#partially bc of a minor oversight and then also a major oversight

[pacificoceans]

nothing like that last minute scramble to fix my graduation application being cancelled :')

[panicinthestudio]

There’s a disturbing trend of the right-wing and conservatives in Canada and the States trying to connect with the broad political demands including democratic and electoral reform, universal suffrage, the right to protest including amnesty for arrested demonstrators, and independent investigation into accountability for police brutality in Hong Kong. While the record-breaking demonstrations, creativity, and on-going violence has received a lot of media attention, there hasn’t been as much with regard to nativist, localist, and populist elements within the movement that are--for the moment--in solidarity with local pro-democratic leftists and progressives. Meanwhile, more traditional economic and social conservatives are allied and aligned with pro-Beijing and establishment politics.

All of them have begun to show their influence in the usually politically apathetic (read: low voter turnout) but conservative and centrist-leaning Chinese diaspora communities, our media, and social networks. It’s reopening tensions between three major generations of immigrants: the aging and established generation of primarily Southern Chinese and Chinese diaspora, many who migrated early on or escaped war, civil unrest, and changing post-colonial sovereignty, often through places like Hong Kong; the recent decades of increasing mainland Chinese migrants; and their descendants who are born and/or raised in countries like Canada while retaining familial, professional relationships, even citizenship or residency abroad.

Owing to the protesters’ need for international support and solidarity, there is a significant amount of attention being placed on upcoming elections in places with large diaspora communities. As the SCMP article states, there are an estimated 300,000 Canadians (expats not necessarily of Chinese or Hong Kong origin) living in Hong Kong whose adult population are able to vote as of this year, another 500,000 people of Hong Kong descent in Canada, as well as 650,000 first generation mainland Chinese eligible to vote. The 2016 Census indicates there were 1,769,195 Canadians identifying themselves as having singular or partial Chinese ethnic origin, making it one of, if not the, largest non-native and non-European ethnic minorities in Canada, discounting a more specific breakdown of various direct origins and reasons for migrating. Many of these constituents are focused in the metropolitan areas of Ontario, BC, and to a lesser extent Alberta and Quebec, the four provinces comprising a significant majority of the seats allocated in the House of Commons, making them a sizeable target for exploiting the current protests for domestic political gain.

This isn’t new either, I distinctly remember in previous federal and provincial elections the Conservative Parties putting out different and often misleading ads targeting Cantonese and Taiwanese separate from mainland Mandarin Chinese, using disinformation and using gross racist or xenophobic narratives; the degrees of written and spoken unintelligibility between different Chinese languages; and statements that escaped media attention having not been directly translated into English or French. A particularly odious example was Jason Kenney in his role as Harper’s multicultural minister during the 2015 campaign trying to make political hay of prominent NDP members’ interracial relationships with Chinese Canadians, some of whom are notable politicians in their own right like Olivia Chow; as well as the Liberals’ economic and political past with China in the Pierre Trudeau and post-Trudeau Liberal years.

Now social media like Facebook and the Chinese-owned and surveilled WeChat, are being mobilized with Chinese-language advertising and smear tactic platforms in a manner inconsistent with Canadian law, with limited to no oversight on the side of the companies and lacking accountability in their use, particularly in Scheer’s Conservative Party disinformation campaign. Just last month, China and India, among other countries, were identified as having efforts to influence Canadian parties, candidates, and voters this election. 

Thus far Andrew Scheer is the only party leader to make a statement in support of the pro-democracy Hong Kong protests, or at least in opposition to Beijing. Meanwhile, Trudeau is being projected as relatively weak in his stance on China or the protesters and their demands, especially in light of the ongoing extradition and security controversy around Huawei and CFO Meng Wanzhou, the detention of two Canadian citizens, recent socio-political reverberations due to trade disputes with China, and changing demographics within the diaspora communities themselves.

The NDP and Green Party have made limited statements at various points during the summer’s protests, with Jenny Kwan NDP MP for Vancouver East being notably outspoken. Organizations bridging the expat and diaspora communities have also formed, such as the officially unaffiliated Canadian Conservatives in Hong Kong having hosted a voter registration drive, and the Canadian Friends of Hong Kong (formerly Vancouver Friends of Hong Kong) aimed at highlighting modern Chinese government influence and its separation from the broader Chinese Canadian community, in addition to other solidarity groups and protests in the past few months.

***

I haven’t posted much about the current election cycle--not because of apathy--but the ballooning complexity of the situation in Hong Kong. I’ve dedicated a significant amount of my time here to covering it regularly, as the English-language coverage is often limited in scope and comes from a rather small circle of tumblrs. Things remain high-strung, it puts a strain on my community and extended family, and increasingly how it plays into larger international, federal, and broader identity conflicts and tensions.

As second-generation Chinese Canadian myself, I’m not terribly torn about my own political opinions and allegiances or on the issues that matter to me, domestic or otherwise. People with even stronger ties to the mainland and Hong Kong are another matter with growing issues of nationalism, sovereignty, as well as conflicting political and personal interests. I do find it worrying that in the diversifying of domestic political opinion and intentions, that the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are being used as political instruments here and elsewhere.

Just noticed the length, it’s possibly longer than the original linked article itself. Apparently, I had a lot more to say on the matter than I thought.

@abpoli, @allthecanadianpolitics, @onpoli, @pnwpol, @politicsofcanada, @torontopoli