B.C. journalist, harassed by ‘cult-like’ China protest group, wins defamation payout

The crowds of protesters gathered outside Gao Bing Chen’s home on a cul-de-sac in Surrey, B.C., for 11 weeks, rain or shine.

The group of up to 60 people distributed pamphlets describing their baseless claims that the journalist and commentator was a traitor and an agent of China.

They played funeral music outside Gao’s house, upsetting his wife, young daughter and mother-in-law, and livestreamed the protests around the world, where they were watched by up to 100,000 people.

Two of them beat up a friend of Gao’s outside the home, resulting in assault convictions.

Now, six years after his ordeal began, Gao has been awarded $275,000 in defamation damages from one of his tormentors, Yun Fei Zhu.

“Justice might be delayed, but it will never come too late,” said Gao in an interview in Mandarin on Monday.

“This is likely the first case in Canada where protesters managed to move cyberbullying directly from the internet to my doorstep, livestreaming for five hours a day for 77 consecutive days. If I were not tough enough, I might have lost my mind already.”

Last week’s ruling says Gao suffered “severe distress” from the defamatory comments, forcing him to consider moving his family out of Canada entirely.

The harassment stemmed from Gao’s criticism of exiled Chinese businessman and convicted fraudster Guo Wengui, who had set up a project called the New Federal State of China with Steve Bannon, the former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.

It was presented as a political movement to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party, and had a presence in Vancouver and Toronto, but the B.C. Supreme Court defamation ruling says critics regarded Guo and the New Federal State of China as “unreliable, conspiratorial and cult‑like.”

Gao was himself a critic of China’s government, testifying that he was well known in the Chinese Canadian community “as a pro‑democracy activist and commentator.” But the trouble began when he took issue with Guo’s movement.

Zhu, who lives in White Rock, B.C., livestreamed the protests that ensued outside Gao’s home for weeks, five hours a day. They began on Sept. 15, 2020.

“In the course of those livestreams, Gao was called many things, including a spy whose hands were covered in the blood of democracy activists. There is no evidence to suggest any of that is true,” says the ruling by Justice Richard Hewson.

While Gao said the ruling brought him tears and relief, it could not undo the harm to him, his family and their neighbours.