NYnews Alert's List: John Liu

• “I’ve never seen John Liu fighting for the rights and benefits of the Taiwanese people,” he said. “Anytime there are activities for the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] he’s so eager to join them, especially with those pro-communist groups. He’s never shown this kind of eagerness among the Taiwanese community.”
• • American value respects freedom of belief and human rights, Tainwan people and goverment endorse Falung Gong spiritial practice, while Chinese communitist authoritarian regime persecutes Falun Gong and treat it as "number one enermy" of the regime in all its domestic or external policies/operations. Falun Gong issue is THE distinguisher the Chinese communist regime uses to judge who is their friend. This is why Liu choose to follow CCP's party line on anything relates to Falun Gong in his own riding at all cost.

  • This is not the attitude of a City Council Member, but certainly not unexpected out of John Liu, because when American value and the Chinese Communist Party's demand conflicts, he choose to side with CCP. When Taiwan and China's government policy differ, he again choose to side with CCP.
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• “This is not the attitude of a City Council Member,” said Zhang.
• “Those who side with the communists are like going onto a rubber boat [a Chinese saying referring to not being able to back out of something once you start.]

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• “His dubious character and disturbing behavior has raised serious concerns about whether his bid will ever bring justice. … If [his campaign were] ever successful, it will bring damage and disgrace to the local community and city at large,” said Chen Zhifei, a professor at the City University of New York at the protest.
• John Liu’s supposedly tormented childhood in a sweatshop was contradicted by his own 69-year-old mother, Jamy Liu, who told the Daily News in an interview arranged by her son that she never went to the factory.
• In addition to living in a two-garage Bayside house, John Liu’s family had a big house and two maids before immigrating from Taiwan, according to Chinese-language newspaper World Journal.
• The important attributes of city comptroller are honesty, his unwavering belief, fairness, and justice—which happen to be in short supply in Mr. Liu,
• Apparent Ties with the Chinese Regime
• Last year, Chinese Consul General Keyu Peng of New York encouraged mobs to verbally and physically attack local practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice. The encouragement was admitted to in recordings verified by the U.S. Department of State. Police arrested more than 22 individuals who were involved in verbal and physical abuse of the practitioners.
• Judy Chen, whose two sons have been serving for the U.S. army in Iraq. Chen, upon being attacked by pro-CCP individuals, appealed to John Liu’s office, but was refused. Nevertheless, John Liu invited those accused of the attacks to his office to be heard.
• “He also did not forget to bolster CCP’s military events. He went to the Chinese consulate himself over the years to send a certificate congratulating the launch of Chinese spacecrafts,”

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• A candidate for city comptroller in New York claims he fights for civil rights and grew up working in sweatshops. In fact, John Liu, who faces the voters next Tuesday in what is reported to be a tight race, has never worked in a sweatshop and has refused to speak out for civil or labor rights in prominent cases in New York.
• But the key to Liu’s political career is not his stand on rights. The key to his career is his close ties to the Chinese regime, whose media outlets have worked hard to promote him.
• Party Line on Falun Gong
• When needed, So’s and Liu’s decisions have followed the regime's line. This was especially true when each dealt with Falun Gong. John So followed the Party line on Falun Gong before the award, while John Liu did so after the award.
• Silent on Sweatshops
• Darling of China’s Official Press
• In mainland China, the state-level CCP mouthpieces, including People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, and China News Service (CNS), have reported Liu's activities in New York since he was first elected in 2001. (When former CCP head Jiang Zemin was interviewed by Mike Wallace for “60 Minutes,” on CBS, Jiang said, “The press should be the mouthpiece of the Party.”)
• Take CNS as an example. It has had 24 special reports on Liu's campaign for this city election, with 13 reports after Liu's decision to run for the city comptroller. It's very unusual for China’ state media to pay such attention to a local U.S. election.
• Will the voters of New York see the self-proclaimed veteran of the sweatshops as someone who will represent them or as someone who will represent bosses far away in Beijing?

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• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is widely known to control domestic media and exert a strong influence on, if not directly control, most Chinese-language media outside the mainland.
• The China News Service (CNS), the Party’s mouthpiece for overseas propaganda, has run 24 special reports on Liu's campaign for the city election, 13 of them after Liu's decision to run for the city comptroller. It is highly unusual for Chinese state media to give so much attention to a candidate for local office in the United States.
• Liu may also be one thread in the complex web of relations between Chinese business and community associations, the Chinese Consulate in New York, and the United Front.

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• After reviewing New York City Comptroller Candidate, John Liu’s campaign finances, discrepancies were found between contributions from donors as listed by the campaign, and information obtained directly from the donors.
• everal of Liu’s fundraising events were held by Chinese Associations in New York—most of which have strong connections with the Chinese Consulate and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
• several of the names listed on Liu’s financial disclosure never donated.
• One man (name withheld) is listed as having donated $1,000 to Liu’s campaign. When The Epoch Times phoned him, he said he donated only $50.
• Aside from holding fundraisers for Liu, the NYCBA’s chairman, Lü Chengrui, also arranged Liu’s trip to China in 2007. During his trip, Liu met with Xu Yousheng, the vice director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, one of the three offices of the United Front Work Department, and part of the CCP’s intelligence and foreign infiltration operations.

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• John Liu met with Xu Yousheng, a top director of the United Front operation, officially called Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, during a sponsored trip to China in 2007.
• During the trip Liu was also given the highly publicized “The World is More Beautiful Because of You” award.

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  U.S. Politicians Coerced to Follow Chinese Red Flag

    Sep 26, 2009, 4:00 pm 

  Red flag: influencing politicians in the West is an important part of the Chinese regime’s overseas activities.
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  John Liu Supports Pro-Communist Criminals in His District

    Sep 25, 2009, 10:00 am 

  Councilman Liu met in his office with people who attacked peaceful Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing.

• Editorial Note About John Liu: Questions of Character and Connections

    Sep 24, 2009, 11:00 am 

  As a newspaper, we have a responsibility to warn the public of hidden dangers.
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  Updated: Triad-Affiliated Organization Raised $70,000 for John Liu’s Comptroller Campaign

    Sep 23, 2009, 4:00 pm 

  The Fukien American Association, identified by experts as an organized crime group, gave $70,000 to Liu’s campaign.

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  Handout photo by Viorel Florescu

    Photo of Councilman John C. Liu (r.) with his younger brothers in Flushing Meadow Park in 1974.
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  Handout photo by Viorel Florescu

    Councilman John C. Liu in first grade in 1973.

• Liu, 42, rarely, if ever, mentioned his sweatshop childhood during his three campaigns for City Council or after he became the Council's first Asian-American.

   

  The News found no references to his sweatshop work in articles about him before this year.

   

  But Liu's sweatshop past has been the centerpiece of his campaign this year and is cited extensively by labor leaders and others who've endorsed him.

   

  Asked to list his employment history on a recent questionnaire from The News, he said he worked as a "knitting-thread manager" in Queens garment factories from 1974 to 1978.

   

  "I learned first-hand why they call that place a sweatshop," Liu said a recent campaign event.

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• The Fukien American Association, identified by experts on gangs as a tong with connections to human trafficking and other organized crime, has given at least $70,000 to John Liu’s campaign for New York City Comptroller, according to the World Journal. Liu has urged the members of the Fukien Association to help elect him.
• July 10, 2007: $36,000 was raised at an event organized by the Fukien American Association called “Chinese New Yorkers supporting John Liu’s 2009 candidacy fundraiser,” according to Qiao Bao, a pro-CCP newspaper.
  
• July 2, 2008: The Fukien American Association raised at least $70,000 for Liu’s campaign, according to an article published in the Chinese-language newspaper World Journal.
• Jan. 26, 2009: Liu attended the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown in an event organized by the Fukien American Association. He is pictured standing next to Peng Keyu, the New York Chinese consul general, in a photo on the China News Service Web site (CNS is a CCP-controlled news outlet).
• June 3, 2009:
• In photos of the event posted on the Fukien American Association Web site, John Liu sat next to the association’s chairman, with Chinese Consul General Peng Keyu on the other side of the chairman. The same photos show Liu speaking at a podium with a large Chinese flag behind him. The Web page about the anniversary celebration was removed the day after The Epoch Times cited it in a Sept. 3 article.

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• China experts and fellow politicians have questioned whether the Chinese regime's support for John Liu in the New York City Comptroller race is evidence for the regime's influence over the candidate. John Liu’s candidacy has been promoted by China’s state-run media, by organizations with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and on Chinese regime Web sites.
• The state-run China News Service (CNS) has run 32 reports on John Liu during this campaign, with 20 of them related to his campaign for city comptroller. This tally does not include 30 other reports during the past year that were not related to the election but also referred to him. All of the reports about John Liu, whether they discussed his campaign or not, painted him in a positive light.
• Li said the CCP often offers a lot of money and publicity to certain politicians and, at the same time, gets emotionally involved with them. The same is true by seeing who the CCP awards or honors, or campaigns for, he said. “This person is probably very close to the CCP.”
• John Liu visited China in 2007, as arranged by Lü Chengrui, the chairman of the Shandong Association of New York. Lü is also the chairman of the recently-formed United Federation of Chinese Associations. The highlight of the visit was John Liu receiving the “World Is Beautiful Because of You: Award for Chinese Influencing the World,” an award sponsored by media entities with close ties to the Chinese regime.

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• THE FACTS ABOUT JOHN LIU

     FACT: John Liu held his September 29th victory party at the lower Manhattan headquarters for the United Federation of Teachers, one of Liu's powerful labor supporter.   

  FACT: In his victory address last night, it took Liu more than 20 minutes to thank all the labor and special interest groups who supported him.

    

  FACT: Liu's Working Family Party endorsement means that he is supported and funded by ACORN, the far left wing special interest group which has been accused of trying to circumvent campaign finance rules.
   
   FACT: The Working Family Party was instrumental in turning out voters in yesterday's run-off. Given the low turnout overall, the efforts of the Working family Party were crucial to Liu's victory. Liu is therefore indebted to ACORN and the Working Family Party.

    

  FACT: Liu has backed just about every proposed tax and spend scheme to keep money flowing to the unions and other backers of ACORN and the Working Family Party that support him.

    

  With facts like these:
   

    

  How can Liu be an honest auditor of city agencies and unions?
   

    

  How can Liu overcome these conflicts of interest?
   

    

  How can Liu say he will invest our pension funds without catering to the special interests to which he owes so much?
   

    

  How will Liu ever be able turn his back on those who carried him to this point in his political career?

• John Liu ran a campaign ad that suggested the key to his character was his experience of working in a sweatshop as a child. Another publication debunked that claim soon after it was made. What, then, do we know about John Liu?
• We find a pattern of support by the Chinese Communist Party for Liu, a pattern that suggests the CCP is doing everything in its power to put Liu into high office in New York City.

• Founded in 1973, the KFCC is one of the oldest and best-known charity organizations in the Korean community in New York. The organization provides mental health counseling services and helps women who are victims of domestic violence.
• A total of $587,000 was gone, with only $500,000 of the total funds still remaining. The DDC told them to contact their city councilmember, John Liu.
  
  In general, capital dollars for such projects flow through the City Council before reaching a community organization.

• Another lie’

  On April 23, 2007, Liu called a press conference at his office. He announced that he had raised more than a million dollars for the KFCC, according to Kim.
  
  The money Liu claimed to have raised was the $1,087,000 that had been previously allocated to the KFCC by the DDC, Kim said.
• The missing $587,000 had reappeared and had been added to the $500,000 still there.
  
  “That is another lie he told us,” said Kim.
  
  “He says he provided newly,” said Kim. “It was our money, but somebody stole this money.”
• On November 18, 2008, they again began asking John Liu for the funds, which still had not been given to them,

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• peakers from the Flushing-based Christian Democratic Party of China (CDPC) and other groups, such as the Pan Asian Freedom Protection League, took turns to highlight different points of concern in John Liu's record. Some called into question John Liu's campaign finances, pointing out apparent inconsistencies between publicly recorded donated amounts and what those people said they actually donated.
• "A lot of people are still sleeping about this," says David Donglu, the spokesperson for the CDPC about John Liu's alleged connections. "They don't know how the Chinese government operates."
  
• He illustrates a potential scenario for how influence is bought: it is known that the CCP pays for the leaders of Chinese business and community organizations outside the mainland to go back to China once a year to meet the local folks, discuss business, and go through training in personnel management—all overseen by the Office of Foreign Propaganda (also known as the State Council Information Office).

• While there, he says, a Chinese official may propose a business deal with an overseas Chinese businessman: he'll get the exclusive license to import edible oil to the U.S., or be able to ship from the U.S. to China door-to-door, skipping Chinese customs, or receive other special treatment.

    

  Such offers can be made because the CCP controls all business opportunities and government departments; only those who will return favors get favors. The Chinese businessman gladly accepts, and in return is expected to promote the Party-line in his country of residence.
• The Chinese business association president keeps a share for himself, and donates a bunch to a friendly politician like, it is alleged, John Liu. In return, that politician would be expected to promote the Party's policies in the U.S.
• "John Liu is a pro-communist in sheep's clothing," Donglu said, "a communist insider in our midst."

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• Take a stand and vote for your values and not for any back-room agreements. Word on the street is that Council Member John Liu switched his citywide office bid from Public Advocate to Comptroller for Endorsement from Working Family Party.
• Let's not forget that John Liu took money from the bank employees of the Great Eastern Bank during his campaign. The very bank that his daddy was convicted of scamming for a million dollars.
• The Flushing of Flushing commons, the third project down the crapper that Liu was promoting (#1 Boymelgreen's RKO Keith's plan and #2 TDC's Muni Lot #! Complex) in expectation of receiving campaign cash no doubt.

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• Liu won the Democratic run-off against David Yassky on Sept. 15, and the win has raised questions about the role unions and the labor-backed Working Families Party played in getting their members to vote.
  
  Unions have tremendous power in New York City to get people to polling stations, said Mendola. "They get cars, buses, people together, give people time off from work to go vote."
• The Epoch Times has also published two special editions investigating the connections between John Liu and Chinese Communist Party-affiliated media, social organizations, and criminal groups.
• If elected, Mendola said he would only make investment decisions based on “one reason and one reason alone, and that is what investment decisions will best save the taxpayers money.”

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• It was this time a year ago the bizarre and violent incidents in Flushing, a small city in Queens, started petering out.
• Before John Liu took what some in the community consider his peculiar stance toward the violence against Falun Gong practitioners in his district, he was honored in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated media as a rising political star, though his only political activities have been here in New York City.
• Getting a grip on the background story requires looking at the Byzantine inner workings of the CCP bureaucracy and its concerted efforts to export pro-Communist Party propaganda through every means possible. Influencing overseas Chinese organizations and politicians in the West are mainstays of these efforts.
• According to its Web site, the China Council’s work outside China has two purposes. One is to “blend into local high-level politics,” while the other is to “influence mainstream society.”
• A Mayor Like John Liu

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• China Council, an organization controlled by the CCP Central Committee that has two purposes, according to its Web site. One is to “blend into local high-level politics,” while the other is to “influence mainstream society.”