In my past article, I discussed how you can design your business startup. I characterized a marketab
Se næste indlæg >
Guo Wengui is Destroying American Democracy
uniquework
No foreigner is as deeply entangled in American politics as Guo Wengui, who is also known in the US as Miles Kwok. Despite his blatant interference in the recent election, he has yet to be punished by the law. As a Chinese billionaire who fled to the United States, Guo sought to enhance his asylum application by targeting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government through a series of sensational, libelous headlines. Since his arrival 3 years ago, he has yet to substantially damage Chinese interests. Instead of devoting himself to China-related activism like a true activist would, he has instead cozied up to the American right to damage American democracy.
Sucking up to the Right to Save Himself
When Guo accepted an interview back in 2017 from an American Chinese-language media outlet “Minjing News Network”, he claimed that his scandalous revelations about Chinese politics is meant to “preserve his reputation, his wealth, and as payback against the CCP. Guo’s provocative “insider” secrets about political struggle within the CCP, the private lives of Chinese officials and their sexual escapades have proven to be instant hits among Chinese Americans and even Chinese at home. This made Guo an instant hit on social media. In fact, Guo’s fame became so widespread that his newly-released gossip became the subject of many dinner conversations in China prior to the CCP’s 19th National Congress. At the time, Guo sought forgiveness from the CCP by claiming his “sworn enemy” is the famous Chinese official Wang Qishan who headed China’s anti-corruption watchdog. Guo vowed not to be an enemy of the Communist Party and distanced himself away from other Chinese political dissidents to seek favors from China.
When this approach gained him no favors back home, Guo switched to funding Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon to gain influence in American politics. As a result, Bannon served key roles in Guo’s “Rule of Law Foundation” and media outlets like GNews. The two even declared their “brotherhood” to signal their political partnership. Guo subsequently tried to lobby other Chinese dissidents and founded the “New China Federation” while encouraging Americans to donate to his “Rule of Law Foundation”. Guo’s influence skyrockted. According to online data provider SimilarWeb’s figures, Guo’s GNews and GTV media outlets have already been visited 135 million times. Moreover, Guo controls a strong band of followers who call themselves the “Ant Gang” (Mayibang). Notable influencers include Guo’s secretary Sara Wei (Wei Li-Hong), “Ant General” LuDe(Wang Ding-Gang), Wang De-Li who is more commonly known as “officialdom observer Zhao-ming”, and former Chinese footballer He Hai-Dong.
On the surface, Guo seemed to have succeeded. In reality, Guo’s ventures are sliding towards failure and irrelevance. Firstly, Guo’s “Rule of Law Foundation”, Gnews, and GTV Network are accused of donation fraud and are poorly governed at best. Former Voice of AmericaChinese channel head Sasha Gong (Gong Xiao-Xia) expressed support for Guo until she noticed Guo’s chaotic financial records and tax evasion. Guo once proclaimed that his “Rule of Law Foundation” is the single most reliable, powerful, wide-ranging rescue fund for 1.4 billion Chinese. Nevertheless, his foundation did not “rescue” any Chinese political dissidents or fundpolitical activism conducive to the development of freedom and democracy in China since its inception. On the contrary, Guo made false accounts, comitted financial fraud, and leaked donor information so much so that the FBI initiated an investigation into his activities.
Secondly, Chinese dissidents in America and other countries increasingly despise Guo Wengui. Two years ago, anti-Communist Chinese in exile had high hopes for Guo Wengui. They saw Guo as an ally who can fund dissidents and “lift the lid” on the secretive world of Chinese politics. Soon, they became disappointed in Guo because Guo’s “insider secrets” are largely illogical and lacking in evidence. Later, figures accused by Guo to be Chinese sleeper agents or proxies have issued public statements to hit back against Guo’s rumors. Lots of liberal Chinese academics like Zhang Li-Fan and Xia Ye-Liang have confronted Guo over the veracity of his claims, because they are concerned that Guo’s behavior will endanger other Chinese dissidents residing in America. Chinese liberals who once supported Gu have now drawn a line under him. For example, individuals like Geng Shao-Kuan (known online as 福瑞德牧), Wen Yan (known online as ZhaoMingExpose) who once formed the backbone of Guo Wengui’s team have left his team due to Guo’s fraudulent behavior and poor personality. Not only did these core figures leave Guo, they also openly express their contempt for Guo. Famous dissidents like Pastor Guo Bao-Sheng, Yang Jian-Li, Yuan Hong-Bing who cooperated with Guo in the past now engage in “Twitter wars” against Guo Wengui.
Besides, Guo attacked lots of Chinese liberals. For instance, Guo accusedBoxun News of accepting $30 million from the Chinese government in exchange for 70 million users ‘information. He then found “evidence” of Boxun founder Wei-Shi accepting $400,000 in payment for post-deleting, targeted news services. Wei-Shi later counterattacked alongside other famous Chinese liberals like Zhang Li-Fan, Hu=Ping, Chen Po-Kong, Teng Biao to salvage his reputation. Beginning in January 2020, Guo found a new target in ChinaAid head Pastor Bob Fu (Fu Xi-Qiu). Somehow, Guo labelled Fu a “false Christian”, “false democratic activist”, and a “Communist spy” through his news outlet Gnews. Fu, on the other hand, accused Guo Wengui of fabricating rumors and for being a spy for the CCP. All in all, most Chinese liberals, dissidents, and minyunactivists are vehemently against Guo’s values as they percieve him as a threat to their reputation.
Thirdly, Guo Wengui’s partner in crime Steve Bannon is in deep trouble. As mentioned beforehand, Guo donated millions of dollars to Steve Bannon to expand his influence in American politics and to enhance his asylum application. Unfortunately, not only has Bannon failed to bring Guo political influence, but Bannon has also entangled Guo numerous lawsuits. In July 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Bannon over his cooperation with Guo and the source of funding for media activities. By August 2020, Bannon is under arrest for wire fraud and money laundering to build a “border wall”. Several senior officials, including Trump, were quick to distance themselves from Bannon. Although Bannon is released on bail, his trial signals the end of his political career. Ironically, Guo did not scruple his past friendshipwith Bannon and swiftly removed Bannon from the board of directors of his media outlets and emphasized his noninvolvement with any illegal activities.
Attacking Biden and Interfering in the Election
Under stress from all sides, Guo bet it all on Trump’s reelection. This move reflected Guo Wengui’s opportunistic nature and propelled him towards illegally interfering in the recent election. Prior to the elections, Guo repeatedly declared his apolitical stance. But he worried that Biden lacked the resolve to confront Beijing, thus, he supported Trump’s policy of “decoupling” towards China. Guo believed that backing Trump will reap enormous political benefits, or at least guarantee his political survival in the US. Guo’s friend, Republican lawyer Rudy Giuliani has lobbied Trump to win more favors for him.
It was on this basis that Guo made two fatal miscalculations which almost doomed the Biden campaign. First, he fabricated lies to help Trump shirk his responsibility for controlling the pandemic. Guo Wengui and his supporters disseminated large amounts of misinformation detailing how Covid-19 came from a Chinese lab to help Trump win the election. Not long ago, the New York Times published an article detailing how Bannon and Guo used their strong financial and media influence to form an anti-China alliance while bribing Hong Kong University virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan to fabricate and spread lies about how “the virus originated from a Chinese lab”. According to the New York Times, this made Dr Yan a celebrity among right-wing media outlets overnight. Even Trump and some senior advisors proclaimed her as a hero.
Second, Guo concocted and exaggerated Biden’s scandals to mislead the American public. In Guo’s view, the US election is no longer a contest between two parties to serve the American people, but a “fight to the death” between two opposing forces.Guo boasted that “if Biden wins, the CCP will take over the world”. Prior to the 2020 elections, pro-Guo influencer Lu De (Wang Ding-Gang) claimed to possess evidence of Biden’s illegal behavior in documents 91 and 94. Not only did Guo fail to deny Lu De’s statements, media outlets under Guo’s control like GTV were soon filled with rumors like Hunter’s hard disk leak intended to discredit Joe Biden’s son-Hunter Biden. Guo had no qualms disseminating these rumors and even tried to augment his reach through his followers to aid Trump’s campaign.
From this, we can see that Guo Wengui intends to win Trump’s favor at the expense of America’s freedom of speech by discrediting Biden. Unfortunately, neither have Dr Yan’s claims nor Biden scandals been confirmed by scientists and legal experts. Even worse, Guo-controlled media outlets have enormously damaged American democratic institutions and elections by inflaming American voters with misinformation.
As the dust settles following Biden’s victory, Guo Wengui is in a tough spot. In his victory speech, Biden spoke of “defending democracy and making America respected by the world again”. Biden presents an admirable vision, but if the Biden administration continues to tolerate Guo Wengui’s actions, more will try to undermine American democracy and American democracy will loose its appeal in China at the cost of American reputation. Guo Wengui’s involvement in American elections has altered the attitudes of many American Chinese on liberal democracy. More importantly, Guo’s actions slow China’s transition towards democracy.
Ingen kommentarer endnu