We Don't Have to Trade With China

Yet we do:

A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was pulled into Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester on Sunday and beaten up.

Unidentified men came out of the consulate and forced a man inside the compound before he escaped with the help of police and other demonstrators.

The protester told the BBC: "They dragged me inside, they beat me up."

The UK government called the reports "extremely concerning". The consulate says protesters displayed an insulting portrait of China's president.

The Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking clarity on the incident. Greater Manchester Police has launched an investigation.

Speaking after the incident, the protester, called Bob, told BBC Chinese that "mainlanders" - people from mainland China, as opposed to Hong Kong - had come out of the consulate and destroyed their posters.

"As we tried to stop them, they dragged me inside, they beat me up," he said, adding that he was then pulled out by the UK police.

Why would Justin upset his bosses?:

It “should be easy” for the Canadian federal government to identify China as a strategic rival in its Indo-Pacific strategy, the former Canadian ambassador to China told the Canada-China relations special committee on Tuesday.

Guy Saint-Jacques, who served as ambassador to China from October 2012 to October 2016, said Canada has “learned a lot about China” in the past few years — from the detention of “the two Michaels” to how Beijing is using trade as a weapon.

“In my perspective, it should be easy for Ottawa to conclude that China has become a strategic rival competitor and that we have to align very closely with our friends and allies,” said Saint-Jacques.

Sometimes, people set themselves up for failure:

China has recruited dozens of British former armed forces pilots to train its air force in an effort to understand western tactics, according to the Ministry of Defence.

At least 30 former fast jet and helicopter pilots have been lured by sums of about $270,000 a year since the start of the pandemic to help Beijing develop its tactics and technological expertise.

Consider:

In fact, according to a report in The Globe and Mail, the Department of Global Affairs pushed back against a decision last year by Canada’s top soldier to cut back on interactions with the PLA, warning Beijing might consider this a reprisal for the arbitrary arrest of two Canadians.

Government documents, seen by The Globe and marked secret and for Canadian Eyes Only, show that officials at the highest levels of Global Affairs were alarmed that General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, had cancelled winter military exercises with the PLA in 2019.

All the better to attack Taiwan with.