Chinese dissidents say they’re being harassed by a businessman with links to Steve Bannon

December 19, 2020

“Tell the truth about the virus, the CCP virus!” one feminine protester demanded in damaged English on a latest afternoon, brandishing a signal suggesting that the home-owner had helped manufacture the novel coronavirus as a bioweapon. Other picketers waved posters declaring their goal was a spy for China’s Communist Party.

The resident inside, Teng Biao, is an odd individual to accuse of such crimes: he’s a widely respected Chinese dissident and scholar at Hunter College in New York who fled China after repeatedly clashing with the authorities over his human-rights work. The day by day pickets have outraged his neighbors and even the city’s mayor, who’ve flocked to his garden to assist him.

The circus has baffled this quiet nook of New Jersey, however Teng says he is aware of who organized it — Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman in New York who has labored on numerous tasks with former White House strategist Stephen Okay. Bannon.

Teng and a number of other different Chinese dissidents in North America instructed The Washington Post that Guo has despatched protesters to harass them in latest months as a result of they’ve publicly criticized Guo, who left China in 2014, earlier than Chinese authorities accused him of bribery, fraud, rape and different crimes — prices he denies.

Guo in recent times has declared himself an enemy of the Chinese Communist Party, calling for an finish to CCP rule and the founding of a New Federal State of China. His marketing campaign has attracted tens of hundreds of loyal followers on-line, who watch his fiery social media clips about Chinese corruption, and go to his GNews and GTV Media web sites.

But not too long ago, in a curious twist for an anti-CCP crusader, Guo started loudly denouncing Chinese dissidents in a sequence of movies, calling for his followers to “eliminate” roughly 20 folks he deemed “traitors.” Shortly afterward, distinguished dissidents from Texas and New York to Vancouver, Canada, and Virginia discovered their properties besieged by protesters.

Texas-based pastor Bob Fu, whose ministry offers help to underground Christians and human-rights attorneys in China, filed a lawsuit final month in federal courtroom alleging that Guo was unlawfully focusing on him with “online death threats” and intimidating protests at his house within the West Texas oil city of Midland. At one level, Fu’s household was evacuated by native and federal authorities in response to a credible bomb menace, Fu mentioned in an interview.

Gao Bingchen, a journalist who lives exterior Vancouver, Canada, instructed The Post that protesters that he believes had been despatched by Guo started harassing him exterior his house in early September, shouting obscenities and accusing him of being a spy. In late November, two of the protesters brutally attacked Gao’s buddy, Louis Huang, leaving him with fractures in his face, Huang mentioned in an interview, confirming reports in Canadian media.

Asked in regards to the protests, Guo appeared to verify his involvement, although he denied any position in violence.

“To be clear, I have never condoned any type of violence towards any individuals. Myself, the anti-CCP supporters, and the New Federal State of China movement are exercising our First Amendment right to expose and oppose those who support the CCP, similar to other human rights campaigns in the history of the U.S.,” Guo mentioned in a written assertion supplied by his lawyer, Daniel Podhaskie.

“If there are isolated confrontations, these are the acts of individuals who are not following my ideals,” Guo mentioned, declining to remark additional.

Guo’s actions have revived debate amongst abroad Chinese and in Washington circles in regards to the businessman’s goals and loyalties. Some Guo critics, together with Fu and the previous Peking University professor Xia Yeliang, have mentioned they believe that Guo may very well be engaged on Beijing’s behalf to undermine the Communist Party’s enemies. Others say he’s a real opponent of the Party and assaults distinguished dissidents to improve his personal standing and sideline rivals.

Fu mentioned Guo’s assaults towards him echoed criticism in Chinese state media, and that the record of “traitors” named by Guo embody most of the Chinese authorities’s recognized enemies.

“He wants to silence me, to disrupt our ministry’s operations in China, which are the goals of the Chinese Communist Party and especially the Chinese security apparatus,” Fu mentioned. “There is no logical conclusion other than someone has ordered him to do something destructive. It’s surreal that this would happen on American soil.”

Guo has publicly claimed previous ties to Chinese intelligence companies, stating on YouTube that he delivered messages and carried out work on their behalf in years previous. Before Guo left China, the authorities there mentioned that he loved a years-long alliance with senior Chinese intelligence official Ma Jian, who obtained a life sentence for corruption in 2018.

Since shifting to the United States, Guo has forged a relationship with Bannon, hiring him as a marketing consultant and pledging to donate $100 million to a Bannon-led charity tasked with investigating corruption and different issues in China. This summer season, Guo introduced that Bannon would function chairman of GTV, although Guo later mentioned that Bannon had been faraway from that position after his arrest on fraud prices associated to Bannon’s marketing campaign to elevate funds to assist construct a wall alongside the U.S. border with Mexico. When U.S. authorities arrested Bannon in August, he was stress-free on Guo’s yacht off the coast of Connecticut.

Bannon didn’t reply to requests for remark for this text. In latest months Bannon has praised Guo, calling him “the toughest Chinese opponent the CCP has ever encountered.”

As Guo’s profile has grown, Teng and different Chinese dissidents have publicly questioned the veracity of his tales and his dissident bona fides, sparking his ire.

In September, Guo donned a blue go well with and recorded a video encouraging his followers to “eliminate traitors” in Canada, Japan, Taiwan and the United States, who he mentioned had criticized and threatened him and his followers.

Guo ticked off a record of enemies together with Teng; the pastor Fu; Xia Yeliang, the previous Peking University professor who left China after he was fired in 2013 for criticizing social gathering officers and supporting democratic reforms; Sasha Gong, a former journalist for Voice of America; and three workers of Boxun, a Chinese-language information web site that has printed essential details about Chinese leaders.

In an interview at his New Jersey house, Teng mentioned the protesters first appeared whereas he was educating an internet course about human rights in China from his front room.

“I immediately realized why they were here because they have been harassing other people, other critics of Guo Wengui,” he mentioned.

None of the protesters at Teng’s home on a latest afternoon would give their names. Asked why they’d come, a girl brandished a signal accusing Teng of being a CCP spy. Asked why the group believed this, a man shouted “We have proof!” however declined to elaborate.

Another man with a tripod was filming the scene on a smartphone, and mentioned he was broadcasting to GTV. The protesters have additionally posted updates about their Teng demonstration on GNews.

Teng’s neighbors and supporters mentioned they’ve repeatedly requested the protesters to clarify their trigger however by no means obtained a straight reply.

“They yell things like, ‘He’s a spy and he’s a liar and he’s evil,’ but there’s no specifics,” mentioned Lisa Garwood, a native resident huddling with doughnuts and occasional on Teng’s garden. Two native non secular leaders, additionally there to defend Teng, chatted close by, whereas Teng’s buddy silently filmed a documentary about the entire unorthodox scene.

Lauren Davis, a author who got here to assist Teng after reading about the protests on the information web site Planet Princeton, mentioned the individuals have tried to intimidate her.

One male protester “came up to me and whispered in my ear, ‘We know you’re a writer, we know who you are and we’re going to find out more,’ ” Davis mentioned.

“This group feels to me as though it’s Q-Anon Chinese,” she added.

On Dec. 12, the mayor of West Windsor Township, Hemant Marathe, dropped by to defend Teng and admonish the protesters.

“It is really gratifying to see the neighbors and township rally in support of one of us,” Marathe said in a video posted on-line. “And to all of those who are here to protest, this has backfired on you, really.”

“If anything, this has generated more support” for Teng, the mayor added. “This is not the American way, to stand in front of somebody shouting insults.”

Teng mentioned he doesn’t imagine the protesters are native residents. He guessed that some had traveled to the United States from China on vacationer visas, and that Guo may be pressuring some to take part, however he mentioned he has no proof of this. Teng’s neighbors say they don’t acknowledge the picketers, a few of whom arrive in automobiles with New York license plates.

Teng has been posting updates in regards to the protesters’ machinations on Twitter, together with translations of a number of the vile profanities he says they’ve shouted.

One of Teng’s neighbors who speaks Mandarin mentioned the protesters shouted filthy curses at him, too. They additionally demanded to know why he was defending Teng.

“I said, ‘I am a friend, I support my friend,’ ” mentioned the neighbor, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to keep away from attracting the picketers’ ire. “They said, ‘If you’re a supporter, then you’re with him, you’re CCP, you’re also a spy and you also deserve to die and go to hell!’ They are not rational people.”

Emily Rauhala contributed to this report.