Buses used to transport Hu Jintao supporters to Thursday's rally on Parliament Hill sit parked in downtown Ottawa. A driver with Transport St. Leonard bus company said his company had sent 26 buses, each loaded with 72 passengers. (The Epoch Times)
The organizer, Yuan Pinghua, does not appear to be staff of the embassy, but is introduced by the embassy's first-secretary of eduction, Mr. Liu Shaohua, who also speaks at the gathering.
“Now in a word this is like waging war, so today we are mobilizing for war, having all of you raise your guard,” says Yuan, addressing between 40 and 50 Chinese students and scholars who are in Ottawa on Chinese government scholarships. “Some things that should not be said definitely cannot be said.”
Yuan calls on the students to “by all means obey commands and submit yourselves to discipline.”“We ourselves are manipulating things secretly, which will make us more productive."—Yuan Pinghua, apparent organizer of Chinese students during Hu's visit.
Calling the embassy's plans for Hu's welcome contingent a “state secret,” Mr. Yuan says that revealing the plans to “enemies” would put the embassy in a “deathtrap.” He said he worries that some students are inexperienced and would talk freely about the plans.
This week, The Epoch Times reported it had obtained a recording of Mr. Liu's speech, an excerpt of which was posted on the newspaper's website.
In the recording, Liu says the embassy is covering hotels, food, travel, and clothing for what he estimated would be 3,000 people who would welcome Hu Wednesday through Friday. The students were coming from as far away as Waterloo, Ont.
The goal of the pro-Beijing rally is to overshadow human rights protesters. Liu mentioned Tibetan, Uyghur, and democracy groups but focused mostly in his talk on Falun Gong, a spiritual group persecuted by the regime in China.
Last time Hu visited Canada, he was met with protesters, Liu says, which angered authorities in Beijing.
“This is a battle that relates to defending the reputation of our motherland. The embassy and authorities inside China have a very high requirement,” Liu says.
Liu refers to Mr. Yuan in his talk. He tells the students on state scholarships they are required to attend the pro-Beijing rallies. If they need a short leave, even less than four hours, from the three-day event, he directs them to talk to “teacher Yuan.” For longer leave, the students are required to ask Liu directly.
Listen to an excerpt from the speech given by Yuan Pinghua, in Chinese, to students at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa on June 18, 2010 here:
For the previous recording of Mr. Liu Shaohua, the first secretary of the education at the Chinese embassy Ottawa, click HERE.
Mr. Yuan appears to be heading up the association of visiting Chinese students and scholars on state scholarships, under the embassy's direction.
Yuan's name has been posted along with an e-mail address on Chinese student and community bulletin boards in the lead up to Hu's arrival as a contact for those registering for the pro-Beijing rally. The same e-mail address appears on the website of the Chinese embassy.
The embassy requires all students and scholars on Chinese government scholarships to send their personal info to that e-mail address, including their name, gender, work unit in China, email address, instant message address, institution in Canada, time of arrival and departure in Canada, home address and phone number.
Yuan Pinghua does not appear on the Department of Foreign Affairs database of registered foreign representatives in Canada.
The same is true for two other organizers mentioned by Mr. Liu in his talk, Li Ban and Cui Ge, whom Liu said were responsible for logistics for the rally.
In his talk, Yuan suggested dividing the students into groups based on where they studied—Carleton University, University of Ottawa, and a combined group with visiting scholars at the National Research Council and Agriculture Canada.
“After each team is established,” Yuan said. “We will establish a leadership team. We'll have three people, each of whom have a sense of political responsibility, the capability to direct, and can organize.”
He also said the organizers should not stop at rallying students.
“We need to coordinate well with overseas Chinese community groups. Our activity, to say generally, is a large-scale activity and should be done together with overseas Chinese community groups.”
The issue of foreign influence on Canadian universities and community groups was thrown into the media spotlight this week following a rare CBC interview with Richard Fadden, director of Canada's spy agency CSIS.
Fadden said foreign regimes were recruiting political prospects at universities. He singled out China as the most aggressive in a recent speech to police chiefs and security experts in Toronto, CBC said.
Fadden added that Chinese authorities organize demonstrations in respect to some of Canada's policies concerning China, according to CBC.
"A number of countries take the view that if they can develop influence with people relatively early in their careers, they'll follow them through," Fadden was quoted. "Before you know it, a country is providing them with money, there's some sort of covert guidance."
As with Mr. Liu's speech to students, Mr. Yuan makes no secret that the embassy was quietly pulling the strings with the pro-Beijing rally for Hu.
“Since it is a highly sensitive time politically, don't openly discuss the political aspects on QQ [an online chat program]. Right now, silence wins over noise . . . we ourselves are manipulating things secretly, which will make us more productive.” More
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