Chinese-Canadian 'Splitism'

"The reason I came here [to Canada] personally was because of what Canada stands for. I feel free to speak up, I feel free to live the life I want to live without fear."
"As a Canadian, I want to focus on people from China, Chinese-speaking residents to [help them] understand what this country is all about."
Meena Wong, founder, the Civic Engagement Network, Vancouver

Meena Wong is an immigrant from Beijing who openly criticizes her mother country’s government.   Nick Procaylo/PostMedia

"Our goal is to tell them, 'Do not be afraid'. If more and more people speak out, say no to the Chinese Communist Party, we can make progress, one by one, step by step."
"Canada is a country that welcomes all the immigrants, but all the immigrants have a responsibility to respect Canadian values, to respect human rights, the Charter, our culture."
Louis Huang, leader, the Alliance of the Guard of Canadian Values, Vancouver

It's not as though Canada has suddenly realized it has a growing contingent of immigrants from China who are under the influence of Beijing. Chinese immigrants have lived in Canada for a  hundred years. Shamefully, Canada once imposed a 'head tax' on immigrants from China, in an effort to slow down their entry to the country; effectively penalizing them for not being of European stock. The early Chinese-Canadians took menial jobs that other Canadians spurned. They were railroad construction workers, they opened laundries and restaurants, they worked on farms.

There have been large urban communities of Chinese-Canadians populating the centres of Canadian cities for many generations. Most large Canadian cities have a "Chinatown" where Chinese-Canadian residents cluster. In essence, Chinese-Canadians have reproduced in their communities Canadian versions of what Chinese life looks like in China, celebrating their unique culture in the country they have adapted to and which has adopted them.

Newer emigrants from mainland China bring with them the influence of the Communist Party. Years ago when Britain surrendered their rule of Hong Kong to Beijing, wealthy Chinese from Hong Kong, fearful of Chinese government intrusion on their way of life under colonial British rule, envisioning a clampdown by Beijing on Western-style commerce and freedoms, sought to migrate to Canada, buying properties in Vancouver, ensuring they had a second home and an escape route should their fears be realized.

Beijing's government at the time realized the utility of a market economy designed on the free market system and decided it would suit them well to adopt a Chinese-style free enterprise system to encourage entrepreneurial enterprise and control it through communist-style oversight. Which led China to its current status as a manufacturing and trade giant at the top of the world economy, second only to the U.S.

In its zeal to overtake the U.S. on every index of production, trade and influence, it has reached out its tentacles all over the world, offering its technology and construction infrastructure upgrades and loans leading to indebtedness and control through their giant initiative they have titled One Belt, One Road, a modern-day silk road with accompanying power and influence.

China's record on human rights continues to earn it censure, and its ongoing ventures into espionage, stealthily obtaining other countries' trade, political, military and production secrets have earned it constant condemnation. Mr. Huang of the Alliance of the Guard of Canadian Values, a former Shanghai pediatrician, argues that the Chinese Communist party has succeeded in infiltrating "deep in our political, social and economic system", a reality that exists across the globe, but one that most governments seem to choose to ignore.

Through the Civic Engagement Network, Ms. Wong has been active in criticizing her country of birth's government and attempting to influence as many Chinese immigrants as she can reach that as citizens of Canada their obligation is to their new nation, not the one they left behind. "What does being Canadian mean?" events are scheduled for that purpose; to inform and/or remind Chinese Canadians of the importance of Canadian values and human rights.

Mr. Huang speaks of Chinese leaving China for Canada to escape the communist system. In the same token once in Canada new immigrants take care not to criticize the system they have escaped for to do so is to draw attention to oneself by Chinese authorities who have willing informers everywhere. Once held in suspicion, relatives still living overseas can be threatened or their businesses impacted deleteriously by a government that brooks no slights.

Louis Huang of the Alliance of the Guard of Canadian Values says he speaks to Chinese students studying in Canada who know virtually nothing about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Jeff Widener/AP, File