We Don't Have to Trade With China

Don't forget that the anniversary of the Tienanmen massacres is coming up:

The Liberal government is facing pushback from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue for citing cabinet confidentiality in redacting records provided to the public inquiry investigating meddling by China and other hostile states in Canadian democracy.

The government is also completely withholding an undisclosed number of cabinet documents, according to the Privy Council Office (PCO), which reports directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc had initially promised that the Commission into Foreign Interference would have full access to secret documents, including “all relevant cabinet documents” even if some of that sensitive information can’t be made available to Canadians.

But a dispute has arisen after the government invoked cabinet confidence to redact some cabinet records and to deny the Hogue inquiry access to an unknown number of documents involving foreign interference.

Buried in a footnote in Justice Hogue’s May 3 report, she said there were redactions in some of the cabinet documents handed over to the inquiry and added “discussions as to the applications of these privileges is ongoing.”

Michael Tansey, senior communication adviser to the commission, said Wednesday that Justice Hogue had no further comment.

“In light of the ongoing discussions with the government on document production, the commission has nothing to add at this time,” he said.

The PCO told The Globe and Mail that nearly 10 per cent of cabinet documents provided to the inquiry have been redacted. An undisclosed number of other secret cabinet documents have been completely withheld.

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The prime minister’s top security adviser prevented the distribution of intelligence reports related to Chinese interference on several occasions, according to the agency in charge of reviewing federal intelligence activities.

 A disagreement on what constitutes foreign interference between intelligence analysis bodies and the National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) “played a role in those intelligence products not reaching the political executive, including the prime minister,” says a report from the security watchdog National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA).

 NSIRA released on May 28 the public version of its special report reviewing the distribution of intelligence on People’s Republic of China (PRC) political foreign interference, covering the period 2018 to 2023.

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had spoken to the chair of the independent NSIRA about conducting such a review in March 2023 amid the intense pressure building over multiple intelligence leaks in the press depicting widespread interference by Beijing.

 NSIRA found multiple shortcomings in the government machinery, highlighting tensions between the collectors and disseminators of information within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

 “If we’re not going to inform and share what we know, why are we collecting it?” a CSIS employee is quoted as saying in an internal email.

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Chinese spies have had a free run in other countries including Canada:

The Chinese regime hires agents to go after dissidents all over the world in a bid to get them back to China, a former spy has revealed.

The spy, who recently defected to Australia, asked to be referred to as Eric. For 15 years, he took orders from secret police in China to target dissidents in countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, India, and Australia.

One of his targets was Li Guixin, a practitioner of the meditation discipline Falun Gong, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has attempted to eliminate since 1999. Mr. Li  experienced at least five arbitrary arrests and time in detention over his faith before he fled to Thailand in 2014 with his wife and teenage daughter.

“Right now, we need you to confirm whether we are looking at the right apartment,” reads a screenshot that Eric shared with The Epoch Times.

Mr. Li, after reviewing these photos, told The Epoch Times that he was shocked.

While many of the photos were shared by friends on social media, at least one family photo was never posted on the internet, he said.

“Where did [the regime] get it?” he said, adding that he felt like he was in a movie. It was the first time he was able to confirm suspicions he'd had that had led him to move multiple times in recent years.

“It’s like, this is for real,” he said.

Eric said that after receiving the instructions from his handler, he brought a translator with him to inspect the address he'd been given. After finding that Mr. Li no longer lived there, Eric had minimal involvement in the case. He said he couldn’t confirm if—nor how many—other Chinese agents might be involved in targeting Mr. Li.

“Observe what’s inside and around the apartment; take some photos and videos. Organize what you see later so that we can plan our stakeout,” Eric’s handler wrote, in a message dated Feb. 16, 2021.

The handler sent a series of photos. Some showed Mr. Li and his family meditating in a public park. Others included headshots from the family’s identity cards used in China and their former address from back in 2017.

 

We certainly wouldn't want to hurt their feelings.

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The Vatican has let Chinese Christians down:

China is willing to work with the Vatican to improve ties, a Chinese foreign ministry official said on Wednesday following remarks from the Holy See's top diplomat that it wanted to open an office in Beijing.

Relations between the Vatican and China's Communist Party leadership have historically been fraught and it does not have diplomatic relations with Beijing, only Taiwan. Indeed, it is one of only a dozen countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, which has watched nervously as Pope Francis seeks to improve ties with China.

 

The Vatican would like to establish a permanent office in China, its top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Tuesday, in what would be a significant upgrade of relations.

 

"We are willing to work together with the Vatican to promote the continuous improvement of China-Vatican relations," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing.

 

He added that the two sides have maintained "deep communication on bilateral relations and international hot issues."

 

Vatican officials have mentioned the need for an office before but Parolin's remarks suggest a new impetus, with the envoy saying new ways could be found to make it happen.

 

The Vatican maintains a discreet unofficial office in Hong Kong but its two representatives perform no representative functions or duties and do not meet with officials.

 

Taiwan is paying close attention to interactions between the Vatican and China, the island's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.