Kathy Hochul Caught on Camera Waving Chinese Flag, Marching Next to CCP Official

N ew York governor Kathy Hochul waved the Chinese flag and marched next to a Chinese diplomat who has peddled denialism of Chinese-government atrocities, during a Lunar New Year Parade in Lower Manhattan last weekend, footage reviewed by National Review reveals. Hochul’s activities came at an awkward time, a week after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had flown over the continental United States.

During an opening ceremony for the annual event in New York City’s Chinatown, Hochul gave a brief two-minute speech, according to footage of the event posted to a YouTube account called Live Walking NYC. “This is living proof,” she said, referring to the size of the crowd, “that New York City is back.” Throughout her remarks, which emphasized the resilience of the Asian-American community, she held the flag of the People’s Republic of China next to the U.S. flag, waving both for emphasis. Hochul was not the only NYC pol to do that; Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg waved the PRC and U.S. flags as he spoke earlier during the ceremony.

Hochul and other New York political grandees, such as New York City mayor Eric Adams and Senator Chuck Schumer, were joined onstage by Chinese consul general Huang Ping, a CCP hard-liner.

While Hochul and other New York politicos have previously attended this parade, and other events, alongside Chinese-government officials, this year was noteworthy as the governor stood by China’s controversial consul general amid multiple Chinese espionage scandals. In addition to the ongoing controversy over the balloon, the Chinese government had operated a police station in Manhattan until it was recently closed during an FBI investigation.

Strangely, the governor’s office seems to have omitted footage of Hochul’s speech, during which she held the PRC flag, from a video about her participation in the parade posted to her official YouTube channel. Instead, the video begins immediately after she let go of the flags and picked up a proclamation, which she handed to parade organizers.

But Hochul’s office did not remove footage of the governor walking with the controversial Chinese official. The video cuts to another moment, where Hochul, Huang, Adams, Manhattan borough president Mark Levine, and others stand as the U.S. national anthem plays (the American officials place their hands over their hearts while Huang clasps his hands). The next shot shows Hochul marching next to Huang and others behind a banner with a new year’s greeting.

Although Huang regularly participates in high-profile functions across New York, he espouses hard-line views, such as denial of the Chinese government’s mass atrocities against Uyghurs and support for China’s baseless claims to sovereignty over Taiwan. During a podcast interview in 2021, he gave extensive defenses of the record of the Chinese Communist Party, saying it “kept its promise and has done a great job,” and slammed critics of the party’s repression in Xinjiang — which is widely recognized to constitute crimes against humanity — whom he accused of peddling “fabricated” allegations.

Yet none of this has made Huang a persona non grata in Albany or Manhattan. Huang and Hochul have met repeatedly, stretching back to 2019, during Hochul’s tenure as lieutenant governor of New York. In 2021, Huang called Hochul his “old friend” in a Facebook post.

In addition to her long-standing collaboration with Huang, Hochul has also engaged with the China General Chamber of Commerce, which reportedly has ties to the United Front Work Department, a sprawling party apparatus that engages in political influence and interference work in China and overseas. Among the individuals on the association’s board of directors is an executive with Hikvision — a Chinese surveillance firm sanctioned by the U.S. over its key role in the Xinjiang atrocities and in China’s military buildup.

She delivered the keynote address at a gala for the group last year.

During that speech, Hochul, whose office did not return a request for comment, hailed “our beautiful relationship between our countries, China and the United States, China and New York, amazing partners as we continue to work together collaboratively.”

Hochul also marched in the Lunar New Year parade last year, when the Chinese police station was represented on a float organized by the America ChangLe Association — a mysterious nonprofit group that hosted the law-enforcement office’s unauthorized presence in New York. In January, Steven Tin, the parade’s organizer, stressed in comments to National Review that the parade is an apolitical event, adding that America ChangLe had not signed up for the 2023 event.