Posted on 07/27/2020 5:48:27 AM PDT by The Houston Courant
(photos available at website)
In response to evidence of China’s intensified spying on the United States, the State Department has retaliated by expelling China’s consulate from its Houston premises, one of five across the nation. The U.S. has also delayed returning U.S. diplomats to China. To this measured, nonviolent answer to a national-security threat, progressives like Houston-based State Rep. Gene Wu (D-137th District) are venting their outrage. When called out on social media by this webzine and others for blaming America and shilling for the Chinese government, Wu and his allies have called eviction supporters extremists, warmongers, and—as if on cue—racists. The legislator should have dropped the subject and spared himself further embarrassment.
Because Wu is Chinese-born, it goes without saying that a suggestion that he or any member of his family has toadied to communist China should not be made lightly. Are we saying he actually welcomes the Chinese government setting up operations in Houston?
Well, he certainly said it. As part of a delegation to China led by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) in 2017, Wu said, “I think it helps to reach out to the Chinese government to remind them that we are here, that Houston is a great place for them to set up operations. It also provided opportunities for us to understand each other’s needs,” according to the state-run China Daily. At that event in Shenzhen, Turner signed a memorandum of understanding for the building of manufacturing facilities by CIMC-TianDa, a Chinese producer of airport and seaport equipment.
Given his past support for unchecked commercial and diplomatic relations with China, Wu would have to muster true humility to condemn its espionage and support the Trump administration’s countermove. He might, for instance, have acknowledged that China is suspected of stealing medical research, possibly germane to the development of a coronavirus vaccine. The New York Times reports that literally hundreds of investigations to this effect are underway. Instead, Wu condemned the consulate ouster itself in the most hysterical terms.
Herewith, a sampling of his pertinent tweets Wednesday: “This is how WW3 starts….” “I said this could start a war.” “This is madness. Congress was not even informed. Rational nations don't act like this…. This is Trump trying to start an actual war to distract from his poor COVID19 performance and sinking polling numbers.” “This is insanity…. This is not how you respond to economic espionage…. This is how you start actual wars.” “Trump is going to prison… for a myriad of offenses.” Once Wu’s pro-China ravings spurred an online backlash, Houston City Councilwoman Abbie Kamin (D-District C) called the assemblyman’s opponents “wait for it… racist.” (“Wait for it” in the original, if you can believe it.)
Wu has attempted to bolster his apologetics with the reportage of his own wife, ABC 13’s Miya Shay, herself born in China with the given name Shu Xie. The representative has uncritically tweeted her reporting on the eviction and the consulate’s subsequent burning of documents. Shay introduced her first broadcast about it on Wednesday thus: “Who would’ve thunk that initially what was seen by neighbors here on Montrose as a fire in the consulate building—which they had to call the fire department [about]—would end up being the center of a worldwide diplomatic row between the U.S. and China? The Consul General here says it’s unwarranted.” She parroted his characterization of the document incineration as “internal measures” and left his denials of espionage unchallenged. Shay summed up the practical impact of the consulate expulsion as simply detrimental to ordinary people: “The Chinese Consulate managed the visa affairs of people who want to do business in China, overseas students [in] eight states and Puerto Rico. What will happen if they close on Friday and everybody flies back to China? No one[’s] quite ready to address that yet.”
A follow-up broadcast by Shay featured a seven-minute softball interview with Consul General Cai Wei, wherein she allowed him to portray American accusations of hacking and espionage as baseless. She once noted a New York Times report that Cai and other Chinese diplomats face scrutiny for “questionable activities” past security in the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, including escorting travelers with fabricated birth certificates. Cai responded, “We just follow the rules.”
Shay failed to note any conflict of interest in pursuing the exclusive interview with the consul general, despite her husband having worked with Cai in the recent past. The two participated in a February press conference held by U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-9th District) concerning the response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The representative has been, to say the least, a celebrated associate of the Chinese diplomatic corps in Space City. At an event held by the World Financial Group on post-Hurricane Harvey reconstruction, Wu appeared alongside the consul of Yichuan of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston.
Wu has stated in lawyerly fashion that in the past he has supposedly condemned China’s human-rights violations, deceptions regarding COVID-19, and intellectual-property theft. His snarky rejoinder to critics on those matters this week was literally this: “Don’t forget Hong Kong… Don’t forget Tibet… Don’t forget religious oppression. What else you got tough guy?” Of course, none of this recognizes that China has actually done anything. (The communist Chinese themselves have not forgotten Hong Kong or Tibet; they have usurped them. Neither Consul General Cai nor his staff returned a request for comment.) Wu doesn’t even fleetingly address spying, deception, or thievery.
Gene Wu denies that he flacks for Chinese political interests. He should stop doing it.
No matter where they live, or what citizenship they hold, Chinese are always Chinese first.
See my tagline.
There should be NO REPRESENTATIVES born in a foreign country. Naturalized, illegal, dual citizenship — NOT ONE.
A frightening number of Texans appear on the verge of relinquishing all of their freedoms even if they don’t realize what the result will be.
This puke isn’t even opposed for reelection.
This from the Houston Courant, no less! Remember them?
They are the one who BEGGED Beto to quit his Presidential Run to run instead against Cornyn.
If Wu has lost the Courant......
Just jam a lizard between his lying traitorous lips. You can take them out of China, but you can’t take the China out of these trojans.
Mexicans are the same way. I despise them both.
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