We Don't Have to Trade With China

Nope:

“I’m willing to be of paramount service to the Chinese government,” disgruntled naval engineer Qing Quentin Huang said during one of two calls to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, unaware the line had been wiretapped by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

Those phone calls in November 2013 led the RCMP to arrest Huang in Burlington, Ont., for allegedly attempting to spy for China. At the time, the Mounties told the public his actions were “a threat to Canada.”

Huang, who was living in Waterdown, Ont., near Hamilton, was accused of attempting to pass on sensitive details involving Canada’s shipbuilding strategy. If successful, his alleged plot could have given foreign entities an unfair military, economic and competitive advantage, the RCMP said at the time.

Last month, after eight years of courtroom wrangling over the disclosure of classified information — and on the eve of a three-week jury trial in January — a Toronto judge halted the prosecution. Superior Court Justice Michael Dambrot agreed with defence lawyers Frank Addario and Samara Secter that Huang’s constitutional rights to a trial within a reasonable time had been breached.

 

(Sidebar: ... say the people who drag their feet. The Charter let this happen.)

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Efforts to strengthen Canada’s supply chains for critical minerals were undermined last week when our own government decided not to conduct a national security review into the purchase of a Canadian lithium producer by a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

The decision is bizarre. Lithium, which is on a list of 31 minerals that Ottawa says are critical to Canada’s economy, is imperative to modern manufacturing, including large-scale battery storage needed for clean energy transition and, significantly, batteries for the flourishing electric vehicle (EV) industry.

Now the Zijin Mining Group Ltd is cleared to buy Toronto-based Neo Lithium Corp.

China is establishing global dominance of high-tech manufacturing, including EVs, by having state-owned enterprises acquire foreign intellectual property, technologies and assets. Securing access to critical minerals is essential to that mission.

China already controls a quarter of the world’s supply of lithium-ion batteries, and Canada is a target for acquisitions. In 2018, Vancouver-based Lithium X was purchased by NextView New Energy Lion Hong Kong. That same year the Chinese company Tianqi bought a 23.8 per cent share in a Chilean lithium mine from Canada’s Nutrien. Last November, Vancouver-based miner Millenial Lithium narrowly missed being acquired by China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., which was outbid by an American buyer.

 

I'll bet Justin rubber-stamped the whole thing. 

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The foreign and defense ministers of Japan and France held talks on Thursday as the two countries seek to deepen security ties in the Indo-Pacific region, where tensions have been rising amid China’s military buildup and North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, accompanied by Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, described France as an indispensable partner in achieving the goal of a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Japan, the United States, Australia and India are promoting the goal as a counter to China’s growing influence and assertiveness in pushing its territorial claims in the region, which has some of the world’s busiest sea lanes.

The talks among the four ministers, including French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly, were the first since 2019 and were held virtually. 

“The security environment surrounding Japan and France is increasingly severe and uncertain,” with some countries attempting to change the status quo with force, Kishi said.

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Lithuania is under pressure from German companies to back down in a dispute with China to end a blockade of the Baltic state, as European trade officials struggle to defuse the row, people familiar with the matter said.

 

Go to hell, Germany. 

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Oh, sorry, China. I'm sure there is another country you can steal technology from:

A recent survey making the rounds online purports to show that Canada has just become China’s least favourite country . Global Times – the English-language mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party – recently published a survey by its own in-house research centre showing that Canada now ranked last among Chinese peoples’ favourite countries.