We Don't Have to Trade With China

But people have their rea$on$:

Canada’s most recent setback involves China (yet again), this time a direct hit to the tourism industry. In August, China released its updated list of countries that are “approved” as international travel destinations for Chinese tour groups. Canada was conspicuously omitted from the list. It’s terrible news for an industry that was devastated by the pandemic and had hoped to regain its footing. China has been a major source of tourism to Canada; now that’s all in jeopardy.

China’s move raises an uncomfortable question for Canada: What is the economic price of being principled?

Of course, political spats have resulted in economic pain in the past. Canada has experienced all manner of trade disputes with its largest trading partner, the United States, over everything from softwood lumber to steel to agriculture. But while these quarrels have been serious and at times economically painful, they’ve never threatened a complete breakdown in political and economic ties. They’re more akin to teenage siblings on the couch, fighting over the remote control.

What we’re seeing increasingly with China is different. It is no longer just about a trade dispute, which is typically triggered by an industry seeking a protectionist advantage. What we are seeing now is geopolitical discord increasingly splitting the global economy roughly in two: those within China’s sphere of economic influence and control, and those in the sphere of the United States.

And rather than protectionism, it is now about principles. China is clearly unhappy with Canada’s principled stand on a number of fronts. From the disputes over tech giant Huawei and the detention of the two Michaels, to more recent accusations of interference in Canadian elections, to even basic critiques of human rights violations – China seems to be running out of goodwill toward Canada.

Unfortunately, it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Growing tensions between China and the U.S. – and by extension Canada and all other Western democracies – seems to be moving in a troubling direction. Any actual military aggressions around Taiwan could easily pull us into an even larger principled stand against China. And that would spell even more economic sanctions and pain.

The question facing Canada is daunting. Do we actively engage in diplomacy and polite chatting with China in an effort to diffuse their irritation? Or do we even bother? Arguments could be made either way, but the balance of reason seems to be tilting toward the latter. Is the effort of diplomacy even worth it at this point? And does cozying up too closely to China now represent a political liability with our other economic partners, particularly the U.S.?

 

Now, about all of this -  China is a communist, Third World dictatorship that has gone so far (among so many other things) kidnapping our citizens to get what it wants (the kidnapping was met with weakness and required American help to secure the release of the two men in question, but I digress ...) and interfering in Canadian elections. Furthermore, more Americans and Britons visit Canada than Chinese do. China also has agents intimidating Chinese expatriates on Canadian soil.

What is it that Canada should be doing to appease the paper dragon and keep the trade of poorly-made products flowing?

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The “rent-a-womb” industry pipelines children born of surrogates in the United States to parents in China, a researcher said. Babies born this way automatically gain U.S. birthright citizenship.

Chinese “rent-a-womb” industry, has been burgeoning in the United States for about a decade, particularly in California, where laws regulating commercial surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) are permissive, said Emma Waters, a research associate for the Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.

Surrogacy, a practice where a woman carries a pregnancy and gives birth to a baby for another person or couple, is completely banned in China.

Therefore Chinese couples use services offered by American fertility clinics that create for them embryos potentially having the biological makeup of the Chinese nationals, and birth the baby in the United States, Ms. Waters said in an interview on Epoch TV’s “Crossroads” program on Aug. 11.

With birthright citizenship laws in the United States, that child, who may be 100 percent Chinese national in their biology and genetic makeup, actually gains and maintains the full rights of U.S. citizenship, Ms. Waters explained.

When that child turns 21, even the parents can apply for a green card and eventually get citizenship, “which is a much faster and cheaper process than if they were to apply for citizenship through some of the traditional methods,” she added.

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The fall in Chinese birthrates might be the biggest story of the 21st century.

Unfortunately, the data — or lack thereof — has been found wanting. A must-read analysis by Liyan Qi for the Wall Street Journal points out that China’s National Bureau of Statistics “stopped releasing annual data on total fertility rate in 2017”.