Kennedy Stewart, the mayor of Vancouver, Canada’s third-largest city, has suspended all requests for meetings and contacts with Chinese Communist government officials, including the Communist Party’s ambassador to Canada, who recently invited him to meet. This is in response to the CCP’s recent announcement of sanctions against his friend, Conservative federal Rep. Michael Chong, and Canadian entities.
Stewart tweeted after the Chinese government announced sanctions against Chong Wen-Hao that the Chinese Communist government’s sanctions against Chong and other members of Parliament were unacceptable.
“My office has suspended all requests for meetings and contacts from Chinese government officials.”
Speaking about the Chinese government’s sanctions against Zhuang Wenhao, Stewart said, “This is threatening and intimidating, and I know he’s taking this calmly, but this has reached a new level of hostility – it’s not diplomacy, it’s bullying,” according to Vancouver Is Awesome’s news site on April 8. “
Stewart, who was once an NDP MP for Canada, co-authored in 2017 with Wen Ho Chuang and Liberal MP Scott Simms, Turning Parliament Inside Out: Practical Ideas for Turning Parliament Inside Out: Practical Ideas for Reforming Canada’s Democracy.
Stewart emphasizes that his stance against the Chinese government is not merely personal, but is aimed at condemning the Communist Party’s human rights abuses and continued detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Last month, the Chinese Communist authorities held a secret trial of the two Canadian citizens. They were charged with allegedly endangering China’s national security.
The mayor said he received a request for an appointment about four weeks ago from the Chinese Communist Party’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, but he declined.
Stewart said he did not ask about the subject or topics to be covered in the meeting, but decided he would not have any contact with Chinese Communist government officials until China and Canada resolved outstanding issues, including the Uighurs in Xinjiang. “Unless I am advised differently or asked by the federal government to attend these meetings, I will not attend these meetings again,” the Vancouver Good News website quoted him as saying.
The piece cited Stewart’s move as rare, perhaps even unprecedented, for a leader of a Canadian city with a strong Chinese culture. His predecessor had led a trade mission to China and established a “sister city” relationship with Guangzhou.
Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive detained by Canada, is now living in her own mansion in Vancouver.
Stewart said he estimates he has had at least 12 meetings with Chinese Communist Party officials and businesspeople since his election as mayor in October 2018, most of which have been with Tong Xiaoling, the Communist Party’s consul general in Vancouver.
On March 28, the CCP Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that “in response to the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and Canada on March 22 on people and entities related to China’s Xinjiang based on lies and false information,” China decided to impose sanctions on Zhuang Wenhao and the Canadian House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s two leaders of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Zhuang Wenhao responded at the time that he considered the sanctions imposed on him by the Chinese Communist Party a “badge of honor.
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