John Liu’s former chief of staff, John Choe, is an active, outspoken supporter of the North Korean communist regime.
Ellen Young, John Liu’s district administrator until 2006, is widely accused by residents in her district of swindling people out of tens of thousands of dollars. Young is a former State Assembly member.
Liu also has strong ties to the Fukien American Association, known to be connected to the criminal underworld and the Chinese Communist Party.
John Choe on ‘U.S. Imperialism’
“Korea is at the front lines of the liberation struggles against imperialism,” John Choe said in a May 2006 speech. He was speaking at a conference called “Preparing for the Rebirth of the Global Struggle for Socialism” hosted by the Workers World Party, a self-described “orthodox Marxist” political group. The audio of his speech is available at workers.org.
John Choe, as John Liu’s chief of staff for several years, was an influential member of Liu’s City Council administration.
“We still have friends, activists who are being arrested on a daily basis [in South Korea],” Choe said in his 2006 speech to the Workers World Party (MP3 sound file available), “for expressing their free will and their thought and for struggling against the U.S. and U.S. imperialism.”
John Choe is also a co-founder of Nodutdol, a New York-based Korean organization. Nodutdol, among other activities it conducts, arranges trips to North Korea. Although Nodutdol claims to be neither pro-North nor pro-South on the Korean issue, its English Website, nodutdol.org, contains glowing accounts of North Korea and praise of former communist leader Kim Il Sung.
In 2003, Korean language newspapers in New York reported that the South Korean Consulate General labeled Choe’s organization, Nodutdol, as one of three New York organizations controlled by North Korea.
Thomas Choi, head of the Pan-Asian Freedom Protection League, speaking of John Choe, said that many Koreans in New York, “know he is pro-communist” and that “he still respects [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Il.”
Perhaps, though, comptroller candidate John Liu is totally unaware of his former chief of staff’s views and activities. This July, the New York Post questioned John Liu over Choe’s 2006 Workers World Party speech. Liu said, “There’s no way he made those comments, no way.” Quite possibly, Liu did not attend Choe’s speech or listen to the audio recording, which is available for download on www.TheEpochTimes.com.
John Liu is officially endorsing John Choe in the 2009 election to replace him as District 20 city councilmember.
Ellen Young Involved in Swindling Cases
Ellen Young was a member of the New York State Assembly until losing in the 2008 primary. Before she was elected, Young served as John Liu’s district administrator for several years.
Young has a bad rap among many Chinese in her district, New York City’s 22nd. One source said that Young and her former husband have swindled several, if not dozens, of Taiwan immigrants out of large sums of money.
The Epoch Times spoke with Queens, NY, resident King Duei Chuang. He said Ellen Young and her then-husband Johnny Cheng cheated him out of $50,000. In 1984, Chuang had approached a law office staffed by Ellen Young. He initially went there for help obtaining a U.S. green card, and eventually developed a relationship with Young and her husband.
Chuang said that Cheng borrowed money from him in small sums over the course of about two years for various loans and bogus investments. Eventually, Chuang said, the sums totaled $50,000. Chuang successfully sued Cheng in court in 1997 over a bounced “repayment” check, but by then Cheng and Young had divorced, and Cheng had fled to China.
In another case, Queens residents Mr. and Mrs. Ji, said they, too, were swindled out of $50,000 in the 1980s. They asked The Epoch Times to withhold their first names because they fear repercussion. After Young and Cheng built rapport with Mr. and Mrs. Ji through Young’s work at the law office, they say, Cheng convinced the couple to invest $50,000 in a fake real estate project. They even had their children do some window washing for Cheng, who never paid them.
“They even swindled kids,” Mr. Ji said. “Way too malicious.”
Human Trade and the Fukien American Association
Chinese-language newspaper World Journal reported on July 2, 2008 that the Fukien American Association held a fundraising dinner party for John Liu. The Journal said the Fukien American Association had raised more than $70,000 for Liu’s election campaign.
Police testimony cited at the 1992 U.S. Senate hearings on Asia organized crime asserted that the Fukien American Association is active in human trade, according to a book about human trafficking titled Global Human Smuggling, by David Kyle and Rey Koslowski. It is a claim the Fukien American Association denies.
The Fukien American Association is also affiliated with the Fuk Ching gang, according to a document published by the NIJ International Center, United Nation Activities, entitled “Chinese Transnational Organized Crime: The Fuk Ching” by Dr. James Finckenauer.
The Fuk Ching is famous for the ill-fated Golden Venture—a human smuggling ship that ran aground off the coast of Queens in June 1993 with 286 illegal immigrants on board.The Fukien American Association is also known to have strong ties to the Chinese New York consulate.
On June 3, 2009, the Fukien American Association held a ceremony at Manhattan Chinatown’s Jin Fong restaurant to celebrate its 19th anniversary. Sitting next to the Association’s chairman at the dinner were, on the left and right respectively, Peng Keyu—the Chinese Consul General—and comptroller candidate John Liu.
Matt Gnaizda is a staff member of New Tang Dynasty Television, a media partner of The Epoch Times.
