Chinese Dissidents in Canada

[Randy W]

from the NY Times (paywalled, unless you have free articles left)

 

Chinese Dissidents Feel Heat of Beijing’s Wrath. Even in Canada.

She thought she would be safe in Toronto. Then she began speaking out against the Chinese government and became the victim of a lurid smear campaign.

 

Search for Sheng Xue on Google in English and you will find the story of an award-winning writer who left China for Canada after the Tiananmen Square uprising and became one of the world’s leading advocates for Chinese democracy.

But that same search in Chinese comes up with a very different portrait: Sheng Xue is a fraud, a thief, a traitor and a serial philanderer. Want proof? It offers up salacious photos, like one seeming to show her kissing a man who is not her husband.

. . .

As China extends its influence around the globe, it has mastered the art of soft power, establishing Confucius Institutes on Western college campuses and funding ports and power plants in developing countries.

But building up is only one prong of the Chinese strategy. The other is knocking down. And few know this better than Sheng Xue.

For more than six years, the Chinese-Canadian activist has been the victim of a relentless campaign of discreditation by blog, Listserv, e-book and social media, which experts say bears the markings of a coordinated attack by the Chinese Communist Party.

. . .

Haunted by the sight of soldiers shooting into a crowd close to her family’s apartment during the Tiananmen Square massacre in June of that year, Sheng Xue abandoned her study plans and threw herself into the burgeoning Chinese democracy movement in Toronto. She helped form a local branch of the Federation for a Democratic China, which at its height had 3,000 members in 25 countries.

. . .

 

The moment she remembers best, however, is stepping off the stage and finding herself surrounded by colleagues holding cellphones. They were showing her emails they had just received, with various photos of her half-naked.

Except they were obvious fakes.

In one photo, Sheng Xue’s face was pasted onto another woman’s body. Another email included a supposed love letter from her to an activist in Australia, so crass, it seemed a parody. The sender appeared to be yet another activist, Chin Jin, but he said the email was a fake.

It was a portent of the harassment to come.

. . .

Many fellow activists, even those who have themselves been targeted by the Chinese government, believe some of the accusations against Sheng Xue.

“The Chinese government tries all means to marginalize, to silence and detain Chinese activists, in China and outside,” said Teng Biao, a civil rights lawyer who escaped China in 2012 and now lives in New Jersey.

But, he added, “What happened to Sheng Xue might be a little complicated, because as far as I know, some claims are true.”

Taken together, a pattern emerges: Doubt is turned into distrust, and dislike into loathing.

“It’s called blowing on the hot coals,” said Mr. Bequelin of Amnesty International.

 

[Randy W]

See also CFL topic

 

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