We Don't Have to Trade With China

But we do.

Pourquoi?:

Michael Kovrig says China never objected before arresting him to his activities as a diplomat and think-tank researcher, and even invited him to speak at a Peoples Liberation Army conference — two months before they threw him in jail.

In some of his first public comments since being freed in September 2021 after nearly three years of imprisonment by China, Kovrig took further aim at accusations he was working as a de-facto Canadian spy, prompting Beijing to arrest both him and Canadian businessman Michael Spavor.

It’s widely believed instead that the “two Michaels” were captured as part of Beijing’s diplomatic war with Canada over the arrest of a prominent Chinese businesswoman.

“We and our families suffered horribly during the 1,019 days we spent detained in China,” Kovrig said in an email interview. “Repeating gaslighting and disinformation about why we were detained only prolongs pain that we’re all trying to heal from.”

Those charges have come from two disparate sources.

China accused Kovrig of espionage during his detention and closed-door trial. And recently Spavor himself — whose tour company brought him close to the North Korean leadership — has reportedly charged that Kovrig misled him by gathering information from the businessman that was eventually passed on to intelligence agencies in Canada and elsewhere.

According to a Globe and Mail report, Spavor is attempting to gain millions in compensation from the federal government, arguing that it was his meetings with Kovrig that persuaded China to imprison him.

Global Affairs Canada, the International Crisis Group (ICG) that employed Kovrig after he left the foreign service in 2016, the former Canadian ambassador to Beijing he worked for and other experts have rejected the accusations as unfounded.

Some have speculated that the leak to the Globe was part of a turf war between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Global Affairs. “Headline-promoting bun fights and sensation-tinged accusations won’t get us anywhere,” commented leading national-security expert Wesley Wark on his blog.

Kovrig has said he’s baffled by the allegations, echoing statements from those other experts that China orchestrated the detentions for one reason only — to gain leverage over Canada after it arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou under a U.S. extradition request.

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A Commons committee yesterday acknowledged the Chinese Communist Party operated “police service stations” in Canada. Critics had ridiculed the suggestion “so-called Chinese police stations” were spying on local communities in three cities: ‘Witnesses emphasized they harass and intimidate individuals who are critical of China.’

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For a group of Canadian young people, however, the XPCC was recently a guide through the very region where its alleged abuses take place.

The 20 Canadians were sent on a “roots-seeking” trip to Xinjiang this past summer, their 10-day sojourn organized by the sanctioned Corps and a branch of China’s influence-peddling United Front Work Department.

Amid continued international censure of China over its treatment of Xinjiang’s Uyghur minority, their tour came with a parting request.

An official with the United Front’s Federation of Overseas Chinese asked the children to “tell the true, beautiful and colorful stories of Xinjiang and the Xinjiang Corps,” according to an online account by another United Front division.

With young foreigners as the target group, the trip represented a striking example of Beijing’s drive to spread its influence worldwide and change the narrative around the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — despite extensive documentation of harsh repression there. The Canadian House of Commons — as well as the U.S. and other governments — has called China’s actions in the region genocide.

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The lawmakers began investigating after an extraordinary series of intelligence reports leaked to Canadian outlets, which reported that the Chinese Consulate funneled money to the 11 campaigns through intermediaries, and that some campaign staffers had consulate ties.

Under President Xi Jinping’s aggressive foreign policy, China has tapped into diasporas worldwide to extend its reach, and interfered in elections in Asia, Canada, the United States and Australia, officials say.

But while nations like Australia have tried to curb Chinese interference, Canada has gone easy on Beijing, critics say. Mr. Trudeau — whose party is strong in districts with ethnic Chinese voters and who has been criticized over fund-raising events in wealthy Chinese-Canadians’ homes — long opposed calls for the public inquiry.

“Civil society organizations like ours have repeatedly been warning our government about the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration, manipulation and intimidation on Canadian soil,” said Gloria Fung, the president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, a private organization focusing on Chinese interference. “Unfortunately, the Canadian government has not taken concrete, effective steps to combat foreign interference.”

 

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The Liberals are hiding something - naturally:

Canada’s foreign interference inquiry will include opposition parties, but the judge running the inquiry won’t grant them the right to ask witnesses questions or see all the evidence.

On Monday, ahead of public hearings expected in January, Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue released a decision on who will have standing at the inquiry.

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Hogue divided the question of standing into two groups those with party standing, given them the ability to question witnesses and see all evidence and those with intervenor standing giving them the right to make submissions and see any evidence submitted in public.

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Hogue said she gave party standing to those who have something on the line in the commission’s findings.

“This type of interest generally arises either from some form of personal or reputational interest in the outcome of the Commission’s work. It may also stem from the formal role an applicant plays in countering foreign interference or in the electoral process,” she said in her ruling.
Hogue found that Han Dong, a former Liberal MP who was removed from the party’s caucus over media reports he had benefited from foreign interference and Michael Chan, the deputy mayor of Markham, who has also been accused of involvement in Chinese foreign interference.

The government and the commissioner of elections also got full party standing as did several diaspora groups in the Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian communities.

Hogue granted the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), the NDP and former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole intervenor standing at the inquiry, which means they won’t be able to ask questions of any witnesses who appear.

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Strange that the very agency that revealed possible electoral fraud should be so accused:

Allegations of a toxic workplace culture, involving harassment and sexual assault at Canada’s spy agency are “devastating” and “absolutely unacceptable,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.

Who left Point Grey Academy early and why?

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I wouldn't do that if I were you, Agnes:

A prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist says she's decided to live permanently in Canada, after jumping bail from the Chinese territory.

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Again, how is Trump corrupt?:

Hunter Biden initiated direct monthly payments from his company to President Joe Biden’s personal checking account in September 2018, according to bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee and shared with the Washington Free Beacon.

The records are the most direct evidence to date that Joe Biden profited from his son’s overseas business dealings. The company, Owasco PC, served a critical role in Hunter Biden’s Chinese ventures, receiving nearly $5 million from the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC in 2017 and 2018. Hunter Biden signed a document in early September 2018 authorizing Owasco to make monthly payments of $1,380 to Joe Biden’s checking account, with the first payment landing in his father’s account on Sept. 17, the records show.

The records disprove the Biden administration’s claim that there were no financial transactions between the president and his son’s business ventures, and are likely to take center stage in House Republicans' impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. It’s unclear what the payment was for, or whether Owasco made any subsequent payments to the president’s checking account. Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, did not return a request for comment.