Why was modern China history course cancelled? Trinity Western University won’t say

Victor Ho was set to teach a non-credit course for Cantonese-speaking seniors at Trinity Western University’s Richmond campus. It was to be eight classes, looking at five case studies in the history of modern China.

Now, 18 months after he was quietly told the course wouldn’t be going ahead, he doesn’t have an official explanation for why this happened.

Posters with the TWU logo advertising the course were distributed online, displayed on campus and at some senior homes, said Ho. There was also a Chinese-language press release to local media, detailing how the course material would start with the 1911 revolution against the Qing dynasty and continue to the Sino-Japanese war between 1937 and 1945.

A few weeks before the course was to begin in the fall of 2021, a program co-ordinator took Ho out for coffee at Tim Hortons and told him that “some professors and administrators from mainland China object to launching (the course) because the outline (of the content) could be opposite to the viewpoints of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Ho, who had previously taught a course on using social media for the same seniors program, was astonished.

He had thought it would be interesting to “analyze the pseudo-historical narratives ‘officiated’ by the Chinese Communist Party and it’s an approach he knew universities in Hong Kong take since he had done his masters degree there.

Postmedia asked TWU last week why the course was cancelled despite attracting registrants.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to offer,” said Winnie Lui, director of public relations for TWU, in an email.

Postmedia asked specifically if Phil Laird, vice-president of innovation, global and academic partnerships at TWU, could be made aware of its request for a comment, but did not get a reply. Postmedia also did not get a reply from Keith Chan, program organizer for Evergreen Academy, the affiliate of TWU that was running the programs for Cantonese-speaking seniors.

Ho recently brought up what happened to his course when speaking to federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino at a roundtable to discuss foreign interference in Canada.

Last week, a group of immigrants from Hong Kong who have been living in Metro Vancouver for over 25 years released an open letter to David Johnston. The former governor-general is now the special rapporteur appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to investigate claims that China meddled in Canadian elections.

The letter, dated April 21, said the “Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration in Canada is widespread, ranging from politics, business, academia, media and in the community” and called for a robust public inquiry and measures such as a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry to protect against this.

“There are so many examples we could cite. It’s become normalized to us,” said Mabel Tung, a spokesperson for the Chinese Canadian Concern Group on CCP’s Human Rights Violations.

In an emailed statement, Alex Cohen, Mendicino’s press secretary, said the recent roundtable included bringing together activists, advocates, businesspeople, academics and others to discuss the need for a registry.

“Participants told the Minister about the intimidation and harassment they’ve faced at the hands of foreign governments. While a diversity of views were present around the table, there was a strong consensus on the need for transparency in general and a registry in particular.”

He added that “given the sensitivity of these issues and the safety concerns of some individuals, we made a commitment to participants not to disclose further details.”