Chinese-Produced Security Gear -- Five Eyes Intelligence Group

"The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces take physical and corporate security extremely seriously and ensures it has a robust and effective security program in place."

"This is accomplished through the development and maintenance of a comprehensive security policy, tailored to both DND/CAF departmental and operational requirements through which we continually assess the effectiveness of our security practices."

"Acquisitions are done in accordance with DND/CAF [Department of National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces] industrial security program protocols, which provides oversight of the risks associated with supply chain integrity commensurate with the intended final use of goods/services."

National Defence spokesperson Dan Le Bouthillier

"Both the human and technical reach of Chinese companies now give the intelligence services opportunities to gain direct access to many governments within the developing world as well as many Allied and European countries with inroads into other societies."

Canadian Security Intelligence Service

"[If Canadian communication passes through their equipment, the companies could be] compelled to comply with extrajudicial directions from foreign governments in ways that would conflict with Canadian laws or would be detrimental to Canadian interests."

Bill C-26, Cybersecurity Law

Getty Images

 

Bill C-26, a proposed cybersecurity law would allow the government to order private telecom networks to extract gear from China-based Huawei and ZTE should their equipment allow Canadian communication to pass through to a foreign government. Canada, as a member of the Five-Eyes intelligence security group, along with the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand is now out of step with those other four nations in the laxity of the Liberal government's reaction to obvious breaches in national security posed by Chinese equipment.

This, despite the fact that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has given due warning to the government that China's National Intelligence Law authorizes Beijing to compel Chinese companies' cooperation with intelligence-gathering. This is a law that not only pertains to companies operating within China, but those with branches and operations globally; all are expected to respond to the National Intelligence Law. This is a law that extends to expatriate Chinese with citizenship in other countries, as well.

DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier notes that all closed-circuit video gear comes courtesy of a list of vendors the government's procurement department maintains. Vendors who generally install and maintain equipment they purchase from manufacturers for the purpose of reselling them. The United States initiated a cull of Chinese-produced cameras out of its public security systems in 2019 -- products from Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua specifically targeted, as have other allies in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.

The Department of National Defence in Canada explained it would not follow the U.S. ban of multiple models of security cameras manufactured in China, partly because there are 20,000 DND buildings, none of which properties are managed centrally. Moreover an inventory of where security gear emanates from has never been developed by DND. The United Kingdom and Australia share the U.S. concerns of devices manufactured in China having the potential to endanger national security.

The U.K. in 2022 ordered its government agencies that new Chinese cameras were not to be installed at sensitive sites; further that Chinese-made surveillance equipment from core networks be disconnected, and plans forwarded to remove such equipment altogether. The United States Federal Communications Commission moved to restrict sale of security equipment even to ordinary consumers, of several Chinese brands.

Many police departments in Britain use cameras from Chinese manufacturers, pointed out the British government surveillance watchdog, cautioning that software updates can create new backdoors in equipment following initial installation. Australia's defence minister committed to that country removing Chinese-made cameras from government buildings, while New Zealand this month saw a news probe discovering that Chinese surveillance technology permeates government buildings -- and calls are being made for an audit on the devices.

Surveillance cameras manufactured by Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. are mounted on a post at a testing station near the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, China, on Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Hikvision, which is controlled by the Chinese government, is one of the leaders in the market for surveillance technology, with cameras that can produce sharp, full-color images in fog and near-total darkness. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Britain's Problem with Grooming Girls for Trafficking

"They have effectively been nabbing British children and trafficking them across the Syrian border for delivery to ISIS all in the name of intelligence gathering."

"Britain has lauded ts efforts to stop ISIS and the grooming of our children by sending millions of pounds on the Prevent program and online monitoring. However, at the very same time we have been cooperating with a western ally, trading sensitive intelligence with them [while they worked with Mohammed Al Rashed, claiming to spy for Canada]."

"The calculation here is that the lives of British children, and the risk of their death, is part of the algorithm of acceptable risk that our Western allies have taken."

Tasnime Akunjee, lawyer for Shamima Begum, ISIS 'bride'

"He organized the entire trip from Turkey to Syria ... I don't think anyone would have been able to make it to Syria without the help of smugglers."

"He had helped a lot of people come in ... We were just doing everything he was telling us to do because he knew everything we didn't know anything."

Shamima Begum, former British citizen, ISIS supporter

Shamima Begum made worldwide headlines when, at 15, she left the U.K. with two teenage friends to join ISIS. (Alba Sotorra/Sky Documentaries)

"There is absolutely no doubt that the Canadians worked on this and also it brings into question ... about what role Britain played."

"The only way to get to the bottom of this is to have an enquiry [with access to CSIS documents]."

"For seven years now, this has been covered up by the Canadians. I think the coverup is worse than the offence in many ways here because you would expect human intelligence agencies to recruit members of criminal groups and terrorist groups."

Richard Kerbaj, author The Secret History of the Five Eyes

What?! Canada whete the progressive government remains a trusted member of the Five Eyes intelligence group comprised of Britain, the U.S. Australia, New Zealand and Canada, dedicated to fighting terrorism and promising justice and peace will prevail, has had a hand in child smuggling to provide 'wives' from the U.K. to the Islamic State group? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the self-celebrated 'feminist' involved in pimping young girls for terrorist consumption?

The connections as d tailed by the former security beat reporter for the British Sunday Times from 2010 to 2020 evidently has the evidence required to make those explosive charges. Mind, Canada is accused of being complicit in a tangential way of uniting three determined British Muslim schoolgirls with their self-chosen destination of wifely duties to a brave new cohort of Islamist terrorists in the belief that the brave new world Islamic State's caliphate was creating should include them, as passionate believers.

The book, highlighting western intelligence agencies' intelligence connections contends that even while British police were on the search for three schoolgirls who surreptitiously abandoned their homes in London in 2015 in favour of travelling to Syria to be united with ISIS terrorists, Canadian diplomatic officials and intelligence officers failed to inform Britain what they knew of the girls' location, much less how they happened to arrive there. Further, once the information was divulged to Britain, both countries dedicated themselves to a coverup.

Shamima Begum, languishing in a Kurdish operated detention camp in Syria's Kurdistan was 15 when she absconded to unite with Islamic State warriors as a willing bride. She has fought for years to be returned to Britain, causing British authorities to respond by withdrawing her citizenship and with that move, her compassionate welcome back to Britain. With Begum when she left Britain were two other girls, Amira Abase, 14, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, all three schoolmates.

 

(Left to right) Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and 15-year-old Amira Abase go through security at Gatwick airport before catching a flight to Turkey on Feb 17, 2015. (Metropolitan Police/The Associated Press)

 

Begum claims to be a victim of human trafficking; her defence against any charges that she intended to join ISIS; rather than that the last segment of her trip having been facilitated by a helpful Syrian man who knew the ropes and was eager to accommodate the girls' agenda. In turn, that man, a Syrian dentist who fled the civil war and made contact with Canada's spy agency as a potential humint ally, was meant to convey information to CSIS about Canadians who entered Syria to fight with ISIS; definitely not to escort schoolchildren into Syria to join the terrorist group.

According to the former reporter, author of the book with this explosive, albeit not new revelations, Canada's role in the situation has been well documented. Prime Minister Trudeau when confronted had a response, as he generally does: "The fight against terrorism requires our intelligence services to continue to be flexible and to be creative in their approaches, but every step of the way, they are bound by strict rules, by principles and values that Canadians hold dear ... and we expect that those rules be followed.

"I know there are questions about certain incidents or operations of the past and we will ensure to follow up on this", he concluded. "Rigorous oversight mechanisms" monitor CSIS operations, but he would consider, if required, "further steps". No other Canadian ministerial officials had any comments; not the public safety minister nor the department of public safety, much less Canada's foreign affairs department. All recommended further questions be addressed to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

 

As for London's Metropolitan police; sensitivity prevented public discussion: "We do not comment on matters relating to intelligence", confided Met spokesman Matthew Russell. Mohammed Rashed, the man behind the smuggling of girls into Syria claims, received focus in 2015 following the disappearance of the three schoolgirls who left their homes to fly to Turkey for the purpose of joining the Islamic State. There, they happened to meet Rashed.

Who helped them enter ISIS controlled territory. For which gesture Turkish police arrested him shortly afterward. Leaving Turkish media to report on Turkish intelligence leaks in 2015, that Rashed carried documents, photos and videos revealing his actions, one video taken by Rashed with a hidden camera showing him escorting the missing British girls near the border between Turkey and Syria. Turkish intelligence was apprised by Rashed while in custody that when he sought asylum in Canada in 2013 he was offered citizenship in exchange for information on ISIS.

Thereafter he worked for CSIS, passing information through the Canadian embassy in Jordan. Rashed claimed during interrogation that he was paid by Canada to investigate the flow of foreign fighters to Islamic State battlegrounds. Rashed. according to The Secret History of the Five Eyes author, sent passport information, luggage details, photos and other information to Canada. Details on Begum and her friends included.

It should perhaps be noted that Britain has a problem with young girls being groomed for prostitution in Britain. For years Pakistani gangs have recruited and groomed young girls to be passed around as sex objects. Neither the British government nor the British press appears to have been much impressed that this has been occurring although it has been well known for many years and not much to help these impoverished and vulnerable girls appears to have been done. The girls sacrificed for fear of being labelled 'racist' in holding Pakistani gangs to account.

Rotherham, a large market town in South Yorkshire, is at the heart of the grooming-gangs scandal. In 2012, The Times revealed that a confidential 2010 police report had warned that vast numbers of children were being sexually exploited in South Yorkshire each year by organised networks of men ‘largely of Pakistani heritage’.  Spiked

Huawei, a Communication Upgrade Headache

"The federal government has no choice but to announce that Huawei will not be allowed [given Chinese national security laws and the United Ststes' position on Huawei]."

"This would be an easy way to demonstrate to the Americans that we are taking security questions related to China seriously."

Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to China 

"All of our key allies have banned Huawei gear [banning Huawei is a] no-brainer."

"I don't think I would expect a lot of immediate dramatic reaction on China's part, just simply because the Olympics are coming up. And China wouldn't want to do anything that would rock the boat."

"And so if you're going to pull a band-aid off, you might as well do it now [since Canada-China relations are at such a low ebb in any event]."

David Welch, professor of political science, University of Waterloo

"[Going the same route as our Five Eyes allies who have taken action to block or restrict Huawei equipment is] of critical importance."

"All of the members have to have roughly the same perspective on the security of their broader infrastructure networks. But there's also the kind of political symbolic perspective. It would have been significant had ... one of the members of the Western alliance sort of broken ranks and embraced Huawei when everyone else was rejecting it."

"If we don't ban Huawei gear, it's very likely our Five Eyes allies will say, all right, you can't participate in the same way that you've been participating because there are potential leaks in your communications infrastructure."

Kim Nossal, professor emeritus of international relations, Queen's University

The Huawei brand logo is seen on a building in the sprawling Huawei headquarters campus in Shenzhen, China, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

"[In the time period since the government's 5G security review was first announced in 2018], existing rules have remained in effect, and so we have continued selling network equipment -- several hundred million dollars worth -- to Canadian operators."

"Most Canadian cities and provinces have had Huawei equipment in their networks for many years, without incident. Indeed, we are proud of our security record in Canada."

"For years, Huawei equipment has been closely and routinely scrutinized by the government and its security agencies. There have been no security incidents -- none -- relating to Huawei equipment in Canada."

Alykhan Velshi, vice-president of corporate affairs, Huawei Canada

Through the last few years with Canada and the world at large grappling with Beijing's 'hostage diplomacy' whereby the regime whose rage is readily piqued, decides to take a foreigner into custody charging them with exploitation or drug smuggling or more commonly, sabotage, in reaction to what the Communist Party of China sees as an affront to China's dignity, as punishment for lack of respect and discretion, two Canadians spent almost three years in prison following the arrest on an extradition warrant by the U.S. for Huawei's CFO.

Countries the world over have condemned China for its violently harsh treatment of its minority Uyghur population in Xnjiang, along with the persecution of Tibetans. Its territorial claims to disputed areas of the South China Sea and its actions in Hong Kong denying its agreed-upon semi-autonomy to quash its aspirations in democracy, alongside its threats to Taiwan have not endeared China to much of the world. Under President Xi Jinping with his ruler-for-life ambitions The CCP has become increasingly belligerent.

Its Belt and Road initiative to gain it greater trade advantages and financially obligating impoverished countries in Africa and the Middle East in indebtedness to the massive infrastructure loans in pursuing the widespread, China-advantageous old Silk Road spells out Beijing's route to the future as a world power. But for the West in particular, it is China's ongoing cyber-spying in intelligence gathering and exploiting of corporate and military secrets through cyber surveillance and rogue cyber-warfare that disturbs the free world.

Of the Five Eyes intelligence coalition comprised of Britain, New Zealand, Australia the United States and Canada, only Canada's government alone has failed to declare that its 5G national communications upgrade would exclude Huawei. Canada has made no response whatever to China's constant interference in internal Canadian affairs, its covert infiltration of Canadian society, academia, corporate business, and politics. Nor the moves Beijing has taken to punish Canada for its Meng Wanzhou detainment through halting its imports of key agricultural products.

Despite all the diplomatic 'tiger' slings and arrows Beijing has directed Canada's way, the Trudeau government has continued to tread lightly, absorbing the insults while abstaining from taking counter actions itself. China has warned Canada of 'consequences' should Huawei not be included in its 5G upgrade. Canada quavers, China emits bellicose threats. Huawei has been banned in the West's communications systems a little late in the day, but later is better than not at all. 

The fear that Huawei equipment in the next-generation wireless networking risks security is a well-founded caution, particularly in view of China's laws stating that companies with any state connection -- as almost all have -- are legally obligated to cooperate with China's intelligence services. China appeals to its expatriate community's loyalty to China, to be faithful to their country of origin by willingly cooperating with Chinese intelligence as well.

In the arguments for banning Huawei by Canadian China experts, former Ambassador Saint-Jacques predicts China would "probably retaliate by banning one of our exports", or some such similar and symbolic measure of its displeasure with Canada. Pointing out that to do so would mean selecting a product they would be able to obtain elsewhere, something fungible, so that China would not deprive itself and its population of badly needed products like pork and soya. With agri-foods "there is a limited number of countries where they can source their products", he points out.

Large Canadian telecoms would not be impacted deleteriously by the Huawei ban, since having pro-actively moved independently, to change to Nokia products while awaiting a government decision, to build their 5G networks with equipment from other sources. There "seems to be a lot of agonizing over a decision which, in effect,  has already been made" by Canada's large telecoms, noted Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University.

The situation will hit other, smaller telecom companies who will be faced with the expense and work of removing Huawei equipment from their existing infrastructure, and whether government would be prepared to underwrite their costs. Even for the leading wireless carriers the cost of removing Huawei equipment would land in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As Telus informed government in3018, "a full ban on Huawei for 5G will force operators to replace their existing 4G Huawei equipment -- an expensive and complex proposition over an elongated time frame".

Should the Trudeau government finally proceed with banning Huawei, national and cybersecurity experts warn that prohibition of Huawei equipment won't alone ensure securing Canada's 5G networks against cybertheft and intrusion. Toronto-based Citizen Lab's reported cautioned that banning Huawei "will not solve the issue of foreign operators conducting espionage, disruption, or attack operations against the Government of Canada, private companies, or private persons who rely on non-Huawei equipment." 

Meng Wanzhou delivers a statement to members of the media as she exits provincial court in Vancouver, Canada, on Sept. 24. Photographer: Jimmy Jeong/Bloomberg

"[Security concerns go beyond Huawei]; All 5G equipment has terrible cybersecurity flaws."

"China doesn't need Huawei to hack us."

"China can hack us right now."

"Banning Huawei doesn't make us safe."

Stehanie Carvin, associate professor of international relations, Carleton University

Diplomatic Sensitivies Bruised All Around

"[The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have embarked on a folly] severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts."

"China always believes that any regional mechanism should conform to the trend of peace and development of the times and help enhance mutual trust and cooperation..."

"It should not target any third party or undermine its interests."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, Beijing

 

"Now that we have created AUKUS we expect to accelerate the development of other advanced defence systems including in cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and undersea capabilities."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

 

"This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do. I am angry and bitter."

"This isn't done between allies."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

 

"We all recognize the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term."

"We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region, and how it may evolve because the future of each of our nations and indeed the world depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead."

U.S. President Joe Biden

 

Of the Five Eyes Intelligence group left out of this arrangement between the three ranking members, New Zealand and Canada have remained mute on the issue. They were no less than France taken by surprise at a move that left them stranded. France's outrage is of an entirely different dimension; it stands, through this arrangement, to lose a lucrative contract signed with Australia to produce a nuclear submarine program for Australia.

It is beyond laughable as the very height of sophistry for Beijing to declare itself offended at the impolite behaviour of the three allies, considering itself -- and rightly so, and very well earned -- the ultimate target of the move. It immediately inveighed against the dangerously unscrupulous pact that produced AUKUS to provide Australia with technology and capability for the deployment of nuclear-powered submarines, when it has been itself building a powerful, large and advanced naval fleet to rival that of the sole world power with the largest military on the planet -- the U.S.

Facts do get in the way of Beijing's shocked condemnation, since it is itself responsible for the alarm and foreboding felt by its neighbours as a result of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's belligerent aggression toward contested territory claimed by its neighbours but dominated by China. All the metrics of advanced technology aligned with military hardware have been used by China to threaten its neighbours and by extension its Western adversaries, alarmed at Beijing's new militarism.

 

For France, the AUKUS arrangement is a betrayal brutal and unpredictable. Insofar as it has lost a valued contract, and a lot of face in the process. Its allies drove an armed vehicle up its private alleyway and detonated it to France's consternation; this is not the least bit collegial. Traditionally on the edge of suspicion and challenge, France and Britain are both allies and competitor-adversaries. The pact, claimed Prime Minister Johnson, would reduce the costs of Britain's next generation of nuclear submarines. 

Pity that French shipbuilder Naval Group has been left out in the cold, mourning its loss of a $60 billion agreement to build a new submarine fleet for Australia, replacing its elderly submarine fleet. France now upbraids the Biden administration for 'stabbing it in the back'. Allies simply do not behave like this. Except that ... they do on occasion. Canada metaphorically shrugs and diplomatically screens its level of consternation. New Zealand has declared that Australia's nuclear-powered submarines are not to be permitted entry to its territorial waters.

 

Australia announced a nuclear-powered submarine deal with the US and UK on Wednesday, abandoning an agreement previously brokered with France. Credit: Shutterstock

 

"At the level of process, the mishandling of consultations with the French over the sub deal marks the third occasion in the last eight months in which the Biden administration appears to have committed an unforced error vis-à-vis alliance relations. The other two are the apparent lack of operational coordination with allies over the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the anger in Central and Eastern Europe over Washington’s willingness to accommodate Germany on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. For an administration that came into office preaching the importance of allies, these three instances paint a disconcerting picture of a team that either doesn’t prioritize relations with some close allies like France or cannot run an effective policy-formulation process that balances competing interests. Certainly, the lack of confirmed appointees at the departments of State and Defense matters to some degree here, yet these unforced errors occurred despite the fact that the president’s team is in place at the National Security Council. In order to convey the notion that the president won’t tolerate any more missteps with America’s closest allies—and to genuinely fix whatever isn’t working within the National Security Council (NSC)—the White House should reallocate responsibilities, juggle titles, and/or create a special assistant position in the NSC for coordination of allied efforts vis-à-vis Moscow and Beijing."

Dr. John R. Deni is a research professor at the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.  

 

Beijing's 'Re-education' Venture for Xinjiang Uyghurs and Canada's Official Reaction

"I'm scratching my head and wondering why Canada, which has the Magnitsky act specifically for this purpose, doesn't apply those sanctions right now."
"So, I'm here today to strongly advocate for Canada to join the United States in sanctioning the Chinese officials responsible for this [Uyghur crisis], and to hopefully expand that sanctions list so that many more people in China who are perpetrating this genocide are held responsible."
Bill Browder, U.S. financier, Magnitsky law proponent

"We did this, the Mulroney government did this [enacted Canada's Magnitsky law]. We could be working with the Commonwealth again, and with our Five Eyes partners."
"We can play a leadership role with free countries in saying we're not going to be pushed around by China any more, and we're not going to tolerate these human rights violations."
David Sweet, Conservative Member of Parliament; shadow minister for international rights and religious freedom

The Taekwang factory is among those employing Uighurs  Getty Images

China is now synonymous with visions of mass incarcerations of the Turkic Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, an entire population of millions who have been forced to undergo 're-education', slave labour, forced sterilization of Uyghur women, organ harvesting and systematic torture. Not that the treatment of Buddhist Tibetans have been much better, depriving them too of their sovereignty, arresting and imprisoning those who agitate against Chinese occupation, re-settling Han Chinese in Tibet to achieve a majority population base against the indigenous Tibetans.

The country that has embarked on a massive, mass surveillance program to identify and target all its inhabitants. Where members of Falun Gong are persecuted and imprisoned, where Chinese Christians are similarly persecuted, their churches closed down, forcing the faithful to accept Beijing's puppet Christian authority. The People's Republic of China rules its giant population with the hammer-blow of a titan's fist. Hong Kong is buckling under the weight of the Chinese Communist Party's belt now tucked firmly around the city, bringing it tightly into Beijing's breath-and-freedom-destroying embrace.

A recent subcommittee on international human rights of the standing committee on foreign affairs and international development in Ottawa has been considering what Canada could and should do in support of human rights and the plight in particular of the Uyghurs. All the weight, width and breadth of Beijing's exploitation of human rights to suit its purposes are well know, have been documented, and universally deplored. Yet despite the acknowledgement and the censure, Canada through its Liberal-led government gives no indication that it feels any obligation to hold China to basic human rights respect.

Committee member MP Sweet has the idea that a roster of Chinese officials should be sanctioned under the Magnitsky law and for the government of Canada to energetically pursue a coalition of like-minded allies to pressure and shame Beijing into standing back in its violent aggression against the Uyghurs for starters. Beijing's hostility and belligerence against its geographic neighbours over its assertions of sovereignty over disputed territories, and its claims to ownership of the East and South China Seas has not endeared it in its own neighbourhood.

Multinational cooperation doesn't appear, however, to appeal to the Trudeau government, preferring to look beyond China's infringement on the rights of other countries in the region, much less the human rights it is destroying in its own interior in its campaign to achieve 'harmony' and avoid 'splitism'. Its solution is to crush all resistance. A situation that Hong Kong knows well, and Taiwan girds itself to meet with determination against Beijing's future plans.

Note: Multiple dormitory buildings and a teaching building appear to be completely fenced in and isolated in a style that resembles other political indoctrination camps. Additionally, five small factory warehouse buildings have been constructed in the enclosed area. Source: ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre.

The Trudeau government still honours contracts with Chinese corporations either with links to the Chinese Communist Party or wholly owned by Beijing. While all other members of the "Five Eyes" cooperative intelligence group consisting of New Zealand, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. have informed Huawei that it may no longer harbour any intention to take part in those countries' 5G upgrade, Canada remains uncommitted to informing Huawei of such a decision on its part.

Uyghur workers with Hubei Yihong Precision Manufacturing Co. Ltd on their transfer between Xinjiang and Xianning, Hubei. This photograph was taken outside of Wuchang train station in Wuhan, Hubei’s provincial capital, in May 2018. Source  Australian Strategic Policy Institute

The Liberal government committed the National Research Council to a COVID-19 vaccine partnership with CanSino Biologics which is linked to the People's Liberation Army. The National Research Council is to begin production of vaccines once the final research project in a successful vaccine is concluded. Yet the Chinese government has refused to ship the experimental vaccine to the Canadian Center for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University, which is contractually linked to CanSino Biologics. It's the kind of move that Beijing is famous for.

"It seems to me that China has completed the phase of fullscale cultural genocide and entered the extermination level of an entire ethnic group."
"The time is over for raising concerns privately with Chinese officials. Uyghurs will be erased within the span of one generation."
Mehmet Tohti, co-founder, World Uighur Congress

(Photo by Felipe Dupouy/Getty Images)