A Loyal Axis State

Never accuse the Trudeau government of not being loyal to the country it most admires:

By many accounts, Dominic Barton was deeply involved in the negotiations that freed Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig from Chinese prisons.

But as the crisis with China raced toward a surprise resolution last month, Canada’s ambassador to Beijing also took time to urge Canadian companies to mine the country’s business potential.

In fact, he suggested in recorded remarks for the Canada China Business Council that doing so was crucial to Canada’s economic well-being and encouraged firms to study China’s just-released five-year plan for guidance.

Barton did acknowledge that winning the release of the two Michaels from “arbitrary detention” and clemency for Canadian Robert Schellenberg, who’s on Chinese death row, were top priorities.

But “it’s critical that Canadian firms seize opportunities where they exist and take advantage of the continuing economic rise of Asia and China,” said Barton.

“The growth and the nature of growth of China’s economy has significant implications for Canada’s economic prosperity,” he said. “Regardless of one’s outlook on it, China really cannot be ignored … Where trade is concerned, our companies need to engage in support of our economic interest while being true to our values.”

 

First of all, in days prior to the exchange for Meng Wanzhou and Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor (who sat in a Chinese prison for 1,000 days), there was no mention of either Canadian national in the phone conversation between Biden and Trudeau.

The release of Meng Wanzhou was not dependent on the release of the two men.

What are the details of this release?

Neither the Department of Justice nor Dominic Barton are saying but the latter is taking credit for it.

Now, he is not just embracing the "softer, more inclusive" way of dealing with China, he is encouraging Canadian businesses to ramp up trading with one of the worst human-rights abusing hostage-takers in recent memory.

This China:

Chinese regime influence operations in Canada are broad and pervasive, according to a comprehensive report published by a French government-affiliated think tank.

From stifling dissident voices to influencing politics, media, and education, from manipulating information to utilizing local organizations, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using every non-kinetic means in its toolbox to sway Canada and Chinese-Canadians, says the report, titled “Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment.”

While Canada has yet to react effectively to these threats, the report says, a changing mood in France toward the Beijing regime is what led to the 640-page report published in September by the Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’Ecole Militaire (IRSEM), a think tank funded by the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

“The awakening in France to the risk posed by Chinese influence is sharp and has been increasing since 2019, with a marked acceleration in 2020-2021. It’s in this context of ‘French awakening,’ which henceforth seems irreversible, that this report was published,” write authors Dr. Paul Charon and Dr. Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer.

**

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told True North that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was “missing in action” when it came to the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Taiwan and the international community at large. 

According to Genuis, the Liberal government’s lack of response marked “a long pattern of inaction when it comes to China.”

 

No kidding.

**

China has denied the World Health Organization access to bat caves and wildlife farming areas in a region six hours west of Wuhan — as it emerged that nearby wet markets were banned from selling live animals just days before Beijing acknowledged a new virus had been detected, according to a report.

WHO scientists have been trying to access hundreds of caves that contain bats in Enshi prefecture in Hubei province — west of the Chinese city where COVID-19 first emerged, the Washington Post said Monday.

The scientists also want to investigate nearby wildlife farming areas that, prior to the pandemic, were known to breed thousands of wild animals.

Scientists believe those animals could have potentially been an intermediate host for the virus to spread from bats to humans — and argue that investigating the farms is a key step to determining the origins of the pandemic, the report said.

Researchers are probing natural transmission in addition to the theory that COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese lab.

 

 

Also:

More than 75 per cent of Canadians think the federal government should ban Huawei Technologies from this country’s 5G telecommunications networks in a new Nanos Research poll that finds hardening attitudes toward the Chinese state and business relations with Beijing.

The survey by Nanos for The Globe and Mail was conducted the week after the United States secured the release of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who had been jailed for years by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government in what Ottawa criticized as “hostage diplomacy.”...

Opposition to Huawei’s presence in 5G has increased to 76 per cent of respondents from 53 per cent in a 2019 poll. Huawei’s 5G technology has been banned in other countries over fears that the Chinese Communist Party could use it for spying purposes. In the latest results, only 10 per cent of respondents say Huawei should be allowed to supply gear for 5G, down from 22 per cent in the 2019 poll.

Nearly seven out of 10 Canadians oppose deepening business ties by negotiating a free-trade deal with the Chinese government. Sixty-nine per cent say Canada should delay negotiating a trade deal, up from 47 per cent in a 2019 survey. Only 19 per cent support proceeding with negotiations, down from 43 per cent in 2019.

Eighty-seven per cent of Canadians support, or somewhat support Canada joining with the United States, Britain and Australia “to contain China’s growing power.” Nine per cent oppose or somewhat oppose this. Last month, the U.S., Britain and Australia struck a new defence pact, AUKUS, to counter China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The survey found that after the release of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor, Canadians were more than three times more likely to say that relations between the Canadian government and the Chinese government should be unfriendly rather than friendly. Forty-three per cent of respondents opted for unfriendly and 12 per cent for friendly. Another 42 per cent picked neutral.

 

Was it something China said?