Never Fear, Trudeau's Here!

"China is playing stronger, making stronger moves than it has before to try and get its own way on the world stage and western countries and democracies around the world are pulling together to point out that this not something that we need to continue to allow..."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau May 2019

Chinese and Canadian flags on show in front of the Forbidden City on December 4, 2017 in Beijing, China.

"Nobody in the Chinese government wants to meet with a Canadian minister or special envoy -- even if the prime minister were to phone [Chinese] President Xi Jinping, he would not take the call."
"But so far, the Chinese have been adamant that unless we promise to release [Meng], they don’t want to meet with anyone."
"We need to work with our partners to reinforce the multilateral system -- an environment where we have predictable rules that apply to everyone. Otherwise, we could end up in a situation where countries like China or the United States would dictate the rules to everyone else."
Former Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques

Chinese fury at Canada's perfidy in arresting the chief financial officer of Huawei on an extradition warrant from the U.S. in view of her role in defrauding U.S. financial institutions in defiance of the U.S. sanctions against Iran, has no bounds. Two Canadians, an ex-diplomat and an entrepreneur have been arrested, denied legal representation, kept incommunicado, questioned relentlessly, undergone subtle torture techniques, and finally charged with espionage in a vituperative quid-pro-quo. Two other Canadians have been sentenced to death for purported drug smuggling.

A series of economic trade blows encompassing everything from Canadian soy products to pork exports from Canada under various pretexts have hobbled trade in Canadian goods. Canada, on the other hand, cautions that it must respond calmly, not to further disturb the threatening monster that is China. Before he assumed the prime ministership, Justin Trudeau mused about China's "basic dictatorship", enabling it, he said admiringly, to 'swivel on a dime'. Now he knows how that dynamic swivel is capable of disabling relations with a powerful trade giant.

It was his father Pierre as prime minister before him, who opened Canada up to China, in his fabled trip to the Asian colossus. And it was Jean Chretien, another former Liberal prime minister, who while in office, carefully groomed personal contacts with the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy and business community, leading a number of trade missions, to arrange a trade and business nest for himself with China, once he stepped away from office in electoral defeat.

When the Conservatives came to power and then-prime minister Stephen Harper expressed discomfort with China's human rights record, hesitating to pursue increased trade opportunities in China, Jean Chretien scorned his tentativeness as he continued to lead trade delegations, this time working for a prestigious Quebec-based law firm. Justin Trudeau's own aborted effort to sign a free trade deal with China collapsed under the weight of his tedious feminist and workers' rights agenda.

Now, the same China that supplies the world with illegal and deadly laboratory-manufactured opioid-alikes such as fentanyl and carfentanil, powerful drugs leading to the deaths of countless drug users in Europe and North America, suddenly finds it just to condemn two Canadians to death for drug smuggling. No one is permitted to shove back against China's push-and-shove marketing of its products, and Huawai represents one of China's starring technological giants.

Canada, in honouring its extradition agreement with the U.S., which is in a trade war with its global rival China, has brought the wrath of the Communist Party down on Canada. And Justin Trudeau quakes in dismay, calling on other democracies to come to Canada's defence. Trudeau's milquetoast reaction to Beijing's relentless harassment and assaults on Canadians reveals a government and a leader out of its depths.

Anguished telephone messages are left by Trudeau's Cabinet ministers for their Chinese counterparts to respond, and just as Xi has failed to acknowledge Trudeau's messages, leaving them unanswered, it speaks volumes about the limpid efforts made by Canada and the arrogant presumption of Chinese leadership that it can quash any leader of any country that has the presumptive stupidity to challenge China's primacy on the world stage.

Canada fears doing anything to further stir China's rage. Trudeau could and should but cowers over additional consequences. Refusing Chinese goods' shipments, taxing others, halting coal shipments to China, withdrawing Canadian financial investment in the China-centred Asia Bank, outright freezing Huawei out of Canada's 5G telecommunications might be a good start.

Paralysis, it appears, becomes Justin Trudeau, the consummate thespian whose talents on the stage have failed their occupation of the world stage.

"I think there are ways in which a stronger relationship makes it easier for our two countries to have regular, frank discussions on issues like good governance, human rights, and the rule of law. Freedom of expression is a true Canadian value, one protected by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. You see, Canada has succeeded, culturally, politically, economically because of our diversity, not in spite of it."
"I shared with them my strong conviction that acceptance of diverse perspectives will strengthen China, just as it has Canada. In a world of rapid change, it is a diversity of ideas, and the free ability to express them, that drives positive change."
"When Canadian companies partner with Chinese companies, it means more and better-paying jobs here in China as well."
"Canada encourages China to do more to promote and protect human rights."
Justin Trudeau, September 2016

Vapidly virtuous signalling; we hear you, Justin Trudeau!

Photo: Canadian Press