strongly supported and promoted by some Chinese-language media in New York. China Press is one of them. China Press is directly controlled by the CCP, according to a report by the Jamestown Foundation.
Liu is a new phenomenon in American politics. In the attacks on Falun Gong in Flushing, Liu showed his first loyalty is to the CCP, and the CCP has reciprocated his loyalty by steadily promoting his career.
Will the voters of New York see the self-proclaimed veteran of the sweatshops as someone who will represent them or as someone who will represent bosses far away in Beijing?
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