I think we know:
Canadian officials are not aware of any new timeline for the trials of two Canadians detained in China, despite reports in China claiming Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig will soon be tried.
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Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said he is confident a contract with a company owned by the Beijing police adequately protects personal information of people applying to Canada for visas.
Canada has since 2008 contracted the Beijing Shuangxiong Foreign Service Company, to run visa processing services for people seeking to visit Canada. The company is run by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
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RCMP receive more than a hundred calls a day from tipsters alleging clandestine activities by agents of the Communist Party of China. Commissioner Brenda Lucki yesterday told a Commons committee she could not divulge the nature of complaints: “We get an average 120 tips per day.”
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Last week, China released its 2021-25 strategic plan to engage in “pragmatic co-operation” to build its “Polar Silk Road,” a smaller piece of its overall Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). You know, the one where all global supply chains, infrastructure, trade logistics and resources lead to Beijing, underpinned by Huawei and Alibaba? To be clear, by “road” the Chinese government means “route,” and by that it really means the transpolar shipping route over the North Pole through international waters that, by current estimates, will have completely ice-free summers by 2050. This is precisely the same timeframe (2049) that China intends to have completed its BRI.
Why does China want to “help” build an Arctic trade route? For starters, Canada hasn’t built it. There is also the fact that the Arctic is rich in natural resources. Specifically, Canada’s North and Greenland hold the critical minerals that China needs for everything from building its renewable energy economy to its 5G infrastructure. Whoever is prepared to exploit the shipping route will control the global supply chain of those minerals.
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