Chinese official linked to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul steps up call for closer Sino-Russian ties

A Chinese official associated with New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has called the ruling Chinese Communist Party “great” and dismissed reports of China’s systematic persecution of minorities as “lies”, this week expanded on a tweet saying it has crucial for his country. and Russia to improve relations.

Huang Ping, who has been Consul General of the Chinese Consulate in New York since 2018, retweeted Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson and Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chuning, who urged China and Russia to cooperate more closely.

“Through the joint work of China and Russia, the world will receive a driving force towards multipolarity and greater democracy in international relations, and global strategic balance and stability will be better ensured,” Hua wrote. “The more unstable the world becomes, the more important it is for China and Russia to steadily develop their relationship.”

The tweets were part of a long thread, all retweeted by Huang, in which Hua described Sino-Russian relations as one based on “abandonment of alliances and confrontation” and “celebrating strategic trust and good neighborliness, setting a good example for a new type of international relations.”

The tweets were released two days before Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes told lawmakers in a Senate hearing that while she wouldn’t call Sino-Russian relations a “love affair,” they “continue to deepen” and cooperation is expanding. every sector.”

This view was reflected in the latest annual threat assessment by the intelligence community, which was released this week.

“Despite the global backlash to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China will maintain diplomatic, defense, economic and technological cooperation with Russia to continue trying to challenge the United States, even if it limits public support,” the report said.

Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping speaks at a reception marking the 20th anniversary of Macau’s repatriation in New York, December 12, 2019. (Xinhua/via Getty Images)

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In addition to retweets from other Chinese government officials, Huang often interacts with well-known American business and political leaders, including Hochul, with whom he made frequent public appearances.

For example, last month a video was posted on social media showing Hochul waving the Chinese flag and walking with Huang in the Chinese New Year parade.

Hochul had met Huang several times before.

According to a posting on the Chinese consulate website, Hochul and Huang met in April 2019, when she was lieutenant governor, to discuss cooperation between New York and China. The post includes a photo of them standing next to each other and smiling while holding a certificate she gave him for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

In February 2021, Huang referred to the current governor as an “old friend” in a Facebook post showing her video. Together with her, he attended other events.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, September 20, 2022. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“I look forward to continuing to strengthen our cultural, social, and economic ties in the future,” Hochul said a few months later in a letter written for a US-China relations event.

Then, a few days before Christmas 2021, Huang attended an event on Long Island in support of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics. In his two tweets about the event, he wrote that he was “delighted” to attend along with a couple of local lawmakers, and mentioned that Hole’s deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, was there at the time. In a follow-up tweet, he said, “We appreciate that @GovKathyHochul sent a congratulatory letter to the event,” which Chinese state media China Daily said Sun read at the event. Sun “liked” Ping’s tweet.

In addition to Hole, some of New York City’s most famous venues, including the Barclays Center, Nasdaq MarketSite, and the Empire State Building, recently hosted Juan as a guest of honor.

However, despite the warm welcome in New York, Huang repeatedly made controversial remarks. In particular, he often praised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and staunchly defended China’s treatment of the Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority, in the Xinjiang region.

Huang Ping, Consul General of the Chinese Consulate in New York. (YouTube Screenshot/Chinese Consulate General in New York)

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“There are a lot of lies here, fabricated by some people for their own political purposes,” Huang said in an August 2021 interview, denying the existence of genocide and internment camps targeting Uyghurs. “Like I said, there is no genocide, there is not a single piece of evidence that there was a genocide or anything like that. It’s just slander.”

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the State Department under the Trump and Biden administrations have assessed that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Since 2017, the Chinese government has reportedly imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs in concentration camps, where, according to leaked documents from China, prisoners are subjected to rape, torture, forced labor, brainwashing, and forced sterilization.

Huang also called the CCP a “great party” and described the camps that hold Uyghurs as training camps.

“I view these centers as a campus, not as camps,” he said. “We bring these people there for training. And it was quite effective in terms of countering terrorism and de-radicalization. So far, in exactly four years, there has not been a single terrorist attack.”

When earlier contacted by the Chinese consulate in New York for comment, it echoed Huang’s comments, telling Fox News Digital that “the Xinjiang issue is not about human rights” and that “a thousand-fold lie is nothing but a lie.”

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In April 2022, Huang made headlines after speaking at the 25th annual Harvard College China Forum at Harvard Business School, where he urged Americans to be more “diversity tolerant” and embrace the Chinese way of governance.