China 'Shaming' Canada
"The reason why some people are used to arrogantly adopting double standards is due to Western egotism and white supremacy."
"What they have been doing is not showing respect for the rule of law, but mocking and trampling the rule of law."
"It seems that, to some people, only Canadian citizens should be treated in a humanitarian manner and their freedom deemed valuable, while Chinese people do not deserve that."
"Some people in Canada, without any evidence, have been hyping the idea that Huawei is controlled by the Chinese government and poses security threats to Canada and other Western countries, and that Chinese law requires China’s enterprises to collaborate with the government in espionage activities. However, these same people have conveniently ignored the PRISM Program, Equation Group, and Echelon—global spying networks operated by some countries that have been engaging in large-scale and organized cyber stealing, and spying and surveillance activities on foreign governments, enterprises, and individuals. These people also took a laissez-faire attitude toward a country that infringes on its citizens’ privacy rights through the Patriot Act. They shouted for a ban by the Five Eyes alliance countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) on the use of Huawei equipment by these countries’ own enterprises, which is literally a government-controlled action."
"I have recently heard a word repeatedly pronounced by some Canadians: bullying. They said that by arresting two Canadian citizens as retaliation for Canada’s detention of Meng, China was bullying Canada. To those people, China’s self-defence is an offence to Canada. If someone slaps you on your left cheek, give him your right cheek, they told us. But I have never seen them doing as they said.
The reason why some people are used to arrogantly adopting double standards is due to Western egotism and white supremacy. In such a context, the rule of law is nothing but a tool for their political ends and a fig leaf for their practising hegemony in the international arena. What they have been doing is not showing respect for the rule of law, but mocking and trampling the rule of law," Chinese Ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye, opinion piece, The Hill Times, Ottawa
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| Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, pictured at a 2014 investment forum in Russia, was arrested at the Vancouver International Airport last month and is awaiting potential extradition to the United States. |
Just too, too precious, China portraying itself as an injured law-abiding nation entrusted with universal human rights and excelling to the point where its government utterly deplores the reckless abandon with which Canada has insulted China and assaulted its patience in dealing with such a backward country. We ought, surely, to be ashamed of ourselves, but it would appear that on the contrary, Canada is unrepentant, unreasonably arguing that the legal agreement with the United States on extradition was a commitment the country had an obligation to honour.
Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Huawei was briefly held in detention, a hearing held and she was duly dealt bail, residing temporarily in one of two luxury homes she owns in Vancouver until such time as she is extradited to stand trial in the United States on charges of fraud committed by her on behalf of her global company Huawei, with its close connections to the Chinese Communist government; where her father, the company founder was once in the nation's military intelligence services. All quite coincidental, of course.
And that being so, the U.S. charges against Ms. Meng will be speedily lifted even before trial, as she generously accepts a heartfelt apology for any inconvenience she may have suffered at her unexpected stay in Vancouver before being chaperoned to the United States. In the meanwhile, her apprehension in Canada is quite unlike that being experienced by two Canadians who have suffered the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the right time for China to exercise its reciprocal options.
The two Canadians, arrested and held in strict custody in what appears to be a typically Chinese method of deprivation of human comfort and security have become pawns in an international game of vengeance. Added to that is China's fury that Canada has enlisted the sympathy of other nasty Western democracies like itself to exert pressure on China to release the Canadians in the interests of observing the rule of law rather than detain them indefinitely for the spurious allegations of committing espionage.
"The ambassador will have been instructed to reply, which is a sign that the criticism China is receiving is beginning to strike home. He sort of throws a whole bunch of things at the wall in the hope that something will stick", commented David Mulroney, a former Canadian anbassador to China. "The Chinese will invariably complain about double standards, but when it comes to the rule of law and human rights it is abundantly clear that they have one standard and Western democracies have another", added Fen Hampson, head, global-security program, Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Ontario.
China has taken great umbrage that the U.S. State Department has called for Michael Kovrig's and Michael Spavor's release. And nor have Germany, France, Britain, the European Union and Australia endeared themselves to China by issuing supportive statements urging the two Canadians' release. Ambassador Lu Shaye questions the extent to which the U.S. and Britain can be viewed as representative of the international community, accusing them and all other supporters of the Canadian position of mendacity.
Yet the view that two Canadians have been incarcerated for no discernible reason other than to exert pressure for Ms. Meng's release seems quite apparent to any observer. A Canadian delegation has travelled to Beijing representing parliamentary MPs and senators. In meeting with Chinese officials, according to Conservative MP Michael Cooper, the delegation has been "emphasizing the facts" that differentiate the circumstances relevant to Ms. Meng in Canada as opposed to Kovrig and Spavor in China.
"I don't think that there's anything that can be said to that [Lu's remarks] because it's absurd. The facts are: Ms. Meng was arrested pursuant to Canada's obligations under its extradition treaty with the United States. Ms. Meng's rights have been protected. She's been provided bail. She has access to consular services. She has access to a lawyer. By contrast, the situation involving Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig is exactly the opposite of that", he stated baldly.
Labels: Canada, China, Espionage, Extradition, Huawei
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 11, 2019
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