Canada-China Relations

"We were not very pleased by the request, but it's an open conference.The answer was quickly taken -- Yes." 

"We want to promote contact between different cultures and different knowledge and people with different perspectives."

"I think it's all good that countries are talking to each other. If there are contacts between militaries of different countries, even if they're adversaries, it's good to have channels of communication."

Professor Pierre Jolicoeur, Royal Military College Kingston, Ontario

People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers march next to the entrance to the Forbidden City (L) after the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on May 22, 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Bejing has a habit of covertly seeking information, from scientific to manufacturing to state secrets from developed countries of the west in the interests of hastening its own advances in science, technology, medicine, and manufacturing. By whatever means possible, either through cybertechnology or installing Chinese expatriates living elsewhere burdening them with a commitment to furthering the interest of their nation of birth and alternately convincing non-Chinese to act on Beijing's behalf.

China is a huge country with the world's largest population. Investors and business interests from abroad are keenly interested in the prospective market that the huge population represents. Beyond cheap labour that enabled China to scoop up the world's manufacturing and export crown, outsiders are drawn to the country for the potential they hope to reap in expanded business opportunities. But there too, Beijing has its demands, that trade secrets be open to China as a condition of setting up shop in China.

China does not recognize copyright and is infamous for stealing designs and producing counterfeits for a market eager to accept cheap look-alikes, be it designer label clothing or luxury-brand watches. China today is not the China of yesterday. It has bounded by great leaps over the backs of slower, more consciously law-abiding international nations' corporations to infiltrate a presence, move up an executive ladder and abscond with trade secrets to become a competitor and ultimately outcompete and distroy its source.

“Several interactions [occurred between Chinese military jets and the RCAF’s patrol aircraft flying in international airspace near Japan.]"

"In some instances, the RCAF aircrew felt sufficiently at risk that they had to quickly modify their own flight path in order to increase separation and avoid a potential collision with the intercepting aircraft.”

Department of National Defence

Its rocketry technology has now advanced to the stage where it is busy building its own space laboratory, sending up its own satellites for global intelligence gathering. Investing in the cultivating of rare earth properties to become a major stand-alone possessor of assets that control areas of the technology market. Its long tentacles of control have reached into the West to interfere in politics at the most basic levels to the most sophisticated.

Beijing knows how to take actions that make other nations sit up and take notice.You can't help noticing after all, when your citizens are suddenly arrested and imprisoned and given stiff incarceration sentences on the pretense of planning to harm China's security. As was done to Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor when Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was taken into custody in Canada on an extradition request from the U.S. 

Exceedingly strained relations between Canada and China became more tense as two years passed and the two remained in Chinese prisons on sedition charges. Other Canadians were given death sentences for drug running by specially convened courts. Meng was Chinese royalty. When she struck a deal with the U.S. to return to China, the two Michaels were released after close to three years. Soon after came the Royal Military College turn as host of the annual conference of the International Society of Military Sciences; national defence universities from ten democracies...Canada the Netherlands and Portugal among them.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are back in Canada, after nearly three years of detention in China, September 25, 2021. Photo by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau/Twitter

 

 

Then came a request from the Peoples Liberation Army military science academy to allow their members to attend the conference. A conference the Chinese armed forces had attended in 2018 in Warsaw and 2019 in Vienna with some of its high-ranking military officers in attendance. The Royal Military Academy conference theme was "resilience and cohesion in the face of new forms of disruption", with one session dealing with "China and Russia's information space attacks on democracy".

The request moved from the RMC to the Department of National Defence and the office of the Deputy Minister of Defence before it was sent back down to the Royal Military College with no recommendations for or against. At the meeting, discussions of open-source information available to anyone, representing no matters of high sensitivity; the conference held through the internet where invitees could Zoom in. 

That was late 2020, but before then, Chinese soldiers were present in Canada to participate in winter military exercises under an accord signed by a previous government in 2013. At that time top military leaders in Canada felt the arrangement should be cancelled, urged by the United States. Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs urged against cancelling the arrangement, expressing concern it might sour relations with China at a time that Canada was attempting to free the two Michaels from Chinese prisons.

The 2020 conference was an open academic event, an unclassified level with "broad international representation". Finland for one had organized a panel discussion on military technology from a "conceptual"perspective based on open-source material.

"[Leaving engagement with China to the discretion of various federal departments leads to] chaos."

"We’ll have chaos as long as individual departments and the [CAF] run their own [self-serving] China policies."

"As long as China is engaging in genocide/crimes against humanity, Ottawa should tell the PLA to stay home."

Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney

Military exercises at Canada's CFB Petawawa.

Huawei, a Communication Upgrade Headache

"The federal government has no choice but to announce that Huawei will not be allowed [given Chinese national security laws and the United Ststes' position on Huawei]."

"This would be an easy way to demonstrate to the Americans that we are taking security questions related to China seriously."

Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to China 

"All of our key allies have banned Huawei gear [banning Huawei is a] no-brainer."

"I don't think I would expect a lot of immediate dramatic reaction on China's part, just simply because the Olympics are coming up. And China wouldn't want to do anything that would rock the boat."

"And so if you're going to pull a band-aid off, you might as well do it now [since Canada-China relations are at such a low ebb in any event]."

David Welch, professor of political science, University of Waterloo

"[Going the same route as our Five Eyes allies who have taken action to block or restrict Huawei equipment is] of critical importance."

"All of the members have to have roughly the same perspective on the security of their broader infrastructure networks. But there's also the kind of political symbolic perspective. It would have been significant had ... one of the members of the Western alliance sort of broken ranks and embraced Huawei when everyone else was rejecting it."

"If we don't ban Huawei gear, it's very likely our Five Eyes allies will say, all right, you can't participate in the same way that you've been participating because there are potential leaks in your communications infrastructure."

Kim Nossal, professor emeritus of international relations, Queen's University

The Huawei brand logo is seen on a building in the sprawling Huawei headquarters campus in Shenzhen, China, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

"[In the time period since the government's 5G security review was first announced in 2018], existing rules have remained in effect, and so we have continued selling network equipment -- several hundred million dollars worth -- to Canadian operators."

"Most Canadian cities and provinces have had Huawei equipment in their networks for many years, without incident. Indeed, we are proud of our security record in Canada."

"For years, Huawei equipment has been closely and routinely scrutinized by the government and its security agencies. There have been no security incidents -- none -- relating to Huawei equipment in Canada."

Alykhan Velshi, vice-president of corporate affairs, Huawei Canada

Through the last few years with Canada and the world at large grappling with Beijing's 'hostage diplomacy' whereby the regime whose rage is readily piqued, decides to take a foreigner into custody charging them with exploitation or drug smuggling or more commonly, sabotage, in reaction to what the Communist Party of China sees as an affront to China's dignity, as punishment for lack of respect and discretion, two Canadians spent almost three years in prison following the arrest on an extradition warrant by the U.S. for Huawei's CFO.

Countries the world over have condemned China for its violently harsh treatment of its minority Uyghur population in Xnjiang, along with the persecution of Tibetans. Its territorial claims to disputed areas of the South China Sea and its actions in Hong Kong denying its agreed-upon semi-autonomy to quash its aspirations in democracy, alongside its threats to Taiwan have not endeared China to much of the world. Under President Xi Jinping with his ruler-for-life ambitions The CCP has become increasingly belligerent.

Its Belt and Road initiative to gain it greater trade advantages and financially obligating impoverished countries in Africa and the Middle East in indebtedness to the massive infrastructure loans in pursuing the widespread, China-advantageous old Silk Road spells out Beijing's route to the future as a world power. But for the West in particular, it is China's ongoing cyber-spying in intelligence gathering and exploiting of corporate and military secrets through cyber surveillance and rogue cyber-warfare that disturbs the free world.

Of the Five Eyes intelligence coalition comprised of Britain, New Zealand, Australia the United States and Canada, only Canada's government alone has failed to declare that its 5G national communications upgrade would exclude Huawei. Canada has made no response whatever to China's constant interference in internal Canadian affairs, its covert infiltration of Canadian society, academia, corporate business, and politics. Nor the moves Beijing has taken to punish Canada for its Meng Wanzhou detainment through halting its imports of key agricultural products.

Despite all the diplomatic 'tiger' slings and arrows Beijing has directed Canada's way, the Trudeau government has continued to tread lightly, absorbing the insults while abstaining from taking counter actions itself. China has warned Canada of 'consequences' should Huawei not be included in its 5G upgrade. Canada quavers, China emits bellicose threats. Huawei has been banned in the West's communications systems a little late in the day, but later is better than not at all. 

The fear that Huawei equipment in the next-generation wireless networking risks security is a well-founded caution, particularly in view of China's laws stating that companies with any state connection -- as almost all have -- are legally obligated to cooperate with China's intelligence services. China appeals to its expatriate community's loyalty to China, to be faithful to their country of origin by willingly cooperating with Chinese intelligence as well.

In the arguments for banning Huawei by Canadian China experts, former Ambassador Saint-Jacques predicts China would "probably retaliate by banning one of our exports", or some such similar and symbolic measure of its displeasure with Canada. Pointing out that to do so would mean selecting a product they would be able to obtain elsewhere, something fungible, so that China would not deprive itself and its population of badly needed products like pork and soya. With agri-foods "there is a limited number of countries where they can source their products", he points out.

Large Canadian telecoms would not be impacted deleteriously by the Huawei ban, since having pro-actively moved independently, to change to Nokia products while awaiting a government decision, to build their 5G networks with equipment from other sources. There "seems to be a lot of agonizing over a decision which, in effect,  has already been made" by Canada's large telecoms, noted Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University.

The situation will hit other, smaller telecom companies who will be faced with the expense and work of removing Huawei equipment from their existing infrastructure, and whether government would be prepared to underwrite their costs. Even for the leading wireless carriers the cost of removing Huawei equipment would land in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As Telus informed government in3018, "a full ban on Huawei for 5G will force operators to replace their existing 4G Huawei equipment -- an expensive and complex proposition over an elongated time frame".

Should the Trudeau government finally proceed with banning Huawei, national and cybersecurity experts warn that prohibition of Huawei equipment won't alone ensure securing Canada's 5G networks against cybertheft and intrusion. Toronto-based Citizen Lab's reported cautioned that banning Huawei "will not solve the issue of foreign operators conducting espionage, disruption, or attack operations against the Government of Canada, private companies, or private persons who rely on non-Huawei equipment." 

Meng Wanzhou delivers a statement to members of the media as she exits provincial court in Vancouver, Canada, on Sept. 24. Photographer: Jimmy Jeong/Bloomberg

"[Security concerns go beyond Huawei]; All 5G equipment has terrible cybersecurity flaws."

"China doesn't need Huawei to hack us."

"China can hack us right now."

"Banning Huawei doesn't make us safe."

Stehanie Carvin, associate professor of international relations, Carleton University

Infiltrate, Purloin, Recruit : Blueprint for Success

Ren Zhengfei, Huawei Founder

"We must turn the graduate schools of North America into a recruitment centre, looking at graduate theses, going out to find talent and drinking coffee."

"This is not just the heads of institutes but all levels of experts, attracting scientists, professionals, current students -- go have coffee with them, and while connecting develop a resonance." 

"We must hire some 'high noses' with 'foreign firepower' and within three to five years move steadily from the previous 'Eighth Route Army' towards globalization."

Ren Zhengfei, founder, Huawei Communications, China

"Canada is known around the world for its skilled, educated and diverse workforce. That's why we recruit here."

"Other companies may have cut back on hiring during the pandemic, but not us."

"We now have more than 1,500 employees in Canada, the highest in our 13-year history here."

Alykhan Velshi, Huawei spokesman in Canada

Huawei's idea of recruiting in Canada is partly a response to the U.S. issuing fewer student visas to Chinese citizens. Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images

"Canada is very much out of sync with our allies and I think China can use that as a wedge to try to weaken the western alliance and improve their own  position in Canada and internationally. It's a big worry."

"The U.S. administration of both Trump and Biden have said that if Canada does allow the Huawei 5G technology into [Canadian] telecommunications, this will imperil the ability of the U.S. to share intelligence in the Five Eyes [intelligence group; Canada, U.S., New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom], through which Canada is a net consumer of intelligence. This is very troubling. The idea that Canada might be seen as an unreliable partner for security related issues is distressing."

"The Chinese government treating Ms.Meng not simply as the chief financial officer of a large corporation but really as a key element in the regime, really underlines how integrated Huawei is into the Chinese communist Party regime."

"The fact that they so explicitly linked the two Michaels to Ms. Meng -- without even trying to hide that -- is really indicative of how integrated Huawei is in the Chinese military and security apparatus."

Charles Burton, senior fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, former counsellor, Canadian Embassy, Beijing

Huawei['s founder, Ren Zhengfei, saw fit to lecture his company's executive level employees on the merits of considering North American high-tech graduates as useful recruits to China's premier global telecommunications giant in its rush to storm the international communications market. By persuading North American graduates of the benefits of joining a world giant in communications the damage wrought by the U.S. in diminishing the number of student visas to Chinese students could be ameliorated.

Predicting an ongoing steady decrease in the number of talented Chinese returning from graduating at U.S. universities to China he emphasizes that Huawei is approaching a "critical moment for its survival and development". Odd, how history repeats itself. Chinese communications technology graduate students joined the workforce at Canada's premier, hugely successful Nortel Telecommunications giant with successful international connections. Many of those same students who had integrated into the Nortel workforce are now senior managers at Huawei.

 

Canada's Nortel was destroyed when its classified and secret strategies, technical advances and global connections were somehow infiltrated and the company was destroyed while its trade secrets and client base along with former communications engineers ended up working for a new Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei. Once again Huawei is engaged in what the Chinese seem to do best; seek out the visionary talent of various nations and their workers.

 

Of course Huawei is not alone in the international world of corporate interests, all of whom recruit worldwide. China's history of hiring scientific and technologically-inclined minds is exemplified by Huawei's presence in Canada where it established a large R&D operation. Jonathan Calof, University of Ottawa business professor, added that Huawei Wireless's chief technology officer Wen Tong, had been head of Nortel's network technology laboratories.

 

China's propensity and success in siphoning scientific expertise and knowledge away from the West is well established. A private company that is strategically vital to the Chinese Communist Party; as the CCP expands internationally, so too does Huawei. 

 

Visitors look at descriptions of Huawei products during an expo in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Out of Pure Spite

"One would hope that at this point, with Meng home, China would see no further point in threatening to execute [Robert] Schellenberg."

"It would be seen as killing someone out of pure spite."

Donald Clarke, expert on Chinese legal system, George Washington University

 

"I'm pretty sure that Ambassador [Dominic] Barton must have raised the case of Schellenberg."

"[But] I would not be surprised if the Chinese took advantage of the situation to ask a few things from Canada."

Guy Saint-Jacques, (former) Canadian ambassador to China

 

"In the two Michaels' case, Canada had the U.S. as leverage. It didn't have anything else. But for Schellenberg, it doesn't have any leverage. So I don't know what we can do."

"China would expect something in return [for sparing the Canadian's life]. I don't feel we should be offering much in return."

Wei Cui, professor, expert, Chinese legal system, University of British Columbia 

Canadian Robert Schellenberg during his retrial on drug trafficking charges in Dalian, China, January 14, 2019. Photo by Handout/Intermediate Peoples' Court of Dalian/AFP/Getty Images

Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei and its founder's daughter has now been released by a Canadian court, no longer held for extradition to the United States on a state department warrant for misleading a U.S. bank on Huawei's ties to a company that broke American sanctions against Iran, as a result of an arranged plea bargain where she admitted guilt, but would not face a trial, charges dropped. She is back in China, feted for her courage in luxuriating in one of her Vancouver mansions.

The two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have also been released from their 11-year sentences for 'espionage', arrested and imprisoned the week that Ms.Meng was detained, in a blatant display of Beijing's embrace of 'hostage-diplomacy'. While they were in the custody of the benevolent Chinese prison system for almost three years, the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau did nothing to counter China's belligerent aggression.

PM Trudeau saw his prized aspiration for a trade deal with China evaporate long before this episode in a trip to China where he expected to sign a trade deal, and was summarily dismissed by China's vice-president and sent packing. During the recent Canadian federal election campaign in mid-September, China blatantly interfered with the election, with explicit warnings delivered by China's ambassador to Canada that election of a Conservative-led government would cost Canada dearly.

The Liberal government hesitates to enrage China by taking steps to counter its hostile punishment of Canadians and the Canadian export-to-China market. A decision whether or not to allow Huawei to take part in Canada's 5G upgrade, has been delayed in the wake of Beijing's warnings that Huawei should be a player. Canada, as one of the members of the "Five-Eyes" security/intelligence group comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States is the only member that has yet to exclude Huawei from Canada's networks.

Canada's telecommunications companies have themselves taken the initiative, shunning Huawei materials, opting for international competitors to take its place in their communications networks. The shoe has not yet been dropped. And there are consequences. There are other Canadians in Chinese prisons; Huseyincan Celil, a Chinese-born Uyghur arrested on a trip to Uzbekistan, extradited to China and sentenced on charges of espionage to life in prison.

Another is Robert Schellenberg who appealed his 15-year sentence for drug smuggling only to see the justice authorities summarily change his sentence to execution. Another blow to Canada through abuse of yet another Canadian citizen meant to persuade Canada to see the error of its ways. It doesn't help his case that Schellenberg had a record in Abbotsford, British Columbia as a drug dealer. Formerly an oilsands worker, he spent two years in a Canadian prison for trafficking cocaine and heroin.

He was arrested on a trip to China where he states he was set up by a translator, arrested and prosecuted for involvement in smuggling 200 kilograms of crystal meth to Australia. He appealed his death sentence just as he had appealed his original 15-year-imprisonment sentence, and to no avail; it was upheld on appeal a month ago. He would not be the only Canadian executed under China's drug laws in the past.

And there are three other Canadian citizens facing death for drug offences. The Supreme People's Court  reviews all death sentences prior to being carried out, but the court almost always confirms executions. There is irony here aside from the fact that Beijing has struck out on so many fronts to punish Canada for its arrogance in upholding Western law and justice. 

 

The world outside China is reeling under the onslaught not only of the Wuhan virus, but lab-produced opioids courtesy of China. Fentanyl and Carfentanil are cutting a swath of death-by-overdose, picking up the slack any time SARS-CoV-2 recedes.

Canadian Robert Schellenberg during his retrial on drug trafficking charges in Dalian, China, January 14, 2019. Photo by Handout/Intermediate Peoples' Court of Dalian/AFP/Getty Images

Beijing's Gratuitous Hostage Diplomacy as Tutelage

"In a dispute over the Senkaku Islands in 2010, China detained four Japanese citizens, and the government in Tokyo caved in to get their citizens back. Since then, nine Japanese citizens have been imprisoned in China on alleged espionage charges, with one given a 12-year sentence."

"In 2013, former British journalist and corporate investigator Peter Humphrey was detained and forced to make televised confessions."

"Swedish activist Peter Dahlin was detained for 23 days in 2015, forced to confess, and then expelled from China, as were British and French activists. The previous year, Swedish publisher Gui Minhai and U.K. bookseller Lee Bo were kidnapped in Thailand and Hong Kong [respectively], taken to China, forced to replace their ciizenships with Chinese, and are still incarcerated there.""Similarly, in 2017, Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua was kidnapped in Hong Kong and is still detained in China."

"In 2018, Canadian brothers Chen Zhiheng and Chen Zhiryu were arrested in China and forced to give televised confessions aimed at compelling the extradition of a Chinese billionaire who was seeking asylum in the U.S."

"In August 2020, Beijing detained prominent Australian TV business anchor Cheng Lei of English-language CGTN, accusing her of endangering China's national security in what is seen as one of the many acts of retaliation for Australia's call for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Three weeks later, two Australian journalists were questioned by the Ministry of State Security regarding Cheng and fled China fearing detention." 

"Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are not the first to be held hostage in Beijing. The execution sentences for the drug offences of Canadians Robert Schellenberg, Fan Wei, Xu Weihong and Ye Jianhui tracked closely the steps in Meng Wanzhou's court hearings."

"Sun Qian, a Falun Gong practitioner, recently renounced her Canadian citizenship and was given an eight-year sentence."

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, senior fellow, China Institute, University of Alberta, senior fellow, Institute for Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa

Xi Jinping and Scott Morrison appear to be not seeing eye to eye these days    Reuters/EPA

 

Cross China in any measure, displease the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, and pay the consequences. Consequences begin with diplomatic relations stiffening, cautionary warnings and citizen-abductions, then proceed onward with threats, and trade exclusions, all for the purpose of 'teaching a lesson' in Chinese-style diplomacy to nations incautious enough to arouse the anger of Beijing and Xi Jinping who doesn't take what he perceives as slights against China lightly. Chinese diplomats have been given permission to play hardball, bluntly warning from their foreign missions that displeasing China is harmful to those naive enough to think they can stand up to the global colossus.

Despite which, some countries do have a spine, don't take kindly themselves to being threatened, much less having their citizens abducted and charged spuriously with 'espionage' and 'harming China's security'. Canada is not one of those countries with the courage of their stated convictions, under its current prime minister. Since the arrest and detention of China's communication giant Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the company's founder on an extradition request by the U.S. justice system, China and Canada have been on a collision course.

China's ship of state is larger, heavier, more dangerous than Canada's lightweight canoe and has inflicted quite a bit of economic and diplomatic damage as a form of tutelage to a recalcitrant deckhand by a stern captain of enterprise. Mere days after Ms.Meng's detention, the two Michaels were arrested and a year later charged with espionage, interrogated nightly into their second year of imprisonment, while Ms.Meng lives in her two luxury Vancouver mansions, awaiting her final extradition hearing.

The flag of the People's Republic of China files at the Embassy of China in Ottawa, on Friday, Nov. 22, 2019. (Justin Tang/CP)

 

Two years into a standoff between China and the U.S. with Canada wedged firmly in the middle, the U.S. Department of Justice appears prepared at this juncture to discuss dropping criminal proceedings against Ms.Meng in exchange for an admission of guilt. Ms. Meng has protested consistently that she has done nothing that would incriminate her in the view of the U.S.; a hapless victim of trade disagreements between China and the U.S. There seems to be a whiff of Chinese extraction of admissions of guilt in the process the U.S.Justice Department is now pursuing.

If she is guilty of an indictable offence and China protests by imprisoning two innocent Canadians, their lives have been forfeited in the loss of two years, but the matter is seen as trivial enough to forego criminal proceedings to extract a confession? China's ambassador to Canada, like his recent predecessor has been insultingly coercive in his diplomatic role. And has assured Ms.Meng she has been "wrongly detained ... We expect you to go back home safe and sound at an early date", he informed her.

The Huawei website posted a dispatch from Ms.Weng a year ago where she wrote: "It is so slow that I have enough time to read a book from cover to cover. I can take the time to discuss minutiae with my colleagues or to carefully complete an oil painting". This, while Michael Kovrig and Spavor languish in a tiny cell where the lights are never turned off, and guards stare them down continually, but for those night-time hours when extensive interrogations occur; spirit-breaking and contemptuous of human rights.

Back in January when the global community was informed of a virus outbreak that China was struggling to contain, Canada shipped face masks and ventilators to China in a gesture of goodwill. When Canada was in turn hit by the same Wuhan-erupted virus that escaped China, in April two Canadian planes arrived in China to retrieve medical supplies Canada had contracted for, but had to return to Canada empty, the supplies not forthcoming. Taiwan donated 500,000 medical masks to Canada in a goodwill gesture. 

At a later date when Canada finally received medical face masks from China the shipment turned out to be utterly worthless, defective and unusable. Months later, a Chinese-based biochemical company that used a Canadian formula as a base for its research for a vaccine and whose scientists had been  trained in Canada, made a deal with the National Research Council in Ottawa to jointly develop and test a vaccine. The partnership with CanSino fell through when Chinese customs authorities stopped an anticipated shipment of samples for clinical trails in Canada.

Fred Dufour-Pool/Getty Images

Through all of this, Beijing has been anticipating that Canada will approve Huawei's participation in Canada's 5G communications upgrade. As a member of the Five Eyes intelligence group that includes the United States, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia, Canada is the sole member that has not yet declared Huawei's role to be extraneous to their needs given its close relations with Beijing and that its founder was an elite member of the Peoples' Republic of China military complex. Beijing's expertise in cyber-espionage is undeniable.

Australia, whose trade with China is many times greater than that of Canada and which stands to lose far more than Canada in defending itself against Beijing's bullying, has taken steps to put a stop to Chinese influence operations internally in Australia. That includes infiltration of politics, universities and corporations. Huawei's 5G aspirations have been banned, sensitive Chinese investments have been blocked on national security grounds, and internationally 'unlawful' Chinese expansion in the South China Sea has been loudly condemned.

Australia has called out Beijing's Hong Kong abuses, and that of its 're-education' of millions of Chinese Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. It has joined "Quad" military drills with the United States, India and Japan. Sweden, with one-third of Canada's population, with 4.7 percent of its exports sent to China has banned Huawei and  terminated Confucius Institutes installed in universities, the Beijing channel for propaganda meant to brainwash susceptible students.

Canada has no long-term strategy to deal with the increasing disregard evinced by Beijing for the rights of foreign nationals. Where Chinese-Canadians are aggressively harassed within Canada. China's arbitrary detentions will continue unabated as long as nations targeted by Beijing for 'correction' of their wayward policies are unable to speak with one voice condemning the bullying and patronizing diplomacy alongside trade weaponry. And where other countries have stood  up to Beijing, Canada has consistently failed to.

Australia's PM Scott Morrison,  Bloomberg

"We won't be compromising on the fact that we'll set what our foreign investment laws are, or how we build our 5G telecommunications networks, or how we run our systems ... that are protecting against any interference."

"We will always set our own laws and our own rules according to our national interests -- not at the behest of any other nation, whether that's the U.S. or China or anyone else."

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  CP/Sean Kilpatrick

"Do I regret that Canada followed its laws? Do I regret that Canada lived up to a long-standing extradition treaty with our closest ally? Absolutely not."

"Canada is a country of the rule of law. And obeying those laws can't just be when it's convenient or when it's easy. If you're a country of the rule of law, if you're a country of values, you need to stick up for those. And that's exactly what we're doing."

"In the face of pressure and increasingly coercive moves by one of the world's great powers, I think that really highlights at which point we need to be working together as allies, as neighbours, as friends, as countries."

"Very few countries could stand up on its own to a superpower, to a great power. But working together in alignment, we can make sure there is a recognition that the path that China is choosing to take right now is probably not going to be as effective -- even for them -- as they think it will."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"[The government must] make a decision on Huawei's involvement in Canada's 5G network within 30 days [and] develop a robust plan, as Australia has done, to combat China's growing foreign operations here in Canada and its increasing intimidation of Canadians living in Canada [within 30 days]."

House of Commons Opposition Conservatives

"We are aware that China is, and will remain, an important commercial partner for Canada."

"China is also a significant source of tourists and students to Canada, and brings economic and enriching social benefits across our nation."

Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne

Sing4DemocracyHK protest outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images)

Australia and Canada have displeased China mightily. China awaits both countries to come to their senses and that would entail sincerely apologizing to Beijing for their intransigent wrong-headed views on China regarding many issues, inclusive of Hong Kong, Uighurs, Huawei, Chinese benevolence, Chinese cyber espionage, copyright infringement, and above all, COVID-19. Beijing's release this week of a list of 14 grievances with Australia put matters out in the open down under when a Chinese official spoke on record to an Australian reporter: "China is angry. If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy." 

According to Australian sources the list of grievances includes instigating an investigation in the United Nations regarding the spread of COVID-19 at the turn of 2020, cancelling Chinese student visas as a COVID-aversion safety measure, blocking Chinese investments in Australia, leading international focus on violation of human rights by China and the banning of Huawei from contributing to the Australian 5G telecommunications network upgrade. All hostile actions guaranteed to poison relations between China and Australia; the latter the aggressor, the former the victim.

Australia's Prime Minister made it abundantly clear that Australia's sovereign decisions are not up for discussion much less explanation or apology to the world's number one natural resources-hoarder, trade colossus, and cybertheft expert. Australia puts its words into action and lives with the consequences, unwilling to be bullied and coerced into pleasing or pleading with the Chinese Communist Party for concessions and forgiveness. 

 G20 Leaders photo, Riyadh on Friday. Getty Images

Canada's Prime Minister enjoys grabbing the limelight as a victim whose defence of justice and the rule of law has occasioned Beijing's wrath and imprisoned two innocent Canadians for the past two years, charged with threatening China's security, in retaliation for the detention of Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei, on a U.S. extradition request. Canada has appealed to other APEC nations to support Canada in a joint rejection of Chinese bullying in the hopes that Xi Jinping would be confronted at this weekend's G20 Saudi-hosted virtual gathering.

But is Canada prepared to  go it alone, to stand up for its sovereign rights as its Prime Minister boasted? It remains the only Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nation to leave open the question of whether Huawei will be included in Canada's 5G telecommunications upgrade, fearful of Beijing's explosive wrath, whereas Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States have all clearly stated their positions to shut out Huawei citing obvious security reasons.

Canada, on the other hand, saw fit to award a standing offer for conveyor-style X-ray machines to Nuctech, a Beijing based company partially owned by the Chinese government, once operated by the sun of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Canadian, American and British companies all competed for the standing offer, but it was Nuctech who won the tender including delivery, installation, operator training and software training at Canadian embassies located world-wide.

It was only when a national newspaper broke the news of the contract that the federal government committed to a review once the contract was exposed, and ultimately decided not to buy Xray machines for Canadian embassies from the controversial Chinese firm. But it turns out that the Canadian Border Services Agency had already bought and installed Nuctech X-ray machines: 

"We have a number of mitigating interventions that we put in place around this technology. One of the first ones is obviously to keep it disconnected from our networks and from any Government of Canada networks ... the second is (anyone) affiliated with any of our suppliers would be screened through security processes and would be escorted on site if they were present in our facilities", explained the vice-president of the CBSA;s intelligence and enforcement branch. 

 

Why go through all this rigamarole necessitated by the use of the machines to begin with? To do otherwise, it would seem, would be to offend Beijing. Who could easily retaliate as they have done with holding two Canadians they've charged with espionage as hostages to force the release of the Huawei executive. China also flexed its trade muscles when it refused Canadian pork exports and canola products, both commodities that enjoyed a heavy trade prior to the Huawei affair.

Cong Peiwu, China's ambassador Canada (Justin Tang/CP

All of this in light of Canada's Communications Security Establishment's Canadian Centre for Cyber Security releasing a new report in which Russia, North Korea, Iran and China are listed as cybersecurity threats to Canada. An earlier report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians pointed out that China and Russia are using their diaspora, undercover agents and groups based on Canadian campuses as part of "significant and sustained" foreign interference campaigns in Canada, according to a redacted intelligence report.

 

"The committee believes that these states target Canada for a variety of reasons, but all seek to exploit the openness of our society and penetrate our fundamental institutions to meet their objectives."

"They target ethnocultural communities, seek to corrupt the political process, manipulate the media, and attempt to curate debate on post-secondary campuses."

"Each of these activities poses a significant risk to the rights and freedoms of Canadians and to the country's sovereignty: they are a clear threat to the security of Canada."

"[This] so-called genocide [is] a rumour and a farce fabricated by some anti-Chinese forces to slander China." 

"Its groundless statement  [committee report] is full of lies and disinformation. {Parliamentarians would do well to] avoid doing any further damage to China-Canada relations."

"This is blatant interference in China's internal affairs and reflects those Canadian individuals' ignorance and prejudice. China firmly deplores and rejects that."

"[The installations are] vocational training and education centres [where religious] extremists [are educated in the] national common spoken and written language, legal knowledge, vocational skills and de-radicalization."

"The aim is to eliminate the root cause of terrorism and extremism." 

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson, Chinese foreign ministry

In this photo, a guard tower and barbed wire fence surround a detention facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Geotech Wars : Huawei, Beijing

"This is a challenge to all free people and open economies of the world."

"This is not just about technology but about trade and economics. The biggest driver for economies in the future is technology."

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Hudson Institute conference

 

Huawei 5G upgrade infrastructure

Allowed:

Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, Faroe Islands, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Moldova, Monaco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan

Banned:

Australia, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

Credit: Emily Feng, Amy Cheng and Thomas Wilburn / NPR

Chinese autonomous driving start-ups are looking for cost-efficient ways to achieve large-scale adoption of the technology. Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has formed a team to focus on developing low-cost multichannel lidar sensors with the goal of making the technology affordable enough for all smart vehicles.   Photo: Handout

Canada now remains the sole member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that includes Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States that has not yet announced a decision with respect to permitting Huawei the telecom giant that Beijing considers its leading telecommunications instrument to bind the world into a Chinese-connected interconnectivity web as it seeks to dominate world technology, effectively yanking it out from under the influence of the U.S. whose technology pioneered the Internet and everything that flowed from it.

Canadian public opinion is dead set against allowing Huawei access to Canada's 5G upgrade. Beijing's bullying tactics in threatening Chinese Canadians who are loyal to their adopted Canadian citizenship when they dare criticize the Chinese dictatorship, its crackdown on Hong Kong democratic freedoms, its 're-education' camps for a million Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang province, the abduction and imprisonment of two Canadians charged with espionage, its agricultural trade war with Canada, all reason enough.

 

But the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains mired in placatory overtures toward Beijing, unwilling to state unequivocally that along with the other four members of the Western intelligence alliance, Canada too will opt out of giving Huawei the green light it is waiting for. Huawei's Canada-based management went so far as to put together a guarantee, a "no-spying" agreement to put to rest concerns that Huawei's involvement in Canadian communications infrastructure will give it a spying portal.

Canada has had previous experience with the Chinese penchant for industrial espionage, when Chinese technicians hired by Canada's then-global communications giant Nortel, spirited classified data into China, and those former employees then helped to set up China's counterpart of Nortel based on technique acquired and purloined information on structure and research, giving birth to Huawei. Nortel died a painful death as a result of the competition based on its own R&D, and Huawei made its way into the world at large.

Mr.Chandraselchar, a tech entrepreneur, and member of India's Parliament, led India's Huawei ban along with banning hundreds of other Chinese software, spurred in no small part by China's aggression against India on their disputed Himalayan border. The military alliance including India, Japan, Australia and the United States occupy the agenda in concerns over Beijing's long-range plans of world conquest, part of which is its Belt and Road initiative, an investment of immense proportions effectively tying countries from Europe, Africa and Asia in bondage to China, unable to pay off Chinese investment.

The future is destined for hyper-automation linkage with trillions of internet-connected devices -- all of which Huawei intends to have a connection with and ultimately control using whatever methods work,  from subsidies to takeovers eliminating rivals, to rise unequalled in reach and power. And Huawei has succeeded to the extent that it now has a majority of global nations in the process of adopting some or part of Huawei's networking technologies.

 

In 2017, a report published in the United States concluded that "Chinese theft of American (intellectual property) currently costs between $225 billion and $600 billion annually". Leading Washington to ban any American technologies from being accessed by Chinese tech companies, leaving the abusive trade bully that Beijing has become to continue engaging in its global dominance war but denying access to critical U.S.-produced technologies and urging other countries to proceed with caution in business with China.

"Meanwhile, Huawei has a baked-in 5G advantage in Europe, where it already has helped build out extensive 4G networks. That means countries that opt for faster and cheaper 'non-standalone implementation' — building out the first wave of 5G on top of existing 4G infrastructure — have to incorporate at least some Huawei equipment or begin the expensive and complex task of extricating Huawei from their 4G networks, analysts say."

"'That's why 4G is quite important to 5G implementation. It's also why you see pushback from countries like the U.K.', says Nikhil Batra, a senior research manager at research firm IDC in Australia."

Emily Feng, Amy Cheng, NPR