Ontario Politician Chan Praises CCP’s Rule Over China, Celebrates Founding Anniversary

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

Markham Deputy Mayor and former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of communist-led China in a speech on Sept. 29, praising key policy items of leader Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule over China.

In his speech, delivered at a ceremony in Toronto also attended by Cheng Hongbo, China’s acting consul-general, Chan said the CCP has made China a powerful country, and that there have been no massacres in China with the CCP in power.

“Since the founding of New China, adhering to its determination to reform and opening up, China has made significant achievements in various aspects over the past 75 years, establishing China as the latest great power,” Chan said in Mandarin.

“New China” is a term used by the CCP to describe the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The CCP consolidated its power over China in 1949, with founding leader Mao Zedong declaring Oct. 1 that year as the day of the creation of the People’s Republic.

Chan also made reference to key CCP policy items aimed at making it more powerful.

“From Marching Forward to Science to Science and Technology as a Primary Productive Force, China has gradually become a technological power. Under the guidance of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative,’ China has opened the door to the market economy, joined the World Trade Organization, and its volume of trade has also jumped to the forefront of global ranks,” he said.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a “cornerstone” of Xi Jinping’s plan for China’s supremacy as a regional and global power, says a 2018 report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) based on an academic workshop. The report also points out the debt burden the initiative puts on developing countries, who become beholden to China once they can’t pay back those loans.

China's leader Xi Jinping attends a meeting with Tunisia's President Kais Saied (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 31, 2024. Tingshu Wang/ AFP via Getty Images

The report adds that in contrast to the view of former defacto leader Deng Xiaoping (who was behind the CCP’s “reform and opening up” policies after Mao’s death in 1976) that China will “keep a low profile, hide our capabilities and bide our time,” Xi, since becoming leader in 2012, has been outspoken about his ambitions for China to become a central power by 2049.

As for China’s acceptance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, different studies have shown that it has come at the cost of trade deficits and lost jobs for Western countries, including Canada.

A 2021 report by the Council on Foreign Relations notes that while Beijing has been benefiting from the advantages WTO membership provides to increase its exports, it has raised the ire of countries like the United States for flaunting the rules by keeping its own markets mostly closed to foreign goods.

The report also notes that China’s addition to the WTO cost the United States 2.4 million jobs by 2011. A similar trend was seen in Canada, with a report by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards saying Canada lost between 150,000–170,000 jobs between 2001 and 2011 as a result of increased Chinese imports.

Chan has not returned requests for comment.

CCP’s Rule

During his speech, Chan pointed to the Opium Wars of the 19th century between the Qing-ruled China and Western powers, and the concessions China had to make as a result of those wars. As well, he referred to Japan’s invasion of China and the 1937 Nanjing Massacre where Japanese troops killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in the then-capital city of China under the Nationalist Party government.

Chan then said that looking back over the past 75 years of the PRC, China has gone “from nothing to becoming a strong country.”

Chan said he wishes Canada and China will “respect each other, make progress together, and achieve win-win cooperation.”

Western leaders and the leadership of the NATO military alliance of which Canada is a member have often raised concerns about China’s aggressions on the world stage.

“China is showing the world that it does not believe in freedom of navigation and that it does not respect the international maritime laws,” Admiral Peter Bauer, chair of the NATO Military Committee, said in a speech on Sept. 11. His comments were in reaction to Chinese coast guard ships “intentionally” hitting the ships of the Philippine coast guard in the South China Sea over the summer.

Chinese forces have also made aggressive moves directly against Canadian armed forces. This has included Chinese jets dangerously intercepting Canadian aircraft and ships in international waters in the Pacific multiple times over the past few years.

A Chinese coast guard ship uses water canons on a Philippine Coast Guard ship near the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal, South China Sea, as they blocked its path during a re-supply mission on Aug. 5, 2023. Philippine Coast Guard via AP

No More ‘Massacres and Oppressions’

In his speech, Chan said that with the CCP in power, “There will be no more massacres and oppressions on this land.”

The killing of thousands of pro-democracy student demonstrators by CCP forces in Beijing in 1989 has been widely termed the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

A report by the Washington-based Hudson Institute notes that no country in modern history has seen more unnatural deaths than China under the CCP. This includes the death of up to around 50 million Chinese during the 1959-1969 famine resulting from Mao’s Great Leap Forward, and other tens of millions during other campaigns.

Human rights organizations routinely name China as the worst aggressor when it comes to rights violations of religious minorities and other groups.

An independent tribunal in London chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, who previously led the prosecution of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal, concluded in 2019 that China kills Falun Gong practitioners for their organs “on a significant scale.”

The Canadian House of Commons passed a resolution in 2021 recognizing China’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims as a genocide.

China also maintains its wide-scale persecution of Christians, Tibetans, as well as pro-democracy activists in mainland and in Hong Kong.

Western governments as well as Canada have often expressed concern and condemnation of the crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong with new laws and the suppression of democracy activists there.

Tanks sit in a street in Beijing two days after the suppression of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square on June 6, 1989. David Turnley/Getty Images

Police tackle and arrest pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on Oct. 1, 2019.  Chris McGrath/Getty Images

In past rallies as well as media interviews, Chan has denounced the pro-democracy protesters, and praised the Hong Kong police’s reaction to the protests.

A 2015 report by The Globe and Mail said that Chan was the subject of a warning to the Ontario government in 2010 by CSIS over fears that he was under the influence of China. Chan launched a lawsuit against the Globe over its reporting.

Another 2023 report by the Globe citing intelligence sources said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his senior aides had been told to be careful when dealing with Chan due to his “alleged ties” to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto

The report also said that in 2019, Chan was seen meeting with Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei. In May 2023, Zhao was declared persona non grata after it became public that he was involved in targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong because of his outspokenness against China’s rights violations.

These points were brought up in the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa in April when Chan appeared to testify. He said Zhao was merely present while he was meeting with the Toronto Chinese consul general in the Toronto area related to a business venture he was pursuing in Cambodia at the time, and that he didn’t know Zhao would be there.

In response to the Globe’s 2023 report, Chan told the publication, “Your own statement to me about a recent briefing by CSIS to Prime Minister Trudeau, serves only to ignite xenophobia and cause continued, unwarranted and irreparable damage to my reputation and the safety of my family.”

Chan was a Liberal MPP from 2007 to 2018, and held a number of cabinet roles while his party was in government, including as minister of citizenship, immigration, and international trade; minister of tourism, culture, and sport; and minister of revenue.

After retiring from provincial politics, he ran as a candidate for city council in Markham in 2022, and went on to win a seat and become deputy mayor.