Guilbeault's China Council backed by an organization that funded eco-terrorists

The Canadian Press / Graham Hughes

The billionaire backing the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a key player in the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), has also donated extensively to radical Extinction Rebellion activists.

The CCICED, a joint venture between the Chinese Communist government and Canada, is chaired in part by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

Minister Guilbeault travelled to China this fall on a diplomatic mission to participate in the annual general meeting of the joint China-Canada venture.

Ding Xuexiang (丁薛祥), a former top adviser to Xi Jinping, is the official head chairperson of the committee, ranking number six in the CCP Politburo pecking order and currently acting as the vice-premier of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Xuexiang and Guilbeault are flanked on the executive by his overseas counterpart, Huang Runqia (黄润秋), minster of ecology and environment.

The chairperson, according to the CCICED charter, is to be a senior State Council member. At the same time, the vice-chairpersons, one from China and another from the international community, are appointed by the CCP government, with the international representative chosen by the organization’s top donor.

As the leading funder of this organization, Canada then gets to choose the international representative, normally the environment minister.

Catherine McKenna sits on a committee of China's government. She is a vice-chair of it. Their mission is to promote the Communist Party's Five Year Plan. She works for China. And Canadians pay them $1.6 million/year to boot.

SHE LITERALLY WORKS FOR THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT. https://t.co/khHxNP0sTZ

— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) November 6, 2018

The Government of Canada’s website details yearly contributions to the “non-governmental organization” amounting to $1,602,480 annually, or almost $5 million since 2019. A memorandum of understanding acknowledges that Environment and Climate Change Canada will contribute up to $8,012,400 to the council from 2017 to 2022, a total of $40 million since the creation of the committee.

The partner list of CCICED funders includes various international, environmental and financial agencies — the Asian Development Bank; the World Economic Forum; the International Institute for Sustainable Development; the United Nations Development Program; the National Resources Defence Council and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) is touted as an “independent philanthropic organization” according to its website, spending £618,739,409 (approximately $1.05 billion CAD) on charitable causes in 2021, according to the Government of the United Kingdom.

A behemoth of an entity with billions of dollars in assets, it is one of the largest philanthropy-based organizations in the world, parented by the Children’s Investment Fund Management, which has a holding company located in the Cayman Islands.

CIFF was founded in 2002 by billionaire activist hedge fund manager Sir Christopher Hohn. The charity was managed by Hohn’s wife before being handed over to a CEO, Kate Hampton, a main player in the formation of the 2016 Paris Accords, which pledged to keep the rise in global temperature below 2°C to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Kate Hampton, anointed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008, also sits as a council member on the CCICED.

The CIFF’s involvement with this CCP-led environmental “think-tank” doesn’t end there.

Lei Hongpeng of CIFF acts as a special adviser to the organization.

The CIFF is intricately involved with the CCICED, co-hosting conferences held by Energy Foundation China (EFC) on “China’s Role in Global Climate Governance.”

Hohn, the billionaire backing the charity by offering funding to the “independent” China council, has, in the past, along with his charity, bankrolled climate activist extremist groups such as Extinction Rebellion.

🇳🇱 Extinction Rebellion Block Road To The Hague

The group alleged 10,000 demonstrators turned up to protest Dutch fossil fuel subsidies before being water cannoned by police. pic.twitter.com/YqevGJzuBI

— Atul Prasad Sen (@AtulPrasadSen) September 11, 2023

Extinction Rebellion, known for paint throwing, roadblocking and super glue protests, was briefly put on a terrorist watch list by counter-terrorism police in London before the listing was revoked.

Extinction Rebellion criticises inclusion on extremism watch list: https://t.co/NInacAPHYi pic.twitter.com/itDsmBqNZq

— Third Sector (@ThirdSector) January 13, 2020

According to UnHerd, Kate Hampton remarked at the 2021 CCICED meeting that she “supported Chinese leadership on setting the global path for fulfilling Paris goals” and also commended China for “supporting green COVID-19 recovery.”

Guilbeault has mimicked similar sympathetic statements, most recently in his interview in the National Observer: “To disengage would be a huge failure of diplomacy and irresponsible leadership.”

Canada's "Minister of Environment and Climate Change" @s_guilbeault was arrested for his climate activism 20 years ago. And he remains proud of it.

If someone truly believed in the "climate crisis", would they be inspired by Guilbeault's "climate activism" criminal history to… pic.twitter.com/Ba3KaZ0CYo

— Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) September 8, 2023

Guilbeault is set to be the first minister to visit China since 2019, following a breakdown in relations between the two nations largely attributed to the hostage-taking of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by the Chinese government in late 2018.