Canada needs to smarten up about China
We risk abetting an authoritarian value system, writes Charles Burton.
If you believe the Chinese Xinhua News Agency, Canada is blithely considering a Chinese Communist proposal to sell out the liberal values that define global institutions such as the United Nations and World Trade Organization, in favour of a made-in-China model that will serve Beijing ’s authoritarian nationalist aspirations.
China’s official state news agency said that Song Tao — who heads the Communist Party Central Committee’s International Liaison Department — briefed Canadian officials last month on Beijing ’s plan to displace the United States as the world’s superpower by “building of a community with a shared future for mankind,” which Xinhua said is “not only important to China but bears profound interest for the rest of the world.”
The decisions being made now are going to radically change the values of global diplomacy and justice for the next century or more. What Canada needs to do is seriously rethink its approach to China, in order to meet the challenge of China’s rise.
A good start is to recognize the yawning need for regulations that monitor western public servants and politicians who, after they retire from government, go into lucrative businesses and consultancies funded by Chinarelated sources.
When former officials enrich themselves with Beijing ’s money, once they’re no longer managing China-related policy, it raises huge questions about whether these people had been compromised in defending Canada’s national interests vis-à-vis China while in office. A post-retirement second career, trading on their China-related “friendships” cultivated in government service, is just not OK.
Multi-ethnic nations such as Canada should encourage citizens of Chinese origin to seek political office; we need legislatures that reflect our diversity. But the sole legitimate function of a politician is to serve the purposes of their nation of citizenship. Any politicians with divided loyalties who spend a lot of time in China for vaguely defined purposes should not have a voice in policy-making impinging on the interests of China in Canada.
And, obviously, Canadian political parties should not be accepting funding from foreign sources, indirectly or otherwise. Most western nations’ thinktanks that advise on China relations routinely accept funding from China-related sources. And our media often provide an influential platform to apologist pundits whose grants and China travel are on Beijing ’s dime through “exchanges.”
Canada indeed urgently needs a lot more expertise on China so we can better realize our interests with that country, but we should pay for it ourselves.
We also need to get more resources to our police and security agencies to counter Chinese subversion. Any accredited diplomat who menaces or harasses people in Canada, including ethnic Chinese democracy activists or members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities, in ways that are incompatible with their diplomatic status should be declared persona non grata and sent home.
Likewise, Chinese state security agents who enter Canada under false pretences for the same purposes should be tracked down and criminally charged.
Getting serious about defending against subversion is another important national security concern. Ottawa must expend more energy combating Chinese political, military and eco- nomic espionage, and put more resources into identifying people who transfer Canadian secrets and restricted technologies to agents of the Chinese state.
Beyond our own borders, democracy in Taiwan and Hong Kong should be celebrated, but we shun their progressive leaders who share our values because China tells us to — or else. Canadian leaders should continue to meet with the Dalai Lama periodically, as a legitimate expression of our concern over the situation of Tibetans in China. We must apply our human rights standards equally to all people.
Finally, it is shocking that there is even a debate over whether Beijing, through the China Communications Construction Company, should be allowed to purchase Canada’s largest publicly traded construction company, Aecon Group. This in itself reveals serious flaws in Canada’s China policy.
Aecon helped build the CN Tower, Vancouver’s SkyTrain, the St. Lawrence Seaway and is about to work on the Darlington nuclear power plant. The growing public outcry against the sale led the government to announce this week that it will order a full national security review. But we will never know what the review indicates as cabinet will assess it in secret.
If Ottawa bows to Chinese pressure and allows this sale, expect the new version of Aecon to enter unrealistically competitive bids on critical Canadian infrastructure projects, and the Chinese military to have the blueprints of all past and future Aecon projects in perpetuity for their own use, or to share with North Korea should it work that way.
The Aecon purchase is just one small piece, but a large indicator, of a larger, co-ordinated Chinese Communist plan. Let’s come to our senses and just say “no.”
It is shocking that there is even a debate over whether Beijing should be allowed to purchase Aecon Group.