Dem mayor’s spox defends meeting with controversial Chinese diplomat who praised CCP

A spokesperson for a Democrat mayor is defending a recent meeting with a controversial Chinese diplomat, who has repeatedly praised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

'Met with Philadelphia's Mayor Parker together with Tianjin’s Executive Deputy Mayor Liu Guiping,' Huang Ping, who's been the consul general of China's New York Consulate since 2018, recently posted on X.

'Exchanges at the subnational level keeps fueling China-US relations. Let's keep it going,' he added.

Over the last year, Huang has appeared at several prominent universities to meet with officials despite his past statements as well as rising concerns from the American public about China’s aggressive presence in the United States.

Huang, who met with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, has previously called the CCP a 'great party' and has denied that China is targeting the Muslim Uyghur population in China.

'There are lots of lies here, fabricated by some people with their own political agenda,' Huang said in an August 2021 interview, denying the existence of genocide and internment camps targeting Uyghurs. 'As I said, there's no genocide, not a single evidence to prove that there's a genocide or something there. It's just a slandering.'

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the State Department under both 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 a million Uyghurs in concentration camps where, according to leaked documents from inside China, detainees are subjected to rape, torture, forced labor, brainwashing and forced sterilization.

'The Mayor and city officials engaged, as protocol and respect dictates, with the official representatives of China,' a spokesperson for Mayor Parker's office told Fox News Digital in a statement when asked if the mayor was aware of Huang's previous statements when she met with him.

'This meeting was about greeting and welcoming the representatives of our Sister City Tianjin and celebrate our 45th anniversary as Sister Cities – as we were amongst the first pairs of sister cities to be established following the reestablishing of diplomatic relationships between the U.S. & China,' the spokesperson added. 'Also the occasion to cheer the 50th anniversary of the first tour of the Philadelphia Orchestra in China.'

In addition to praising the CCP, Huang has repeatedly promoted CCP talking points on X and amplified the agenda of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Huang previously met with Democrat lawmakers in Pennsylvania as well as with a local economic council. He has also met with a long list of officials at Ivy League and other prestigious universities. 

Earlier this year, Huang joined Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams during the Lunar New Year Parade in Manhattan. Huang has met with New York's elected officials several times in the past. 

Last year, he stood beside Adams at the New York China Day Celebration Parade Festival. Fox News Digital previously reported that Hochul and Huang met in April 2019 when she was the lieutenant governor to discuss cooperation between New York and China.

Huang's visits with top officials come amid growing concerns about China's presence in the United States in a variety of sectors, from academia to government to health care to social media.

'The Chinese Communist Party is playing for keeps at the nuclear level and every layer below that,' Michael Sobolik, author of 'Countering China’s Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance,' told Fox News Digital. 'And it's not just the universities. The Chinese Communist Party is looking to infiltrate every aspect of American society.'

'If we try to edit undo our way out of this whole list of infiltrations and threats that the CCP sends our direction that's good policy work. We need to insulate ourselves. But good housekeeping is the bare minimum of waging a cold war and winning a cold war,' Sobolik continued. 

'If we're serious about winning a cold war, it's not enough to just address these problems that the Chinese Communist Party has created for America. American policymakers need to go on the offensive and create problems for the CCP to respond to. We need to seize the initiative of this competition.'

'Mayor Parker cares about the many different communities and groups in our respective cities, and will engage with stakeholders who serve and may represent them,' Parker's office told Fox News Digital when asked about her concerns over China's growing presence in the U.S.

'President Biden and the Biden administration handle the foreign relations of the United States.'

Fox News Digital reached out to Huang's office but did not receive a response.

Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed reporting.