Vancouver Mayor meets pro-China groups, diplomats, two weeks after Hogue Commission’s warning
Mayor's spokesman downplays attendance at Chinese Benevolent Association banquet
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim appeared at a banquet with Chinese diplomats and supporters of Beijing, almost two weeks after the Hogue Commission final report warned that China is targeting Canadian politicians at all levels.
The event was the Chinese Benevolent Association’s (CBA) Feb. 9 founding ceremony for its new Youth, Entrepreneurs and Overseas Chinese Love committees.
Sim, NDP-aligned Burnaby Coun. James Wang and Conservative MLAs Steve Kooner and Dallas Brodie joined the People’s Republic of China’s Deputy Consul Gen. Zeng Zhi at the Terminal City Club, where attendees stood for the singing of the “March of the Volunteers” Chinese Communist Party (CCP) national anthem.
Sim posed for photographs with CBA chair Helen Qian Hua (organizer of a 2013 gala marking 120 years since Mao Zedong’s birth), Canada Shandong Business Association head Zheng Yan (leader of a 2023 Vancouver delegation to China for Xi Jinping Thought sessions) and Canada China Cultural Communication Association director Ye Hongtao (a participant in the August 2019 pro-CCP protests in Vancouver).
Sim’s office downplayed his attendance at the event. Press secretary Kalith Nanayakkara said he was there to “engage with the community and recognize the cultural significance of the occasion following Lunar New Year celebrations earlier this month—not to endorse, propose, or influence any initiatives of the CBA or any other group.
“Any suggestion that this implies coordination or meetings with a foreign government is categorically false.”
The Chinese consulate has repeatedly denied meddling in Canadian affairs. But the Jan. 28-released report from the federal foreign interference public inquiry said Chinese diplomats and their proxies target all levels of government in Canada, supporting parties and politicians that China believes are helpful to its interests.
“The United Front Work Department, formally a department of the CCP, tries to control and influence Chinese diaspora communities, shape international opinions and influence politicians to support PRC policies,” the report said.
Almost two years ago, leaks of Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents indicated a Chinese diplomat in Vancouver worked to help get a Chinese-Canadian candidate elected mayor in 2022. Sim and his ABC Vancouver party won a landslide over pro-Taiwan incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart, but he scoffed at the suggestion.
“If there is proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as everyone else,” Sim said after the Globe and Mail story in March 2023.