generalspeaking

The Persuasive Argument : China as World Dictator

"How should the U.K. and its allies adapt to the Indo-Pacific century, as China grows more powerful in economic and military terms? The answer must always be to stick firmly to constitutional principles."
"Britain and its allies must work together as much as possible to preserve the rules-based order on questions of economics, defence and security in the region."
"What next, then, for countries like Britain and my own, Canada, in this Indo-Pacific century? First, we must avoid a China-centric view. That would cater to the more concerning aspects of Beijing's own ambitions. But it would also overlook the myriad opportunities in one of the fastest-growing regions, where strong and independent nations form a geopolitical triangle stretching from India to Japan and reaching down to Australia."
"Perhaps most importantly, Britain can position itself as a constructive, intermediary in the region."
Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

"We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively to convince the Chinese communist Party that it is not in their best interest to engage in this kind of behaviour."
"We want to see every nation who understands freedom and democracy ... to understand this threat that the Chinese Communist Party is posing to them."
U.S.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

"The UK is really clear that we need to work with our American friends, and also with other partners together in the international system to protect our freedoms and interest and stand up, as we've shown over Hong Kong, stand up for our values."
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Downing Street in London, Britain, July 21, 2020. (Reuters)

Under former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada maintained a cautious distance from Beijing, mindful of its record on human rights and ongoing issues that clearly defined it as a human rights abuser. Mr. Harper's distancing Canada from too-close relations with China earned him the contempt of former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien who, during his time as Canada's leader, carefully cultivated close personal and business relations with Chinese senior elites and led a number of trade missions to China to drum up business between the two countries.


When Mr. Chretien was thrown out of office as a public rebuke for Liberal corruption and financial misdemeanors under his leadership, he made quick work in consolidating those contacts and joining a major, influential legal group, relied on the person-to-country scaffolding he had built, continued to carry out trade missions bringing back lucrative contracts for the law firm and businesses he helped install in China. Current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has since built on the infrastructure that Mr. Chretien had established, with the intention of forging a free trade agreement between Canada and China.

Those plans went awry on a number of fronts, beginning, but not ending, with Canada's honouring an extradition agreement with the U.S. and detaining the CFO of Huawei on a warrant, holding her accountable for falsifying data and misleading U.S. banks on Huawei's role in breaking sanctions guidelines imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran. The detention of Meng Wanzhou led to the kidnapping and imprisonment on charges of espionage of two Canadian businessmen, a death sentence for drug smuggling on two other Canadians, and trade embargoes on Canadian agriculture.


Despite all these crimes against international normatives, the spineless Trudeau government has hesitated to inform Huawei that it will not be welcome to take part in Canada's 5G upgrade, as the other four members of the "Five Eyes" intelligence coalition comprised of the U.K., New Zealand. Australia, and the U.S. have done. And irrespective of China's overt hostility and spiteful contempt for Canada, the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau continues to sign contracts with Chinese-government-owned companies.

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, representing a senior Conservative coalition published a recent article in Britain's Daily Telegraph where he urged the U.K. to undertake a role in leading its allies to counter China's aggressive 'influence' in the Indo-Pacific region. This is a China that recently engaged in a brief conflict in the Himalaya over disputed territory with India. The very same China that holds Tibet as a Chinese territory, that oppresses the Uighurs in Xinjiang, China, along with the Falun Gong, and threatens neighbouring countries in its claims of geographic sovereignty over disputed territories impinging on Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.

The American Secretary of State has cast China as a bullying aggressor and that characterization of the Peoples Republic of China is quite accurate. It appears as well to have used the occasion of the global pandemic as an opportunity to exploit the rest of the world as the premier supplier of personal protective equipment, respirators, face masks and other related equipment that stricken countries all over the world are anxious to acquire from a country whose leadership appears to have withheld vital information about the emerging zoonotic that has ravaged the world that might have apprehended it in a more timely manner.

That President Xi Jinping of China and Washington's President Donald Trump have indulged in a sorely deteriorated relationship over the issue of trade is of course a contributing factor in Mr. Pompeo's campaign to persuade Western powers to join a concerted effort to pressure China to respect international rules and regulations, laws and jurisdictions. The issue of collaboration between a neutral World Health Organization and Beijing resulting in delayed data being promulgated alongside advice from the world's premier health body, is yet another sore point.

Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore are all affected by China's machinations. They also represent countries along with the Philippines, whose administrations are more likely to reflect social, political and trade values that the rest of the world would be more comfortable relying upon than the mercurial and punishing Chinese administration has shown itself to be in international relations.

Trade, defence and diplomacy are more politically balanced and cooperation infinitely more likely with countries that find much more that bind their self-interests with those of others in comparison to a Goliath whose only interests rest in raping the natural resources and technological assets of other countries.

China's aircraft carrier Liaoning takes part in a military drill in the Western Pacific Ocean / Stringer, Reuters