Canada needs to be cautious about pivoting from the U.S. lest it fall into China’s arms

For all of the confusion about where the Ottawa-Washington meltdown will lead, one thing seems certain. The big winners of this diplomatic collapse will be China and other repressive dictatorships eager to become our new “strategic” partners and further undermine the world’s stabilizing democracy bloc.

Opinion piece by Charles Burton, former diplomat at Canada’s embassy in Beijing, senior fellow at Sinopsis.cz, a China-focused think tank based in Prague, Czech Republic. He is and author of ‘The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security and Sovereignty’.

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Beijing in particular wants to inherit Canada’s economic dependence. Establishing such a broader North American beachhead will only further President Xi Jinping’s resolute goal of displacing the U.S. as a global hegemon, and cementing a China-dominated world order whose very foundation is the rejection of democratic freedoms and human rights.

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If Canada ever reaches a point where attacks on our economy put families’ livelihoods at stake, then standing firm on our moral principles will give way to tolerating – or at least ignoring – human rights abuses in exchange for restoring Canadian prosperity through trade and investment with the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China. As someone who has been sanctioned by both Beijing and Moscow for standing up for Canadian democratic and civil values in global affairs, this prospect is deeply troubling.

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When Mr. Xi makes a landmark trip to North America next month, it is expected he will add a Canadian stop, the first time in 16 years a Chinese head of state has visited this country. And this at a time when there have been calls for Ottawa to scrap restrictions on importing Chinese-made EVs, to locate Chinese auto factories here, and to even encourage Canadians to buy “Great Wall wine” instead of Californian.

In contrast to the belligerent threats that Canadians have been conditioned to expect from Washington, the Chinese President will project dignity and a tone of respect and goodwill toward Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Canadian business associates, who will be offering a warm welcome to the Chinese delegation.

But like Howitt’s “Spider and the Fly,” in which a cunning spider uses seduction and manipulation to lure a fly into its web, Canada should be wary of those who wield flattery and charm to disguise other intentions. Rushing to embrace China’s expansionist and calculating totalitarian regime will never work out well for Canada’s overall interest.

In the current hostile landscape, Canada could find itself deeply regretting coming out of an American frying pan into a Chinese fire.

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  • OliveBrittle@piefed.caEnglish
    18·
    11 hours ago

    “Yeah, the person I’m married to threatens me, punishes me, insults me, and doesn’t value my consent, but it’s better than what the other person could be”

    Literal battered woman syndrome. Look, I don’t like China or want more trade with them either, but can we please stop pretending doing business with them will be worse than doing business with the U.S.? One keeps their issues much more domestic than the other? I don’t see China raising world oil prices by bombing Iran, raising my cost of living with absurd tariffs, or going back on their word.

    We struck a deal with them, and they removed duties for our canola, crab, peas, and lobster for us letting in their EVs, which opens us up for job creation should they bring manufacturing operations here. In turn, we were made exempt from visa requirements to travel to China. I can see the benefits of that deal because they up the income of our farmers and fishers, open up job potential, and make travelling across the world easier for us.

    That is how you strike a deal. They are reliable, the U.S. is not, plain and simple. If this guy’s opinion is that China wants less democracy in the world, then I’d like to point to the amount of dictators America backs and has instated. Let’s stop pretending that only one pulls that crap when they both do.