Michael Ching Mo Yeung, wanted by China, wins Canadian court bid to have refugee case reheard

Vancouver property developer Michael Ching Mo Yeung, who is wanted by China for alleged corruption, has won a key legal victory in Canada, with a federal judge ordering that Ching’s bid for refugee status be reconsidered.

Ching - who is wanted under the name Cheng Muyang and is the son of the late disgraced Hebei governor Cheng Weigao – was unfairly treated by a panel of Canada’s Refugee Protection Division, according to Mr Justice Yvan Roy, in a ruling handed down in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

Roy said the refugee panel’s decision on October 31 last year, in which Ching was denied protection on the basis that there were “serious reasons” to believe he had committed a significant crime, relied too heavily on Chinese court findings. But the evidence was either unavailable to the panel, or was “fuzzy and third-hand”, Roy said.

“To summarise, the issue is not whether or not the findings of a foreign court are to be discarded completely,” Roy said in his written judgment. “They are not. However, I fail to see how serious reasons can come solely from the findings of another court without having a clear understanding of what the evidence against the applicant was.”

Roy’s ruling against Canada’s immigration ministry deemed that Ching’s refugee case must be reheard by a different Refugee Protection Division panel. A spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment that was lodged outside office hours.

Ching, 45, is the president and CEO of Mo Yeung International Enterprise, a major Vancouver property development firm. His identity as Cheng Muyang was revealed by the South China Morning Post in April.

He was granted permanent residency in Canada in 1996, but has repeatedly been denied citizenship, prompting a series of court cases. A Chinese national, he frequently travelled to the mainland until about 2000, Roy noted.