Montreal woman victim of spying at UN
Chinese man loses his credentials after he photographs activist
— The United Nations has stripped the credentials of a man representing a Chinese organization after he was accused of spying on a Montreal woman whose father is a political prisoner in China.
The incident occurred within the chamber of the United Nations Human Rights Council, one day after Ti-Anna Wang, 24, of Montreal made an impassioned plea for the freedom of her father, Dr. Wang Bingzhang, who was given a life sentence in 2002 after trying to foster democracy in China.
On Wednesday, the day after Wang’s address, a man representing a Chinese nongovernmental organization started taking close-up pictures of her and her computer screen while seated behind her. The man was questioned by UN security staff, who asked that the images be deleted from his camera.
“We decided to remove the badge of the individual who was photographing Ms. Wang,” council spokesman Rolando Gomez said in an interview Friday from Geneva.
“His photographing of Ms. Wang was immediately spotted. It violates UN rules. More importantly, he was taking a close-up of her and her computer, which was deemed not only inappropriate but was perceived as intimidation.”
In a separate interview Friday from France, where she was in transit to Montreal, Wang said she was shocked but not surprised by the actions of the man.
“I stared at him. I was so shocked that he was engaging in that kind of — I don’t know what you’d call it — lowly activity,” said Wang.
“I thought it was not very savvy of them, the way they did it. It seemed very amateurish, amateur espionage activity in a sense.”
Wang applauded Canada for being the only country to recommend the release of Chinese prisoners in the council’s report on China, which was formally adopted this week.
The Canadian Press obtained a copy of a letter from Canada’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva to the council expressing the country’s “serious concern regarding the alleged intimidation” of a Canadian national.
“The Government of Canada is extremely troubled by this case — which we view as an act of potential intimidation against Ms. Wang,” wrote envoy Elissa Golberg.
The non-governmental agency, UN Watch, which sponsored Wang’s appearance before the council, accused the Chinese agency of being in cahoots with the Chinese government. “The Chinese NGO in question is known for making statements at the UN identical to those of the Chinese government. We consider this incident to be an act of deliberate intimidation in reprisal against our delegate for her co-operation with the United Nations human rights mechanisms,” wrote UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.