A woman confronts a man holding a sign saying "Hold CCP Liable Stop Asian Hate" at an anti-Asian hate rally in Vancouver on March 28, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)
A man holding a sign calling for the Chinese Communist Party to be held accountable had his sign obstructed by several people at an “anti-Asian hate” rally organized by a group that local community members in Vancouver have raised questions about.
On March 28, “Stop Anti-Asian Hate” rallies were held by the Asian Canadian Equity Alliance Association (ACEA) in cities across the country, including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and others.
Footage from the Vancouver event has cast doubt on whether critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were welcome at the rally.
Video and images of the rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery show a person who was holding a sign saying “Hold CCP Liable, Stop Asian Hate,” being obstructed by a number of attendees, including by a man wearing a vest that said “security” who appeared to be an organizer.
An article published on ACEA’s website criticizes Global News reporters for an April 30, 2020, article on how the CCP’s United Front Work Department had urged the Chinese diaspora in Canada to buy PPE in bulk and ship it to China, while the rest of the world soon after faced a shortage of PPE amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heiky Kwan, a community organizer in Vancouver, said on Twitter that people in her network don’t know anything about ACEA.
“I ask many community organizers and no one seems to know who the organizers of the #StopAsianHate rally are. Anyone know? We wanted to attend at first but we’re checking and it seems like no one else other than Chinese elites are part of this?” Kwan said in a tweet.
“I asked cuz we wanted to host a rally against racism w/ other organizers in diaspora/ the equity space & found out someone else is doing it. BUT, no one in the community have heard about these folks before or aware they were doing work to unravel systemic racism.”
While some in the Asian community avoided the rallies, some prominent figures, among them current and past politicians, took part, including BC MLA Teresa Wat.
A man holding a sign that says "Hold CCP Liable Stop Asian Hate" is obstructed by people at an anti-Asian hate rally in Vancouver on March 28, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)
ACEA’s website says the group is a non-profit organization focused on confronting “bullying and harassment due to discrimination of your Asian heritage.” The Epoch Times reached out to ACEA for comment but didn’t hear back.
ACEA earlier listed former Richmond mayoral candidate Hong Guo as one of its co-founders, but has since deleted her name from the website. In an interview with theBreaker.news in 2018 while running for mayor, Guo denied there are human rights violations in China.
In a tweet in response to a question by a journalist on Twitter, ACEA said, “Hong Guo is not an active member of the group. We are not tied to CCP in any way. We are Canadians who want to stand united with our community in decrying Asian hate.”
The Epoch Times contacted Guo seeking comment but didn’t hear back.
The CCP has faced increased criticism in recent years for its human rights abuses in mainland China and Hong Kong.
Last week, Canada, UK, and the United States announced sanctions against four Chinese officials and an entity related to human rights violations of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The sanctions were announced in solidarity with the European Union, which had announced its own sanctions against China earlier.
According to Sheng Xue, co-founder of China Rights Network, a group that aims to unite communities that have suffered under the CCP, Beijing is working behind the scenes to use anti-Asian racism campaigns to fuel support for the CCP.
Sheng noted that Chinese community members in Calgary have received messages that said the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., was urging “oversea Chinese” to join an anti-Asian hate rally in San Francisco on March 27.
