Chinese diplomat wants to mend relations harmed by real estate resentment
The top Chinese diplomat in Vancouver says condemnation of Chinese investment in B.C. real estate is fuelling a backlash against immigrants from China.
Liu Fei has not avoided controversy, unlike Chinese consuls general before her. On Tuesday, she waded into the debate with a plan to counter the negative publicity.
Liu says her office will launch a series of campaigns and media events next year to promote Chi- nese and Chinese-Canadian contributions to B.C. She hopes the campaign will defuse tension that has built over the past few years.
Liu said she believes even those with the strongest animosities can be convinced.
“We have to tell people about the realities of the Canada-China relationship,” Liu said. “Our interactions in economics, trade, education and culture benefit many people on both sides, and I believe those people who object will change their views if they see that.”
Racist flyers were delivered in two incidents in Richmond last month, including one portraying a Caucasian family looking at a Chinese-owned mansion with the caption: “Immigration has turned into the plunder of Canada.” Some residents held counter-rallies.
Beijing has been increasingly vocal about the well-being of overseas Chinese communities, with embassies and consulates taking more visible roles among local Chinese-speaking people regardless of their citizenship.
An Economist report noted after an anti-Chinese protest in Kuala Lumpur last fall that China’s ambassador to Malaysia said Beijing “will not sit by idly” if its citizens’ rights are violated. Yet the vast majority of ethnically Chinese people in Malaysia are Malaysian citizens.
Former Vancouver councillor Tung Chan, active in the Chinese-Canadian community since 1974, said Chinese governments in the past century have always regarded overseas Chinese as their own.
While he has not seen a Chinese diplomatic mission this active in Vancouver before, Chan said it’s not surprising.
“Every Chinese consulate office around the world has an officer with the title of consul of overseas Chinese affairs,” Chan said.
“They basically consider anybody — regardless of legal status — as overseas Chinese. In their eyes, you do not cease to be a Chinese person by adopting another country’s nationality.”
The Vancouver consulate has been involved in Chinese-Canadian issues in recent years, including B.C.’s official apology in 2014 for its anti-Chinese history and the establishment of a memorial Dec. 3 of early Chinese immigrants in Kamloops.
“It demonstrates their governance and representatives have become a lot more sophisticated over the years,” Chan said.
Liu said her office is focused on telling B.C. residents of the benefits interactions with China bring, such as the positive effect of 40,000 Chinese students — who bring money into the B.C. economy while boosting attendance at colleges, which she says leads to an increased selection of courses for local students.
“Housing is a temporary phenomenon,” she said.
“It should not overshadow the long-term potential — some of it already realized — in B.C.
“Without the existing trade relationship, the unemployment rate here would undoubtedly be higher.”