Anti-communist MP takes advantage of Chinagate hysteria for political gain
Written By: Daniel Xie and Aidan Jonah
As Chinagate continues harming Chinese Canadians, various opportunistic politicians have sought to escalate the CSIS and RCMP led witch-hunt for their own gain.
One of these politicians is independent Spadina-Fort York MP Kevin Vuong. Vuong, the child of South Vietnamese loyalists that fled to Canada after the Vietnam War, has a background of anti-Communist and pro-NATO sentiments. Vuong has attempted to use Chinagate to provide cover for an alleged sexual assault, which led to charges which were eventually dropped, and shape a new image as an ardent anti-communist “protecting Canadian democracy” from China.
Vuong had expressed pride at his late uncle’s service in the army of the US-backed South Vietnamese puppet regime, and had also served as a youth advisor for the NATO 2030 program; advising NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the future of the organization. As discussed by Tamara Lorincz, the NATO 2030 plan indicated an aggressive foreign policy directed towards China and Russia and the start of a new arms race threatening all hopes for nuclear disarmament. Vuong has also shown a willingness to support Taiwan secessionism, meeting with Harry Tseng Hou-jen of the Taipei Economic and Cultural office in Canada on the 111th Taiwan National Day (October 5, 2022).
On May 8, 2023, Vuong voted in favor of an opposition motion in Canada’s parliament, sponsored by Conservative MP Michael Cooper. This motion claimed that the People’s Republic of China was engaging in a campaign of intimidation targeting Chinese Canadians; a claim referring to the baseless accusations of police activity raised by the anti-China organization Safeguard Defenders. With regards to confronting the supposed intimidation carried out by the PRC, the motion proposes that the Canadian government:
create a foreign agent registry similar to Australia and the United States of America;
establish a national public inquiry on the matter of foreign election interference;
close down the People’s Republic of China run police stations operating in Canada; and
expel all of the People's Republic of China diplomats responsible for and involved in these “affronts to Canadian democracy”.
The opposition motion passed with a vote of 170-150. On Twitter, Vuong justified his vote by claiming that the supposed “integrity” of Canadian democracy is a non-partisan issue. Vuong views the expelling of the Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei over the supposed intimidation of Conservative MP Michael Chong in response to the latter’s criticism of China’s anti-terror policies in Xinjiang. As discussed by The Canada Files Editor-in-Chief Aidan Jonah on TCF’s YouTube Channel, the expulsion of Zhao Wei was made possible by the uncritical anti-China reporting of CSIS-aligned Globe and Mail journalists Robert Fife and Steven Chase.
Following Wei’s expulsion, Vuong expressed hope that the nonexistent illegal police stations (in reality Service centers for Overseas Chinese) will be shut down and a foreign agent registry created. The threat posed by the registry to Canadian democracy, especially to Chinese Canadians individuals and groups that refuse to join in with the China bashing, doesn’t matter to Vuong.
Vuong seeks to link Sexual Assault allegations to Chinese Interference
While Vuong frames his support for a registry as “protecting” Canadian democracy, a closer look at his political record reveals far more opportunistic motivations. Namely, the desire to maintain political power in the face of career-destroying political scandals, regardless of the consequences such efforts will have on further deteriorating Canada-China relations. Vuong, the Liberal candidate selected to replace Adam Vaughan in Spadina-Fort York for the 2021 Federal election, had his candidacy revoked by the Liberal Party following an investigation into a dropped sexual assault charge, which he’d failed to disclose to the Liberal Party or the Royal Canadian Navy.
Because the decision to remove Vuong came after the deadline for candidate registration, Vuong would still maintain his position on the ballot. Vuong would then go on to win the riding with 38.9 per cent of the vote. Immediately after his victory, both Ontario Provincial Leader Steven Del Duca and Vuong’s predecessor Adam Vaughan urged him to resign. Both warnings were ignored by Vuong. As the Liberals forbade him from being part of the Liberal caucus, Vuong took his seat as an independent.
The sexual assault charges would continue to haunt him as an independent MP. On February 25, 2022, the Royal Canadian Navy would file charges against Vuong on the basis that as a reserve officer in the navy, Vuong did not disclose the charges to his superiors. This resulted in a court-martial that saw him being fined $500 after being found guilty of breaching military law, which requires the disclosing of sexual assault charges to superiors.
Vuong’s victory in Spadina-Fort York was extremely controversial. This is in part because with regards to ballots cast on election day, Vuong actually got less ballots than NDP candidate Norm Di Pasquale. Instead, Vuong was elected primarily by advanced polling and mail-in ballots, both of which were concluded before the sexual assault revelation. The discrepancy between mail-in and advance ballots vs. the ballots cast for Vuong on election day indicates that the sexual assault revelations may have potentially turned prospective voters against him.
Since becoming an MP, Vuong has taken a critical stance towards the Liberals. This critical stance was first observed in June 2022, when he accused the Liberal government of putting multiple taxes on taxpayers refueling their vehicles. When CSIS and the RCMP launched their witch hunt against nonexistent instances of Chinese influence, Vuong was quick to use it as a tool to exact revenge on the Liberals. In multiple parliamentary sessions, Vuong would both call for a hardline stance on China and criticize the government for a “do-nothing approach” regarding both China and Iran. His House of Commons profile reveals that China, as well as “foreign interference” are the topics he has discussed the most in Parliament. In recent days, Vuong has sought to align with the Conservatives, as evident in his abovementioned support for Conservative MP Michael Chong in both the expelling of the Zhao Wei and the opposition motion.
Vuong has also sought to frame the charges of sexual assault levied against him as purely a Chinese plot. On May 3, 2023, a National Post article saw Vuong push a new framing to cover for his hiding of his dropped sexual assualt charge. Vuong claimed that he was the victim of a “honey trap”, or a form of sexual entrapment designed to blackmail and compromise the target, set by the Chinese government. The supposed direct end goal was dragging Vuong’s name through the mud and replacing him with a pro-Beijing politician. This was supposedly because, according to Vuong on Twitter, one in seven of his constituents were Chinese, and Vuong’s anti-Communism did not sit well with the Chinese government (referred to as the CPC).
Vuong’s claims crumble under scrutiny
The claims made by Vuong immediately fall apart when other testimonies of the same incident are considered. According to Vice News social media manager Evy Kwong, in response to Vuong’s claims, Vuong’s effort to pin a victim testimony on China is a betrayal of the justice system. In fact, the reality was that Vuong hid his sexual assault charges from the Liberals until the victim stepped forward to expose them. Kwong herself would talk with the victim and break the story about Vuong’s sexual assault charges to the Toronto Star. Back then, Kwong noted, Vuong did not advance the claim that the sexual assault charges were engineered in China, rather he stated that he was “naive” to have tried to hide the truth from the Liberals.
Kwong has also expressed disgust on Twitter that cases centred around alleged sexual violence are now being weaponized as part of a Sinophobic Cold War narrative, while journalists aware of the truth about Vuong are being blocked on Twitter for calling Vuong out.
Vuong’s effort to hide the sexual assault charges from the Liberals was also corroborated by Spadina-Fort York resident Jean Yoon. According to Yoon, on Vuong’s nomination form, Vuong lied about his past by ticking off boxes saying NO to being charged for sexual assault. Yoon further states that Vuong has sought to shield himself from any accountability from his constituents on the matter, refusing to either step down or respond to community calls for a town hall addressing the issue. Vuong has even gone as far to block on social media anyone calling him out on hiding the sexual assault charges.
Vuong’s failure to provide tangible evidence proving that charges against him were engineered by the CPC was admitted by the CTV news report, a report that was itself criticized as giving Vuong too much of a blank check. Even other anti-China hawks have expressed skepticism at Vuong’s claims, with one such hawk condemning his actions on Twitter as co-opting their anti-China stances to cover up his behavior as an alleged sex pest.
Vuong’s Bill C-261 could classify rhetoric seen as pro-China as “Hate Speech”
Despite skepticism expressed by even those supporting a more hawkish foreign policy against China, Vuong has pushed forward with seeking to play a role in the anti-China witch hunt. CTV News further reported that Vuong met with CSIS representatives for two hours. While details of this meeting are unknown as of now, the meeting indicates that Vuong seeks to play a greater role in the anti-China witch hunt instigated by CSIS and the RCMP.
Vuong has also sought to draft bills that could potentially criminalize political dissent under the banner of fighting hate speech. This could be seen in Private Member bill C-261, which is directly sponsored by Vuong. Under C-261, if anyone posts something that could be read as hateful towards someone else, they can be charged for hate speech with punishment of up to two years in prison. If this bill passes, it could potentially be weaponized by anti-China separatist diaspora organizations operating in Canada to label any speech they deem to be pro-China, as hate speech.
The case of MP Kevin Vuong highlights how as the CSIS and RCMP led anti-China witch hunt continues, opportunistic politicians, some with their careers on the line for previous scandals, are seeking to pin the blame of these scandals on the Chinese government. This comes despite previously existing evidence proving that China had nothing to do with said scandals. Kevin Vuong is one such politician.
Seeking to defect accountability for his crime of sexual assault on nonexistent Chinese “honey trap” meddling, Vuong plans to use the scandal to exonerate himself, align with both CSIS and anti-China Conservatives, and pass laws that could be used to further criminalize any rhetoric deemed to be pro-China. Vuong’s political ambitions must be opposed by all Canadians concerned about how escalating Canada-China tensions will be used to infringe on Canadian democratic rights.
Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.
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Daniel Xie is a firm anti-imperialist, who writes about the need for an anti-imperialist and independent Canadian foreign policy. He serves as the Associate Editor of The Canada Files.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah has broken numerous stories, including how the Canadian Armed Forces trained neo-Nazi "journalist" Roman Protasevich while he was with the Azov Battalion, and how a CIA front group (the NED) funded the group (URAP) which drove the "Uyghur genocide" vote in parliament to pass this February. Jonah recently wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
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