Prominent NYC venues repeatedly host Chinese official who praised CCP, denied Uyghur genocide

Among the most distinguished venues in New York Metropolis have lately hosted as an honored visitor a Chinese language official who praised China’s ruling Communist Social gathering as “nice” and dismissed stories of systematic persecution in opposition to minorities inside China as “lies.”

Huang Ping, who’s been the consul common of China’s New York Consulate since 2018, has over the previous week made appearances at Barclays Heart, the Nasdaq MarketSite, and the Empire State Constructing, rubbing elbows with distinguished American enterprise leaders at every cease.

The NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, which play at Barclays in Brooklyn, celebrated the Chinese language New 12 months of the Rabbit on Thursday. Huang went on the basketball court docket, the place he spoke briefly and obtained a sweater and toy rabbit as presents from Sam Zussman, CEO of the Nets’ father or mother firm BSE International.

The sport was “a chance for us to come back collectively and pay homage to the wealthy historical past and traditions related to Chinese language tradition internationally and in our personal neighborhood,” mentioned Zussman.

TIMES SQUARE NYE CELEBRATION FEATURED CHINESE OFFICIAL WHO SAID COMMUNIST PARTY IS ‘GREAT PARTY’

Earlier within the week, Ping rang the opening bell of the Nasdaq inventory change in Instances Sq., additionally as a celebration of the Chinese language Lunar New 12 months. Chinese language state-run media was fast to advertise Huang’s look — together with heat remarks from Nasdaq Vice Chairman Robert H. McCooey, Jr. welcoming the consul and praising Nasdaq’s ties to China.

“Nasdaq’s dedication to China stays very robust,” McCooey mentioned on the ceremony. “We’re extraordinarily proud to be the house for over 175 Chinese language corporations, progressive and iconic corporations who embody the entrepreneurial spirit that assist our two nations proceed to develop.”

Nasdaq additionally lists lots of America’s largest tech corporations and has been scrutinized by U.S. officers, together with different main exchanges, for itemizing Chinese language corporations over considerations about transparency and threats to nationwide safety.  

All Chinese language corporations “are required to ascertain CCP [Chinese Communist Party] cells of their operations and assist CCP safety businesses,” in line with the China Job Power report, a significant mission performed by members of Congress in 2020. “The CCP embeds its members in each firm and group.”

U.S. officers have additionally mentioned Chinese language espionage prices the U.S. upwards of $600 billion a yr in stolen mental property.

Nonetheless, Huang echoed McCooey’s hospitality, saying China will attain its “vacation spot” and “share the fruits” with everybody.

“China may be very clear that we’ll open our door and open wider to work with the worldwide neighborhood, to comprehend our purpose, to achieve our vacation spot and to share the fruits with everybody,” he mentioned. “As we are actually heading into the 12 months of the Rabbit, we should always transfer as shortly because the rabbit and work collectively to implement the consensus reached by our two presidents to make this relationship extra productive and extra delivering to learn our individuals and the individuals all around the globe.”

NY GOV. HOCHUL MET WITH CHINESE OFFICIAL WHO CALLED GENOCIDE OF UYGHUR MUSLIMS ‘LIES’

Michael Sobolik, a fellow in Indo-Pacific Research on the American International Coverage Council, lately advised Fox Information Digital that China exerts “malign affect” within the U.S. by way of “American voices to advance its personal hostile agenda.”

Final week, Huang additionally attended the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Constructing for the beginning of the Lunar New 12 months.

“We’re so happy to increase our heartfelt New 12 months’s needs to the complete Chinese language neighborhood right here in the USA, around the globe, and particularly in China,” Tony Malkin, chairman, president, and CEO of Empire State Realty Belief, mentioned on the ceremony.

Huang famous that it has been a half-century since U.S.-China engagement started underneath the Nixon administration and known as for enhanced people-to-people exchanges between each international locations.

Regardless of the nice and cozy rhetoric, nevertheless, Huang has a historical past of creating controversial remarks that did not come up at any of his current New York gatherings. Most notably, he has ceaselessly praised the Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP) and staunchly defended China’s remedy of Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority, within the area of Xinjiang.

“There are many lies right here, fabricated by some individuals with their very own political agenda,” Huang mentioned in an August 2021 interview, denying the existence of genocide and internment camps concentrating on Uyghurs. “As I mentioned, there isn’t any genocide, not a single proof to show that there is a genocide or one thing there. It is only a slandering.”

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the State Division underneath each the Trump and Biden administrations have assessed China is committing genocide in opposition to the Uyghurs. Since 2017, the Chinese language authorities has reportedly imprisoned greater than one million Uyghurs in focus camps, the place in line with leaked paperwork from inside China detainees are subjected to rape, torture, pressured labor, brainwashing, and compelled sterilization.

Huang additionally known as the CCP a “nice celebration” and described the camps during which Uyghurs are detained as academic.

TIMES SQUARE NYE CELEBRATION FEATURED CHINESE OFFICIAL WHO SAID COMMUNIST PARTY IS ‘GREAT PARTY’

“I see these facilities as a campus, reasonably than camps,” he mentioned. “We get these individuals there to be educated. And this has been fairly efficient by way of countering terrorism and in de-radicalization. Thus far, there has not been a single terrorist assault in precisely 4 years.”

When beforehand reached for remark, the Chinese language consulate in New York echoed Huang’s feedback, telling Fox Information Digital that the “Xinjiang-related concern shouldn’t be about human rights” and {that a} “lie advised a thousand occasions is nothing however nonetheless a lie.”

Huang isn’t any stranger to being featured at main New York occasions. Earlier this yr, for instance, the consul common attended Instances Sq.’s New 12 months’s Eve “Hong Kong Rocks!” celebration. The Biden administration on Thursday prolonged a program that protects Hong Kong residents within the U.S. from deportation as a consequence of considerations about worsening repression in Hong Kong.

Huang additionally beforehand participated in Nasdaq’s bell-ringing ceremony and the lighting of the Empire State Constructing a number of occasions.

In April 2022, the consul made headlines for delivering a speech on the twenty fifth annual Harvard School China Discussion board at Harvard Enterprise College, the place he known as on People to be extra “tolerant to variety” and to simply accept China’s method of governance.

Supporters of China’s Muslim Uighur minority wave the flag of East Turkestan and maintain placards on December 20, 2019 throughout a demostration at Fatih in Istanbul. – Greater than 1,000 protesters marched Friday in Istanbul to protest in opposition to China over its remedy of primarily Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, an AFP correspondent mentioned.They known as for an finish to the crackdown in China’s northwestern area, the place upwards of 1 million Uighurs and different principally Muslim minorities are believed to be held in re-education camps. 
(OZAN KOSE/AFP)

NASDAQ BELL-RINGING CEREMONY FEATURED CHINESE OFFICIAL WHO CALLED GENOCIDE OF UYGHUR MUSLIMS ‘LIES’

“Over the previous 100 years, the CPC has united and led the Chinese language individuals to attain world-renowned achievements in creating our nation and enhancing individuals’s lives,” Huang mentioned at Harvard, in line with a transcript by China’s Ministry of International Affairs. “China will unswervingly be a builder of world peace, a contributor to world growth, and a defender of the worldwide order, and can proceed to make unremitting efforts for human growth and progress.”

Huang chided America for having “some narrow-minded individuals who discover it tough to simply accept these international locations with completely different histories, cultures, and methods from the U.S.,” including these voices “all the time level fingers at these international locations and need to change them.”

“The trail of socialism with Chinese language traits is rooted within the 5,000-year-old Chinese language civilization,” Huang continued. “It’s the selection of the 1.4 billion Chinese language individuals. The event and progress China has made prior to now few many years has totally proved that that is the precise path that fits China’s nationwide circumstances. We’ll comply with this path unswervingly. A ballot performed by the Harvard Kennedy College on China for 10 consecutive years reveals that the Chinese language individuals’s satisfaction with the federal government has remained above 90% yr after yr. We hope that the U.S. aspect will respect the trail independently chosen by Chinese language individuals and accommodate a peaceable and affluent China.”

BSE International, Nasdaq, and the Empire State Realty Belief did not reply to requests for remark.

Fox Information’ Cameron Cawthorne and Jessica Chasmar contributed reporting.