A Toronto businessman affiliated with an organization in Canada that’s on a list of secret overseas Chinese police stations recently met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his inner circle in Beijing at an event aimed at promoting the communist regime’s ideology.
On May 8, Weng Guoning was among some 500 overseas delegates from Chinese organizations in over 130 countries who attended the 10th Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations held in a state building in Beijing.
Weng is a permanent honorary president of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association (CTFQBA). The address of the CTFQBA’s headquarters, “220 Royal Crest Crt, Unit 1-2 Markham,” matches one of the addresses on a list of 30 overseas police stations operated by the Public Security Bureau of Fuzhou City, in China’s Fujian Province. Two other locations in the Greater Toronto Area were also on that list.
In a video taken by state media China News Service, he and other delegates are seen applauding as Xi and other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials arrived at the conference in the Great Hall of the People on May 8.
Chinese state mouthpiece Global Times described the event as an “important platform for communication and exchange among major overseas Chinese associations and their leading members around the world.”
Besides Xi, other top CCP officials at the event included Wang Huning and Cai Qi—two of the seven-member Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee, the regime’s highest decision-making body.
A police officer stands guard outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 10, 2022. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
According to Global Times, Shi Taifeng, head of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), also attended the event. The UFWD is China’s “primary foreign interference tool,” according to a number of reports cited by Public Safety Canada.
‘A Community With a Shared Future for Humanity’
Speaking at the conference opening ceremony, Shi urged overseas Chinese people to “put into practice the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity.” This coincides with the conference theme—to promote “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
The concept of building “a community with a shared future for mankind” is a phrase taken from the CCP’s Constitution. It is frequently cited by Xi, along with the phrase “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” as the goal of promoting China’s international influence.
Weng’s CTFQBA and the other two Toronto locations allegedly doubling as secret Chinese police stations first came to public attention in a September 2022 report released by Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders. The report stemmed from the group’s investigation into Beijing’s claims that some of its overseas police outposts contributed to the repatriation—described as “persuasion to return”—of an estimated 230,000 Chinese people living abroad.
Weng is also chair of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO), a Toronto-based umbrella group representing more than 100 member associations. The CTCCO has a record of rallying around Beijing on issues such as the controversial Confucius Institute program.
The Epoch Times reached out to Weng for comment via both the CTCCO and CTFQBA but didn’t hear back by publication time.
Donor to Chinese Military
Weng wasn’t the only representative from a Canada-based association who attended the May 8 conference in Beijing.
Wang Dianqi, an honorary chair of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations (CACA), also attended the event, according to the China News Service video. The CACA, a Vancouver-based community group, is an umbrella group of over 130 Chinese associations, according to its website.
Wang has consistently donated to the Chinese military.
In a 2017 interview with chinaqw.com, Wang said he had in the past few decades donated nearly 2 million yuan (around C$390,000) “to express appreciation to the soldiers of the motherland and help disabled veterans of the old [communist] revolutionary base resolve hardship.”
The same year, Wang said he also brought many cases of health products to soldiers in his hometown Tiantai County, Taizhou City, in China’s southwestern coastal Zhejiang Province.
The CACA has frequently echoed Beijing’s party line. It was among 87 groups in Canada that signed an open letter last summer in support of Beijing’s resolution to “reunify” with Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that it deems part of Chinese territory.
The letter was published in August 2022 by B.C.-based Chinese-language outlet Dawa News after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island, an event that saw the regime launch ballistic missiles around Taiwan, among other aggressive actions.
Wang had met the Chinese leader for the same occasion in Beijing about four years ago. He shook hands and greeted Xi on May 28, 2019, at the 9th Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations, according to an article posted on Sohu, an online news platform in China.
Wang didn’t respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times by publication time.