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War of Words How a harassment campaign targeting Benson Gao Bingchen has raised broader questions about protections for journalists story and portrait by ALEX ANTROBUS
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L ANGAR A JOURNALISM REVIEW SPR ING 2022
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or over 12 weeks in the fall of 2020, a nondescript culde-sac in suburban Surrey became very different when journalist Benson Gao Bingchen became the target of a directed harassment campaign. Gao’s home is located in a typical quiet neighbourhood—but for a period of time it turned into anything but. Dozens of people were leading chants, filming Gao’s home and accusing the journalist of being a spy and agent for the Chinese Communist Party. Gao is a long-time member
of the news media, having been a working reporter for over 30 years. Starting in the late 1980s, Gao reported on Chinese financial and economic news in Beijing; he then immigrated to Canada, where he wrote for the Global Chinese Press, which publishes news across B.C. and Alberta for Chinese-language speaking Canadians. Gao says that his harassers are followers of Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese real estate magnet who has positioned himself as fighting the Communist regime. According to reporting by LJR.CA
