Senator’s Claim That Chinese Canadians Face Discrimination and Exclusion Is ‘A Straw Man Argument’: Former Ambassador

Sen. Yuen Pau Woo in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Sen. Yuen Pau Woo’s claim that people of Chinese descent in Canada face “contemporary forms of exclusion and discrimination” is divisive and deflects from the Beijing regime’s true tactics, says a former ambassador.

“Senator say (sic) many Canadians hold stereotypical views of Chinese,” former Canadian ambassador to China David Mulroney wrote on Twitter on Feb. 16.

“The Senator is setting up a straw man argument that is dangerously divisive and that makes it harder to speak clearly about PRC [People’s Republic of China] tactics.”

Mulroney’s tweet was responding to Woo’s Feb. 14 speech in the Senate on the 100th anniversary of the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act, a.k.a. the Chinese Exclusion Act, which virtually banned all immigration from China to Canada for 24 years until it was repealed in May 1947.

In his speech, Woo alluded to some developments that sparked concerns about Beijing’s foreign interference operations in Canada as being a type of “modern exclusion.”

“Chinese Canadians face at least three kinds of modern exclusion. The first is old-fashioned racism, not unlike the sort that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act 100 years ago,” he said.

Woo said such racism is “aided and abetted by seemingly respectable folks who nevertheless feed racial animus by insinuating generalizations about Chinese people in Canada and the ills that they are alleged to have brought to society—for example, money laundering, unaffordable housing and the epidemic of opioid deaths.”

The second form of exclusion relates to “long-held stereotypes about Chinese Canadians and what they are good for or good at,” he said, particularly whether they are “suitable for leadership positions.”

“The third exclusion is the most insidious because it is an exclusion that seeks to divide the Chinese community into those who are acceptable and those who are not,” Woo said.

“An acceptable Chinese-Canadian is one who conforms to a certain view of the world, disavows affiliations with individuals and groups that are blackballed for political reasons, and publicly voices opposition to what has been deemed as the all-encompassing menace that is the People’s Republic of China. Not conforming to these canons is seen as suspicious at best or, more ominously, as a litmus test of disloyalty and malfeasance against Canada.”

Woo provided some examples of what he described as the exclusion of Chinese Canadians.

“It is the kind of exclusion that assumes every workplace infraction in the technology sector is an instance of espionage, that frames collaborations between Canadian and Chinese scientists as intrinsically suspect and that calls on Chinese Canadian researchers to turn their backs on long-standing partnerships in the mainland,” he said.

This appears to allude to Ottawa’s announcement that week that it is banning federal funding for projects done in collaboration with researchers affiliated with China’s military. The ban came after reports showing dozens of Canadian universities have been working with a People’s Liberation Army institution on sensitive research topics ranging from guided missiles to technology that facilitates eavesdropping.

The Epoch Times reached out to Woo for comment on Mulroney’s tweet but didn’t hear back.

Other recent revelations of Chinese interference on Canadian soil include allegations that illegal police stations have been operating in the country, as well as media reports citing intelligence sources on China’s extensive interference in Canada’s elections.

International concerns about Chinese espionage also intensified following reports of a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that traversed Canadian and U.S. airspace, and was downed by the U.S. military.