I Remember Being Told That Trading With China Would Democratise It

Does it look like a democratic country to you?:

Images of Chinese and Indian disengagement at Pangong Lake.

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While Canada has excelled at symbolic and rhetorical gestures like the new initiative, it has failed to match its words with actions like those of its closest ally. If anything, Canada has become more intertwined with leading Chinese firms, that are either state owned or have close ties to the Chinese military, and many of which have committed well publicized human rights violations, including against China’s Uighur minority.

CNOOC is a major investor in Canada, including in Alberta’s oil sands, shale gas in British Columbia, and offshore exploration and drilling off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. This large investment is in a sector key to Canada’s economic well-being and national security interests. Unlike in the U.S., there is no bar to investing in such Chinese firms. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a Crown corporation and one of the world’s largest institutional investment firms, had invested $57 million in CNOOC as of March 31, 2020.

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A Chinese government vessel armed with a cannon-like weapon entered Japanese territorial waters near the China-claimed Senkaku Islands on Tuesday for the first time since Beijing passed a new law that allows its coast guard to fire on foreign ships in waters it claims.

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According to new rules which will reportedly take effect on May 1, China’s state-run Catholic Church and bishops’ conference will select, approve, and ordain episcopal candidates—with no mention of the Vatican’s involvement in the process.

China’s new “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy” will go into effect on May 1. The rules were translated by the magazine Bitter Winter, which reports on religious freedom conditions in China.

Under the new rules, the state-run Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) will be responsible for selecting episcopal candidates. The candidates will then be “approved and consecrated by the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ Conference.”

The rules do not mention any role of the Vatican in approving bishops, despite the 2018 Vatican-China agreement reportedly involving both Chinese authorities and the Holy See in the process of appointing bishops.