Global Trade? Cap-in-Hand to China

"I would like to caution the Canadian side against being too naive."
"First, it shouldn't be so naive as to believe that asking its so-called ally to pressure China will work."
"China is a country with the rule of law and the judicial authorities handle cases independently. China's judicial sovereignty brooks no interference."
Geng Shuang, spokesman, Chinese foreign ministry

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping listen to opening remarks at a plenary session at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan on Friday June 28, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Most certainly Canada is naive in its initial expectation that there would be no repercussions from its honouring an extradition treaty it has signed with the United States, under which in view of a U.S. justice order to detain Huawei's Meng Wanzhou on fraud charges, the daughter of Huawei's founder was arrested and now awaits extradition to the United States on that warrant, living the meanwhile in one of her two Vancouver mansions. Canada 'brooks no interference' in its independent judicial system.

However, Canada was swiftly disabused of its blase attitude this past January that in following both U.S. and Canadian law all would be well, when former Chinese Ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye launched into a blistering verbal assault deprecating in the sternest terms Canada's white supremacist attitude to Chinese nationals, demanding the immediate release of Ms. Meng, and promising stinging retribution were Canada to fail in heeding his warning.

This led to the arrest of two Canadians; a former diplomat and a travel entrepreneur, Michael Kovrig and Michel Spavor. When their arrest on charges of espionage -- and prison conditions including the kind of subtle torture favoured by China of never-ending interrogation, isolation, no relief from blinding lights in cells day or night, being held incommunicado, all relics of China's esteemed system of "justice" -- played out , Canada understood it was playing with fire.

And then came economic sanctions Chinese-style when the Chinese market for Canadian canola suddenly dried up because of 'pest-infested' shipments. Followed by a moratorium on the import of Canadian swine and beef products related to a mysterious matter of fake export permits whose origins are unknown. For good measure in this retaliatory war of spiteful wretchedness, two other Canadians are now on death row, charged with drug-running in a China whose mass production of deadly laboratory-produced opiates has caused powerful fentanyl and carfentanil overdoses in Canada.

While Canadian justice has honoured one of its many treaties with its neighbour -- its neighbour has hinted that the Huawei issue of side-stepping U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iranian oil which is the fulcrum around which this issue pivots -- its neighbour hints the issue could disappear if trade talks between the U.S. and China went well in the near future. During which course trade would resume as normal and American farmers could pick up the slack left by shutting Canadian farm products out of China.

With "Canada is back" cap in hand, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Washington several weeks ago to appeal to President Donald Trump to use his influence with Chinese Premier Xi to free the Canadian hostages, and President Trump agreed he would speak to Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan, because no one in the Chinese Communist Party will speak to anyone in the Canadian government. This is the same Justin Trudeau who mocked Donald Trump at the last G20 held in Quebec, no less.

"Second, it shouldn't be so naive as to believe that its so-called ally will earnestly pursue a Canadian agenda."
"They will only pay a lip service, at best. The matter is, after all, between China and Canada."
Geng Shuang, spokesman, Chinese foreign ministry

Canada and Canada alone is responsible for the degeneration of relations between itself and trade giant China, emphasize the Chinese. Not that China, in its dogged pursuit of tactics to force Canada to release Ms. Meng and abjectly apologize for overstepping its 'authority' as a sovereign nation minds a little sacrifice of its own to achieve its goals. Swine flu has decimated Chinese internally accessed pork market, leaving Chinese consumers in dire need of imports, including those now locked out of China....

Pigs at the Meloporc farm in Saint-Thomas de Joliette, Que. on June 26, 2019. Canada is investigating the origin of a tainted pork shipment and bogus documents that prompted China to ban Canadian meat and further strained tense relations.   Sebastien St-Jean / AFP / Getty

The extradition treaty between Canada and the U.S. is quite the inconvenience, at the very least in this particular event. Mind, China's 'rule of law' and system of justice it so celebrates is not particularly beloved of Chinese citizens of Hong Kong who have mounted massive protests related to just such an extradition treaty Beijing is busy imposing on Hong Kong and which the citizens of that bustling trade centre of global renown interpret as China's heavy hand in imposing itself on the semi-autonomous island-city which has just slapped that hand away.

"Who are they to say there is no value in Canada talking to its allies about issues that we have abroad in a multilateral system? That's how we do diplomacy."
"We talk [to other Western democratic nations] about those two detained Canadians, we talk of allegations that our canola somehow contains impurities. And our allies are agreeing with us. And in their own way and within their own comfort zones, there are many messages being sent to Chinese officials."
Canada's International Trade Minister Jim Carr

So how is Trudeau's Canada reacting to Beijing's bullying? Reciprocating by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods entering Canada? Threatening as China does, to cut off access to the Canadian market for Chinese goods and investment? Not quite. The Liberal government's minister of small business, Mary Ng along with the head of the Canada-China Business Council are now in China, ostensibly drumming up more business for Canada in China, making an effort to becalm Chinese waters.

A cleaner drives a sweeper-scrubber past a flower installation for the Davos meeting by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Dalian, Liaoning province, China June 11, 2019.Reuters/Stringer

China's Ultimatum

"Sending the case back for retrial gives China the opportunity to threaten death and to drag out that threat for as long as necessary."
"[If that's its intention] China has moved from merely detaining Canadians as hostages to actually threatening -- subtly, to be sure -- to kill a Canadian who would otherwise not have been executed if it does not get what it wants."
Donald Clarke, professor, expert on Chinese legal system, George Washington University

"Unless there is some dramatic turn of events, this is marching toward execution in the not-too-distant future."
"This is the most severe sentence allowed under Chinese law. It is death, with execution [after] crossing the T's and dotting the I's."
Margaret Lewis, law professor, Chinese legal system expert, Seton Hall University, New Jersey 

"I think people around the world are horrified by this case because it’s such an incredibly crass, politicized and really grotesque response to a diplomatic spat."
"It is a profoundly politicized system that we generally believe can’t possibly deliver on fair trial rights or real justice."
Sophie Richardson, China director, Human Rights Watch

Quietly working its way through Chinese courts for years, the case against Robert Schellenberg, a native of British Columbia, held on charges of being part of a plan to smuggle 220 kilograms of methanphetamines from the port city of Dallian to Australia has suddenly been accelerated. It took four years for his case to be heard, and the outcome was a prison sentence of fifteen years. He immediately set in motion an appeal of his sentence in the hope it might be reduced. In so doing suddenly bringing attention to the fact that China had a Canadian accused of a criminal offence so grave it warranted a death sentence.

Mr. Schellenberg was aghast at his 15-year sentence for a crime he claims he was never involved in. Reason, he felt, would prevail, and his harsh sentence reduced considerably, on appeal. But fate had other plans, landing him squarely in a controversial diplomatic row between Canada and China when Huawei's chief financial officer was arrested in Vancouver for extradition to the United States on a warrant for her apprehension. She is now out on bail, awaiting a final decision on extradition, but two other Canadians doing business in China have been arrested, accused of threats to China's national security.

Unlike Meng Wanzhou's December arrest in Canada where she was handled with kid gloves, allowed a lawyer, given bail and is living in one of her luxury homes in Vancouver, the two Canadian businessmen will remain incarcerated under conditions described as typical of Chinese psychological and emotional deprivation torture. Mr. Schellenberg will not be as fortunate. A Chinese court set aside his appeal and ordered a retrial. A one-day retrial was followed an  hour later by a guilty verdict and death sentence. This is China playing furious hardball.

Meng Wanzhou is the daughter of Huawei's founder   Reuters

China is among a handful of countries for whom drug trafficking merits execution. And the Communist Party dictatorship sees fit to put to death more offenders of Chinese law than any other country with similar laws but lacking its immense population base. An estimated 20 foreigners have been given the death penalty for drug trafficking, and executed. The irony is that Canada finds itself in a really hard place, with its neighbour and largest trading partner sharing most of its own social and political and legal values on one hand, and the world's most populous nation with its own rules of law and politics unlike those of any democracy on the other.

It is, however, a trading giant surpassing even the United States in the scope of its business ties and trade potential for any country that signs a free trade deal with it. Which is exactly what the Liberal government of Canada has been attempting to do for the past few years, bedazzled by the economic prospects with future trade ties and prepared to overlook human rights violations as an inconvenience to achieving an end. It is now another type of end that beckons a Canadian citizen as a furious China accuses Canada of illegal apprehension of a Chinese citizen.

Of Mr. Schellenberg, Justice Neill Brown noted in 2011 in Chilliwack, British Columbia, as he sentenced him to two years in prison: "He is either going to cure himself of his addiction and reform himself and turn off the path that he has been on or he is not. I should caution you. Do not ever underestimate the seriousness of this kind of an offence." The offence? drug trafficking and impaired-driving convictions from 2003 to 2012. It appears he learned nothing, made no effort to change his values and his addiction, and now faces grim consequences.

"The Canadian government really needs to issue advice to its citizens, not for any possible danger in travelling to China, but to warn them against involving in such grave crime as drug trafficking,"
"[Prime Minister Trudeau should] respect the rule of law, respect China’s judicial sovereignty, correct mistakes and stop making irresponsible remarks [and release Meng Wangzou]."
"[China] remains open to and welcomes people from all countries, including from Canada [as long as they obey the law]. The facts have proven that China is a safe place."
Hua Chunying, spokesperson, Chinese Foreign Ministry