Senator Victor Oh and former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan were signatories among those who signed a 2020 letter from an Ontario-based Chinese-Canadian business association to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official saying the association has been promoting China’s image in fighting COVID-19 and pledges continuing support of the “great motherland.”
Oh signed as an honorary president of the Richmond Hill-based business association, Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada (JCCC), as well as a Canadian senator and “chair” of the parliamentary forum Canada-China Legislative Association (CACN). Oh’s biography on the Senate of Canada website indicates he is the “Vice-Chair” of CACN, though his name currently is not on the members page of the association.
Chan, for his part, also signed as honorary president of the JCCC, as well as a former minister of international trade of Ontario and an honorary citizen of Jiangsu Province.
The correspondence was in response to a letter issued by the CCP official to JCCC president Jiang Rui, as reported in April 2020 by the Chinese-language media ccmedia.news, and first reported in English by the Found in Translation newsletter on Substack. The ccmedia.news website includes copies of the two letters.
The March 27, 2020, letter by the CCP official, Lou Qinjian, former secretary of the Jiangsu provincial committee, bears the letterhead of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CCP. It is addressed directly to Jiang as well as all overseas Chinese from Jiangsu in Canada. It is co-signed by another CCP official, Wu Zhenglong, then-governor of Jiangsu. Jiangsu is a province on China’s east coast, north of Shanghai.
Neither Oh nor Chan responded to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
‘Telling China’s Story Well’
In what Jiang described as a “letter from home,” CCP official Lou’s letter expressed care and concern toward the overseas Chinese in Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic and said they will “resolutely implement [Chinese] President Xi Jinping’s instructions and requirements, and make the utmost effort to provide help and support for the health and safety of all overseas compatriots.”
Meanwhile, the letter also urged the JCCC to take advantage of its connections as a Chinese diaspora association to promote to Canadians a positive image of Beijing’s pandemic response.
“[We] hope that you will make use of overseas Chinese as a bridge to convey confidence, actively tell well the story of the fight against the pandemic at home [in China], promote the image of the motherland as a responsible major country, and demonstrate the good citizenship of overseas Jiangsu people,” the letter said.
“Telling China’s story well” is a phrase introduced by Chinese leader Xi in 2013, encapsulating his approach of messaging on the world stage to promote the image of the communist regime.
Response Letter
The ccmedia.news article included images of the three pages of Jiang’s response letter, dated April 10, 2020, addressed only to Lou and bearing Jiang’s signature on the second page and the signatures of Oh, Chan, and over a dozen other senior JCCC members on the third page.
In the response letter, Jiang expressed gratitude for the “special letter from home,” saying that following that lead, other Jiangsu government departments have also reached out to show their care and concern, including the Jiangsu Provincial United Front Work Department (UFWD). The UFWD functions as the CCP’s “primary foreign interference tool” working to co-opt international politicians and facilitate espionage, among other activities that endanger national security, says a 2020 report by Public Safety Canada citing research by think tanks.
Former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan speaks at a rally held to condemn protests in Hong Kong, in Markham, Ont., on Aug. 11, 2019. Yi Ling/The Epoch Times
Jiang also said his group has been committed to the cause of promoting China’s image in Canada since early in the pandemic.
“Since the early days of China’s fight against the pandemic, we’ve made use of the special resources and channels of many JCCC members to tell the story of China’s fight against the pandemic to the Canadian government and people,” Jiang wrote.
“Through extensive and in-depth publicity, China’s demeanour [image] as a responsible, courageous, competent, and cooperative great power ... is receiving more and more understanding, support, and appreciation from the Canadian government, people, and overseas Chinese!”
The ccmedia.news article included photos of Oh and Chan signing the letter.
Oh, a Conservative senator representing Ontario, was appointed to the Senate in 2013.
Chan, who was a cabinet member in the previous Liberal government in Ontario, is now deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., a city that is part of the Greater Toronto Area. At the time of the signing of the letter, he was not a public office holder.
The Ontario provincial government was reportedly warned by CSIS in 2010 about its fear that Chan was under the influence of China, according to the Globe and Mail. Chan has said he is taking legal action against the Globe for its reporting.
As reported previously by The Epoch Times, Chan has spoken against anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong, and supported the regime’s national security law for the region. Canada and other democratic countries have condemned the new law as suppressing freedoms.
Affiliation
The JCCC, established in 2002, says its goal is to promote trade and business collaboration between Ontario and Jiangsu. It has over 1,000 members, including elites in the business, government, and academic communities, according to its website.
Jiang Rui, who began serving as JCCC president in 2018, has also held positions in organizations associated with the CCP, according to reports in local Jiangsu media and state media in China.
Apart from being JCCC president, Jiang is also an overseas representative of the provincial-level Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body in the People’s Republic of China, and also a key body of the CCP’s UFWD, according to ourjiangsu.com, a Chinese website directly owned by the Jiangsu provincial branch of the UFWD.
The Epoch Times reached out to Jiang for comment via the JCCC but didn’t hear back.
The report included photos taken at a conference on the establishment of the Jiangsu CCPPNR, held on Jan. 9, 2020, in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. A number of senior CCP officials, including the vice governor of the province, members of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CCP, and the head of the UFWD, attended the conference, according to an article posted on the Jiangsu provincial government website.
The CCPPNR has branches in many countries, including two in Canada and at least 20 in the United States. In October 2020, the U.S. State Department designated a CCPPNR branch, the Washington, D.C.-based National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, as a foreign mission of the Chinese regime, describing it as a front organization of the UFWD.
Andrew Chen
Author
Andrew Chen is a news reporter with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times.
