New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association held a general meeting last Friday (April 19), where they elected the current president of the New York Nanhai Shunde Association, Zhu Chaoran, as the next president of the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. Zhu Chaoran was elected as the 68th president with 53 votes and will assume office starting from May 1.
The election meeting was attended by 76 out of the 84 members due to personal reasons. Zhu Chaoran won the election with 53 votes against 19 for Liang Huazhao. It was announced that Zhu Chaoran’s term will begin on May 1, with a handover ceremony tentatively scheduled for May 16. The new office members will be notified of the date at a later time.
Zhu Chaoran, originally from Nanhai, Guangdong Province, was born in Hong Kong and moved to the United States with his family in the late 1960s. He currently serves as the president of the New York Nanhai Shunde Association and was the former president of the New York Chinese American Veterans Association. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, stationed with the Seventh Fleet in Southeast Asia for three years. After retirement, he joined the reserves for 21 years and served in the Persian Gulf War in 1980.
Following his military service, Zhu worked in the New York City Department of Corrections and was elected as the president of the Asian Jade Society within the Department of Corrections three times. He also served as the president of the Supreme Council of Asian in Law Enforcement from 2005 to 2006. Zhu became the first Chinese self-defense instructor in the department in the past 115 years. During the anti-Asian hate incidents, he received support from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and the New York Chinese American Veterans Association, organizing free self-defense classes.
In 1982, Zhu Chaoran founded the Zhu Chaoran Praying Mantis Kung Fu School in Manhattan, where he has been teaching traditional Chinese martial arts for 42 years, with over 2,000 students from both China and abroad. He has actively promoted Chinese culture, martial arts, and lion dance performances over 600 times throughout the years.
Zhu Chaoran told Epoch Times that he believes the reason he received a high number of votes in the election is due to his background as a hardworking military veteran with a sense of justice from the law enforcement community, coupled with his serious attitude and years of experience as a society president.
The election for the 2024 president of the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association was originally between Zhu Chaoran and Liang Huazhao, nominated by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of the East Coast. However, a dispute arose when the East Coast Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association brought up a third candidate, Su Huanguang. According to the tradition of the Association, a letter requesting the recommendation of candidates had been sent to the East Coast Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association on November 1 of the previous year. On December 10, 2023, they recommended Zhu Chaoran and Liang Huazhao as the candidates for the 2024 election.
Following internal disputes within the East Coast Association, the election was delayed after the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association received a lawyer’s letter in January, leading to a resolution on February 29 to dissolve the Executive Committee. The determination was made to hold regular elections after resolving the legal issues of the East Coast Association. An emergency meeting was held on April 11 to set the election date on April 19, with Zhu Chaoran and Liang Huazhao as the candidates approved by the qualifying review group and the Executive Committee. However, the East Coast Association recommended Su Huanguang after the deadline on April 16.
An internal letter dated April 15, 2024, from Liang Hanben, the chairman of the East Coast Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, stated that due to his “major oversight,” he had overlooked the senior member of the East Coast Association, Su Huanguang, who had expressed his intention to run for president and was on a business trip in China the previous year. The letter requested the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association to accept Su Huanguang’s recommendation and include him as a candidate alongside Zhu Chaoran and Liang Huazhao.
Another recommendation letter from the East Coast Association for Su Huanguang described him as a 75-year-old man who had served as a councilor for over 20 years, had been the president of the Anliang Chamber of Commerce, and was currently serving as the chairman of the New York Myanmar Chinese Association, the American Myanmar Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern Branch of the World Hakka Association, and the American Su Clan Association. Su Huanguang had made significant contributions to the Chinatown community and overseas Chinese societies for many years, showing ambitions since childhood to serve the community, possessing extensive experience in the business world and overseas Chinese community, making him suitable for the position of president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.
According to reports from Chinese-language media, Su Huanguang’s resume omitted his title as the chief advisor to the East Coast Chinese Association, which supports the five-star red flag of the Chinese Communist Party. In an article titled “The Outstanding Chinese Leader of Myanmar Descent, Outstanding Overseas Chinese Leader – Remembering Su Huanguang, the Chief Advisor of the East Coast Chinese Association” published on August 7, 2019, by the Sino-US Times, Su Huanguang and several other overseas Chinese leaders, including the Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping, were invited to witness the resolution on designating October 1 as “China Day” by the New York State Senate in October of that year.
According to a report by Overseas Chinese Voice in November 2018, when Huang Ping arrived in New York with his wife to take office, Su Huanguang and dozens of other pro-China overseas Chinese leaders, including Hua Junxiong, Liang Guanjun, Lu Jianwang, Lu Jianshun, and Chen Shanzhuang, went to Kennedy International Airport to welcome him. At that time, Su Huanguang’s title was listed as the “Chief Advisor of the East Coast Chinese Association.”