MPP’S CHINA TIES RAISE QUESTIONS

Ke’s links to Beijing create unease amid tensions

In July 2013, several dozen ethnic Chinese people hand-picked from various countries visited China for a government-run workshop — eight days of lectures and speeches from an array of officials.

The program would strive to help them “realize the Chinese dream and the common struggle,” a vice-chair of the state’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office told the group.

Among the participants was Vincent Ke, a community leader in Toronto chosen by the local consulate to take part in the event.

The invitation made sense, given Ke has often appeared at public events with consulate officials and, according to a documentary made with his co-operation, was a student “cadre” — a minor official typically viewed as “politically reliable” — in China and helped organize a Chinese students association in Germany.

Five years later, Ke would achieve a political milestone in Canada, becoming the first immigrant from mainland China to be elected as a Progressive Conservative member of the Ontario legislature.

Today, the MPP for Toronto’s Don Valley North riding is parliamentary assistant to the tourism, culture and sport minister, and a powerful fundraiser for the party.

Ke gave a hint of his worldview in a 2016 interview with the Ming Pao newspaper, promoting a new travel document for Chinese expatriates.

“A 10-year visa is still looking at overseas Chinese people as foreigners; the feeling is not the same,” Ke is quoted as saying. “We are the same as our compatriots from Hong Kong and Taiwan; we are all Chinese people. With an Overseas Compatriot Identity Card we could go back to our country more conveniently, without any visa.”

Hong Kong is part of China, Taiwan a territory that Beijing claims as its own.

Ke’s connections to the Chinese regime — at a time when Beijing is devoting unprecedented resources to its worldwide influence campaign — raise questions about how close a Canadian politician should get to a foreign power.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE A CANADIAN, I THINK YOU SHOULD BE FULLY LOYAL TO CANADA.

Premier Doug Ford praises Ke as an important part of his government; others are wary about the sort of links he has to China.

“The function of an MPP is to represent the interests of the constituents,” says Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat in Beijing and China expert at Ontario’s Brock University. “I don’t think a close relationship with a foreign government is something that should be encouraged …If you are going to be a Canadian, I think you should be fully loyal to Canada, and not have any residual loyalties to another place.”

There is also some ambiguity around the MPP’s work background, with little evidence of the career as a professional engineer that Ke has discussed in the legislature and elsewhere.

The National Post provided the lawmaker with a detailed list of questions about his China connections and other issues, covering topics from the possibility he joined the Chinese Communist Party, to his ties with the consulate and that 2013 trip.

He did not respond to any of the questions, but issued a statement asserting his commitment to the Conservatives and the people he represents.

“As a proud Chinese-Canadian I am honoured to be a part of Doug Ford’s government to make life more affordable for all Ontarians and their families,” Ke said. “I am focused on ensuring a strong voice for the constituents of Don Valley North at Queen’s Park and I look forward to working alongside my caucus colleagues to bring positive change to the province.”

The premier’s office also voiced confidence in the backbencher. “MPP Ke is an important part of the Progressive Conservative caucus and represents his constituents with their best interests in mind,” said Ivana Yelich, Ford’s press secretary.

The rookie member seems to be a good provider for the party, too. Ford appeared at a Ke fundraiser in July where the crowd included some prominent, pro-China community leaders who attended recent rallies in opposition to Hong Kong protesters, and are visible in event photos.

A Ke assistant said on the WeChat messaging app that “people from Ford’s office were very happy,” calling it the party’s most lucrative fundraiser other than the premier’s own. She indicated that 430 people attended, paying at least $450 each according to an invitation. That suggests a gross take of $193,000, huge for a provincial politician.

Legislators’ China connections have been dismissed before as irrelevant by party leaders. In 2015, then Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne said her government considered “baseless” a suggestion from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that cabinet minister Michael Chan might be under Chinese-government influence. Chan later sued the Globe and Mail over a report that said he was under CSIS investigation.Ke’s role aside, China’s attempts to influence Chinese immigrants and the political system in Canada have drawn increasing attention recently.

That’s partly because of the diplomatic feud between the countries over the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. But the foreign-influence drive has also been growing, with what one expert calls a “massive expansion” of the United Front Work Department, the Communist Party branch devoted to promoting Chinese interests with diasporas and economic and political elites in other nations.

A United Front document leaked to the Financial Times referred to the increasing number of politicians of Chinese descent elected in the Toronto area in the early 2000s, and urged cadres to “work with those individuals and groups that are at a relatively high level, operate within the mainstream of society and have prospects for advancement.”

Some of Ke’s background before entering the legislature is outlined in a 2016 documentary on local 365NetTV, a transcript of which was reprinted on the 51.ca website. It appeared to be made with extensive co-operation from the future politician, who appears in several interview clips and shots at his home and elsewhere. He was then head of the association of immigrants from China’s Quanzhou municipality. The MPP raised no objections to any of the profile’s biographical information in his statement to the Post. At Fuzhou University, the report said, he was a student cadre, developing his leadership and communications skills.

Such cadres often act as informants to monitor students and lecturers for politically questionable behaviour, said Alex Joske, a Mandarin-speaking analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Joske is not familiar with Ke’s story specifically.

After graduating and going to work in Beijing, Ke was selected as an “outstanding young person” by the city’s Haidian district, the documentary said. Burton, who also said he had no specific knowledge of the MPP’s background, said such a distinction would likely be administered by the Communist Youth League and given to someone on a “fast track” for party membership.

An estimated 87 million Chinese — one-sixteenth of the population — belong to the party, and the process to get in is highly competitive.

Ke later travelled to Germany’s Ruhr-Universität Bochum where he says he obtained a Master’s degree in electronic engineering and, according to the 365NetTV documentary, “participated in the work of organizing the Ruhr region Chinese overseas students society.”

Joske said that sounds like a version of the Chinese Scholars and Students Associations located at post-secondary institutions throughout the world, which typically are guided by local Chinese diplomats. Ke then emigrated to Canada in 1998. During remarks in the legislature last year to recognize “Professional Engineers day,” the MPP said he had worked as an electronic engineer “for over 25 years in China, Germany and Canada.”

But Professional Engineers Ontario, the group’s regulatory body, shows no record of him ever being licensed as a professional engineer in the province, where Ke indicates he has lived and worked since arriving in Canada. He is listed, however, by Ontario’s Financial Services Commission as an insurance agent, his licence renewed just last September.

The MPP did not respond to a question about his professional background.

Ke’s involvement with the 2013 workshop is mentioned in the Ming Pao interview and 365NetTV documentary. He also appears in a photograph of participants that accompanied an article by an Australian delegate. A friend of his confirmed to the National Post the documentary’s indication that Ke was tapped to go by the Toronto consulate.

The “14th Chinese Overseas Societies Youth and Middle-aged Immigrant Leader’s Research Training” was run by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, now part of the United Front. Vice-chair Tan Tianxing told the trainees the session would focus on building “harmonious emigrant societies,” according to the stateowned China News agency.

“He expressed hope that emigrant leaders would study well and practically, and would share the opportunities of Chinese development, in order to realize the Chinese dream and the common struggle,” said the news service. Since becoming an MPP, Ke appears to have maintained a close relationship with the consulate and Beijing-leaning groups like the Toronto Confederation of Chinese Canadian Organizations. The Confederation has worked with the consulate to stage a pro-China Tibet exhibit at City Hall and push for China’s Confucius Institute to be established at the Toronto school board, while being lavishly praised by Beijing’s Overseas Affairs Office. At a function for overseas Chinese leaders in May, the Confederation’s honorary chair, Wei Chengyi — also a guest at Ke’s fundraiser — was filmed “cordially” shaking hands with President Xi Jinping.

Ke has appeared with consulate officials at events such as a ceremonial raising of the Chinese flag at the Ontario legislature. And he was the only MPP to attend the launch party for a new, pro-China Tibetan group, organized by the Confederation. Veteran Tibetan-Canadian leaders allege it is a front for Beijing.