The investigation that exposed illegal activities by Chinese Communist Party agents was “harmful” to Chinese Canadians, claims Liberal-appointed Senator Yuen Pau Woo, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. Woo, who is a former Asia Pacific Foundation CEO, a member of the pro-Beijing University of British Columbia China Council and guest speaker at the Canada-China Friendship Society, has declined to answer questions on whether he maintained active ties with the Chinese Embassy.Chinese Canadians face new “nativist and xenophobic” discrimination, Woo, who was granted standing at the Commission on Foreign Interference but declined to participate in hearings, told the senate. “We would be deluding ourselves if we thought that nativist and xenophobic attitudes have been expunged from the collective Canadian consciousness,” said Woo. He asked that legislators consider “the question of whether a form of modern exclusion of Chinese Canadians is happening in our country now.”“We see warning lights in the heightened immigration screening of students from China, the over-securitization of research collaboration at our universities, claims of foreign interference and disloyalty that focus on politicians of Chinese ethnicity,” said Woo. He provided no examples and did not identify any public office holders by name.“We only harm ourselves by embracing a sweeping definition of a ‘China threat’ and we harm our reputation as a country that sees itself as progressive, fair-minded and open to the world.”“The rhetoric of an all-encompassing China threat propagated by politicians who are trying to out-hawk each other sets a tone for how we see and treat Canadians who have ties to the People’s Republic of China.” Woo said he was concerned about “Chinese Canadian academics who are treated with suspicion because they work with colleagues in China, users of Canada-based Chinese language social media platforms who are assumed to be unable to think for themselves and accused of being dupes and vectors of foreign interference, and Chinese scientists in Canada who are punished for their past work with Chinese research institutions.”“How many more Chinese Canadians will be subject to this kind of modern exclusion? How long before we wake up to the injustice of such actions?” Woo asked. In 2023, a reporter said to Woo, “You have been dubbed as Beijing’s man in the Senate, as China’s mouthpiece. Do you have any ties with the Chinese regime?”“I am not sure I want to dignify that question. It is deeply insulting,” replied Woo.
