Canada's closeness to China began with Pierre Trudeau and his love for Mao Tse Tung , the dictator who presided over the bloodbath that was the Cultural Revolution and a famine that claimed at least forty-five million lives.
The relationship turned lucrative with Liberals who outlasted the elder Trudeau and gushing with the younger Trudeau who in 2013 declared his undying love for China's "basic dictatorship" to throngs of pasty, white liberal women who would never be on the receiving end of Chinese men buying consorts as North Korean women are.
Leap ahead (see what I did there?) to 2020.
China is desperate to get out of the spotlight. Questions about the coronavirus it may have known about since October 2019, its own death toll, its silencing of critics, destruction of samples, its hoarding of personal protective equipment and profiting off of the virus have made it unpalatable to Western nations that once used cheap Chinese labour. Without Canada gladly standing in its corner, China would have felt very lonely indeed.
Now China faces another obstacle: its grip on Hong Kong, the rebel province that has been resisting it for years:
Once again, as with its rigorous defense of China's role in spreading the coronavirus, Canada offers a spirited defense of it:
(Sidebar: this.)
Canada's role on the world stage has been greatly diminished on the world stage since Trudeau assumed office in 2015 (his wasteful quest for a seat at the UN seems like a fool's errand and opposition against his getting that seat comes from the most unlikely sources - cheers) so it is doubtful anyone even heard what Champagne had to say (just like they didn't hear him say thank you to Taiwan but I digress ...).
Now that China has Hong Kong, will it hang onto it?
Though China is buying mines in Canada and possibly oil in Texas, those are not indications that China's economy is roaring. The virus is spread over the world has hit China quite hard, so hard that it will not set a target for economic growth this year:
That doesn't sound like a country whose economy is in full swing.
Militarily, China is stretching itself. It has been called a "paper tiger" because though it might seem that it has amassed a massive army and has plenty of weapons, it cannot deploy either of these on the scale that the US can.
With China gradually about to burst, is its actions towards Hong Kong swatting a pesky nuisance or a show of power to ward off suspicion?
The relationship turned lucrative with Liberals who outlasted the elder Trudeau and gushing with the younger Trudeau who in 2013 declared his undying love for China's "basic dictatorship" to throngs of pasty, white liberal women who would never be on the receiving end of Chinese men buying consorts as North Korean women are.
Leap ahead (see what I did there?) to 2020.
China is desperate to get out of the spotlight. Questions about the coronavirus it may have known about since October 2019, its own death toll, its silencing of critics, destruction of samples, its hoarding of personal protective equipment and profiting off of the virus have made it unpalatable to Western nations that once used cheap Chinese labour. Without Canada gladly standing in its corner, China would have felt very lonely indeed.
Now China faces another obstacle: its grip on Hong Kong, the rebel province that has been resisting it for years:
Hong Kong’s democracy activists have long warned that mainland China is eroding the liberties that have made the city unique. China’s security apparatus routinely imprisons people for demanding the rights they are guaranteed under the country’s own constitution, and the spectre of the city falling under a security law written by Beijing created alarm in Hong Kong. Activists said it amounts to the biggest incursion by China into Hong Kong since the city’s handover from Britain.“It will make Hong Kong like mainland China,” said Emily Lau, a pro-democracy politician in the city. She warned that it threatens to “take away our freedoms, rule of law and personal safety.”
Once again, as with its rigorous defense of China's role in spreading the coronavirus, Canada offers a spirited defense of it:
As for the rest of us, the seven-point annexation manifesto finally presented on Friday at the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing leaves no “let’s wait and see” pretext available, and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s predictably robotic and empty utterances about “dialogue” count for nothing. It’s done.
(Sidebar: this.)
Canada's role on the world stage has been greatly diminished on the world stage since Trudeau assumed office in 2015 (his wasteful quest for a seat at the UN seems like a fool's errand and opposition against his getting that seat comes from the most unlikely sources - cheers) so it is doubtful anyone even heard what Champagne had to say (just like they didn't hear him say thank you to Taiwan but I digress ...).
Now that China has Hong Kong, will it hang onto it?
Though China is buying mines in Canada and possibly oil in Texas, those are not indications that China's economy is roaring. The virus is spread over the world has hit China quite hard, so hard that it will not set a target for economic growth this year:
China made a rare decision not to set a target for its economic growth for 2020 due to uncertainties about the impact of the coronavirus.
That doesn't sound like a country whose economy is in full swing.
Militarily, China is stretching itself. It has been called a "paper tiger" because though it might seem that it has amassed a massive army and has plenty of weapons, it cannot deploy either of these on the scale that the US can.
With China gradually about to burst, is its actions towards Hong Kong swatting a pesky nuisance or a show of power to ward off suspicion?
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