generalspeaking: To Canada, From China, With Love

Friday, December 11, 2020

To Canada, From China, With Love

"By the time Kovrig and Spavor were abducted on December 20 2018, the Chinese Communist Party had grown accustomed to getting its way in Canada, and after Justin Trudeau's election victory in 2015, Chinese diplomats were crowing about the coming 'golden decade' in Canada-China relations." "Trudeau was trumpeting his hopes for a free trade deal with China."
Terry Glavin, Journalist, National Post

"Over the past two years, two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, have been detained arbitrarily by China, and Canada has done absolutely everything necessary to try and get them home safe."
"We have seen allies in every corner of this planet speak up in the defence, not just of the Canadians [imprisoned and charged with espionage]. but in the fundamental rule of law that protects us all around this world."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"They are both very healthy, physically and mentally. I am deeply inspired by their resilience and mind-set. It's incredible given everything they have gone through."
"I know the Michaels are literally on the other side of the wall, but you talk through a big television screen."
"We are obviously very frustrated at not being able to get access. We tried to demonstrate how, in Canada, we still allowed people to get access when they have people in detention."
Dominic Barton, Canadian Ambassador to Beijing

"Frankly speaking, the government's policy on China is unintelligible. If we have trouble figuring it out then how on Earth is China or anyone else, including our allies, supposed to figure it out?"
"We need a new policy toward China that protects Canadian interests and defends our values from being undermine d by authoritarian states like China."
Conservative Member of Parliament, foreign affairs critic Michael Chong

Illustration: Henry Wong

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei the Chinese telecommunications giant is wanted by the U.S. Justice Department's Eastern District of New York on 13 counts including bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy counts including conspiracy to launder money, violate U.S. sanctions on Iran and defraud the U.S. and obstruct justice. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., is one of Xi Jinping's 'national champion' conglomerates, implicated in the nation's domestic surveillance system, and global intellectual property theft.

When Ms.Meng was taken into custody to await court hearings in Vancouver on whether to transfer her to the U.S., and the two Canadians were arrested on trumped-up charges and three others placed on death row for charges of drug smuggling, former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who has made an industry of courting Chinese business ties with Canada and aiding Chinese investments in Canada, instructed the current Liberal government to release Ms.Meng and mend frayed ties with China, overlooking its inconvenient hostage diplomacy and human rights abuses.

This, despite China's penchant for making demands on companies linking supply chains to the Chinese economy for technology transfers and forced joint ventures. China has always engaged in massive industrial espionage campaigns and the use of "wolf warrior diplomacy"; the use of of pressure tactics, outright threats and economic coersion advantaging China's strategic aims.

Beijing's dedication to advancing its own economy through intellectual property theft, counterfeit, and digital piracy represent the current reality of its relations with other countries. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID erupted, Beijing relayed incorrectly misleading data to the outsi8de world through the WHO as the coronavirus began invading the globe. Presenting China with yet another opportunity to monopolize the industry of vital protective medical clothing as almost the sole producer of personal protective equipment.

None of this stopped the Trudeau government from partnering with a Chinese pharmaceutical company, CanSino, to deliver a COVID vaccine to Canada. CanSino had been flagged by Canada's intelligence agency CSIS as a national security risk for years, but this was of little interest to the Trudeau government. CanSino was permitted to extract Canadian vaccine research for a platform for its COVID vaccine then refused to ship samples for testing as agreed, to the Canadian Research Council.

Canada was agreeable to all manner of Chinese investments in Canadian corporations. When Beijing offered to fund Confucius Institutes in Canadian institutes of higher learning, it was thought to be a bonus, where Canadian students could study Chinese culture and philosophy, and even learn Mandarin financed by the Chinese Communist Party, an obvious-enough propaganda tool, posing as an education bonus: to Canada, from China, with love.

University curriculi had to proceed with caution lest the thousands of mainland Chinese students studying at Canadian universities be offended should China be described as a non-democratic nation practising human rights abuses in Tibet and among Chinese Uighurs. Universities grew dependent on their financial gains through heightened foreign student fees and wary of cutting off Chinese largesse. Chinese-Canadians who supported Hong Kong were increasingly threatened by foreign arms of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada.

The Liberal government of Canada, enthused over free trade with China, refused to acknowledge that there is no 'free' element accruing to any country other than China in mutual deals, free or otherwise, with the Beijing government which views itself as the vehicle for realizing China's ultimate destiny to rule the world of commerce, international influence, and politics through its hegemonic plans for the near future, while making other nations indebted to it, through loans and infrastructure building and communications links.