Canada-China Relations

"Mostly, however, I find my undergrads in particular to be profoundly uninterested in politics and proud of their country's rise."
"They don't want to rock the boat and the more aware ones are discreet about their critiques. They have decided to tread carefully, which suggests a consciousness that they could be under surveillance."
Unnamed Canadian university professor

"[Chinese protesters in Ontario] could shift Canadians' attitude toward China to one of outright disdain and anger at what they see is the growing threat of Chinese influence in their country."
"The story of Chinese students' silencing free speech and undermining democracy in Canada will only fuel this explosive mix of accusations."
Ng Weng Hoong, commentator, Asian-Pacific energy industry

Protestors outside the Alberta legislature call for an end to alleged Chinese oppression of Uyghur people.David Bloom/Postmedia/File

China's super-sensitivity to foreign criticism over its internal governance and Communist Party justice and laws accuses all who voice their opinions as interfering for the malign purpose of unsettling 'harmony' within the country. China will brook no interference, no criticism over its actions. As the world's most populous country it is proud of the direction it took following the brutally disastrous years of the Cultural Revolution by adopting the elements of capitalism that served its purposes.

Through its melding of Communism's ideological straitjacket and the loosening of private enterprise the massive country saw its economy in overdrive leading to a massive rise in prosperity and a matching drop in endemic poverty as the middle-class began to rise. China's harnessing of its huge workforce to the industrial production of consumer goods brought it a trade empire worldwide even as its rise led to the collapse of uncompetitive manufacturing elsewhere in the world.

With its massive newfound wealth it has invested billions not only in upgrading China's civil infrastructure, but in turning to producing infrastructure upgrades through loans and construction in other countries of Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia in a long-term dedication to a massive, far-reaching 'Silk Road' of international trade ambitions. It has become the 21st Century's imperialist colonial power. And at the same time it is paranoid over reaction and criticism.

The country and the government that despises those who launch critiques over its ambitions for world power status and its methodology, has long had a robust espionage program meant to secure military, political and industrial intelligence of other countries in its ascent to power. Its citizens and its technology have infiltrated everywhere and embedded in both is the potential wherewithal to loot and to influence.

Not that China is alone in its system of surveillance and espionage; all countries engage in these time-tried old strategies to keep ahead of the 'game'; it's just that some are more passionately engaged than others and in the ferocity of their ideological purpose, potentially more threatening and destructive of other nations' security and stability.

In China's case, the government stresses and impresses on its nationals their obligation as citizens to always think uppermost of their countries' success and well-being on the world stage. Their ethnic origin and citizenship mostly as Han Chinese obligates them to report to government agencies; pressure is applied both at home and abroad through State intimidation and intimations of consequences.

Huawei's equipment is used in telecommunications infrastructure run by the Canada's major carriers, and some have sold Huawei's phones. (Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images)

Canada is presently on a crisis course with China, its second largest trading partner. The arrest in December of Huawei Technology's CFO on a U.S. warrant for extradition has seen Canadian citizens in China arrested and charged with espionage; another Canadian sentenced to death for drug smuggling. Canada has received official threats of dire 'consequences' should government not allow Huawei to participate in the new 5G technology upgrades.

There are over 180,000 Chinese students attending post-secondary academic institutions in Canada, about 50,000 such students in Vancouver alone. The unidentified professor quoted above speaks of Mandarin-language students in Canada as "the major beneficiaries of the rise" in China's fortunes. At the same time, some of those students, by no means the majority, are invested in China's defense and pro-China activism.

As when, on two Ontario university campuses angry Chinese students complained to their consulate and raised objections through petitions when on one occasion a University of Toronto student president of Tibetan heritage spoke disparagingly of Chinese occupation of Tibet. Chemi Lhamo, a Canadian citizen, became the recipient of hundreds of nasty text messages, to the extent that Toronto police have launched an investigation into possibly criminal threats.

Chemi Lhamo, the president-elect of the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, believes she's being targeted because of her Tibetan identity. (Martin Trainor/CBC)

On another occasion, at McMaster University in Hamilton, five Chinese student groups launched a protest when the university gave a platform to a Canadian citizen of Muslim Uyghur background. Rukiye Turdish had spoken of China's human rights abuses against over a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, placing them in sprawling 're-education' camps, and reputedly taking blood samples for genetic sampling purposes for some future plan of tracking them technologically in the future.

Activist Rukiye Turdush says she believes the Chinese government was involved in the disruption of a presentation she was giving at McMaster University. (Rukiye Turdush/Facebook)

Students from China attempting to enrol in Hong Kong's journalism school are being pressured by their parents to avoid a truth-seeking career that might lead to exposing China to censure, possibly leading to reprisals targeting the entire family, according to The Economist. In Canada there are reports of Mandarin-language Chinese journalists representing various outlets across the country called to meetings with Chinese officials. In response, some Chinese reporters have asked their editors to remove their bylines.

The more pressure China feels is being exerted against it by outside critics the more it pressures its citizens to cooperate with the government in defending it abroad and in exploiting them to act as infiltrators to pass information along to Chinese diplomatic missions to filter back home in the ongoing program of never-ending espionage and surveillance tactics.

A 2017 U.S. government report says competitors such as China steal American intellectual property valued at hundreds of billions of dollars every year. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)