The Chinese Behemoth on a Global Aggression Binge

"China is threatening our citizens and undermining our rights and freedoms with its covert operations in Canada. Everything should be under consideration to defend Canada and Canadians -- including a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics."

"Canada is a winter sports powerhouse. No Winter Olympics could be a success without Canada's participation."

Michael Chong, Conservative Member of Parliament, Opposition foreign affairs critic

 

"The decision on whether or not to participate in the Olympic and Paralympic games lies with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, as they operate independently of the government."

Department of Canadian Heritage 

"There's no question that there's aspects of what the Chinese are doing that fits into the definition of genocide in the genocide convention [in Beijing's persecution of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province so I've asked the UN Human Rights Council to investigate]."

Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae

"I would like to ask this ambassador, if his logic is plausible in finding out who best fits the label of genocide, it seems that it is not the Uyghurs who are persecuted, but rather the people of Canada, am I right?"

"How did [Ambassador Rae] reach his conclusion without any evidence?"

Chinese Foreign Minister Zhao Lijian

China is not, on the record, very given to respecting human rights. Its occupation of Tibet and subsequent persecution of Tibetans, its incarceration of up to a million Uyghurs in massive 're-education' compounds to free them from the bonds of Islam and re-acquaint them with the merciful and opportunist merits of the Communist system represents a harmonious alternative to the dread 'splitism' challenging the Chinese Communist Party's authority. 

China's aggression toward its neighbours claiming ownership of disputed air, sea and land territories in the South China Sea, its installation of military bases on islands claimed by its neighbours and occupied by China, its border challenges to India in the Himalaya, all attest to Beijing's new assertiveness through intimidation, threat and military intervention. Beijing's Belt and Road enterprise from Africa to the Middle East  uses carrots instead of sticks, all geared unerringly toward power, influence and conquest.

 

 

When push comes to shove, Beijing has no equals. It has been shoving Australia around for pursuing an enquiry into the actions that China took at the turn of 2020 when the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID became a global threat of colossal proportions. China has launched a propaganda campaign of misinformation alleging that the virus emanated originally from Europe, then entered China, not that it escaped from a non-secure biological laboratory in Wuhan, China, to surface there as a dread disease that would go on to become a global pandemic.

China has abducted innocent Canadians characterizing them as a threat to the People's Republic of China, imprisoned them and intimates they could be released with the release from custody of Huawei's CFO taken into custody in Vancouver at the extradition request of U.S. authorities, where she resides in comfort in her two luxury Vancouver mansions, while Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig have spent two agonizing years exposed to subtle Chinese torture charged as "spying on national secrets".

Canada, a member of the "Five Eyes" intelligence coalition of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, is the only one among them which has failed to announce that Huawei Technologies will not take part in Canada's 5G upgrades, as the others have done. The coalition issued a joint statement on Hong Kong to the effect: "China’s action is a clear breach of its international obligations under the legally binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration. It breaches both China’s commitment that Hong Kong will enjoy a ‘high degree of autonomy’, and the right to freedom of speech."

Pro-democracy legislator Ted Hui Nov.18,2020.AP Photo/Vincent Yu

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman warned the Five Eyes countries to stay out of China's affairs saying: "They should be careful or their eyes will be plucked out."

"The Chinese never make trouble and are never afraid of anything," Zhao Lijian told journalists in Beijing on Thursday, saying it did not "matter if they had five or 10 eyes". BBC

Canada, along with other Western nations has been plagued with state-sponsored cyber threats that have become the "new normal", emanating from hackers in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. China has for decades engaged in commercial and military espionage. One of the telecommunications successes in Canada, Nortel, with its huge networks and advanced technologies was a giant in its field, one that employed Chinese technicians who took what they learned at Nortel to build Huawei while destroying Nortel.

It is past time for this Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to do a number of things: inform Beijing without equivocation that it will no longer tolerate that two Canadians are being held ransom. Three other Canadians have been given death sentences, on convictions of drug peddling, sentences that just happened to coincide with the Huawei affair. 

 

Huawei should be informed without further delay that they will not be involved in Canada's 5G upgrade. The federal government and the Canadian Sports Federation should agree that Canada is set to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.

 

Chinese police patrol outside the Olympic Stadium in Beijing on July 21, 2008. Canada seems perfectly prepared to send its athletes to a sporting competition in a country where two of its citizens are held in state custody. Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

And no longer should Canada tolerate China's outreach within Canada, not only its intolerable spying, but its intimidation of Chinese-Canadian citizens. The world is very much aware of Chinese bullying in its belief that its destiny is to become the world's sole powerhouse, that its time has come and it will no longer take the advice of Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s that China should bide its time; observe carefully, secure its position, cope with affairs calmly and bide its time.