Ill-informed MPs fail to understand China

Re: Selective outrage and a silence that is deafening, Nov. 24.

The recent call by NDP MP Niki Ashton and Green MP Paul Manley to release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou represents only the most recent example of timidity and lack of understanding on the part of certain parliamentarians regarding the pervasive threats posed by China, both domestically and internationally.

While choosing to ignore that rule-based processes have determined that Meng may have broken the laws of both Canada and the United States, her erstwhile supporters have chosen to drag out the now tiresome justification for her release that Canada's relationship with China would be A-OK if Canada weren't such a lackey to U.S. agendas. This suggests Canadian governments are incapable of making policy or legal decisions independent of “superpower” influence.

More importantly, it ignores the reality that, absent current U.S.-China rifts, China would still be guilty of state-sponsored cyber intrusions, industrial espionage, human rights abuses, hostage diplomacy, economic extortion in developing countries, foreign influence activities, and territorial land grabs deemed unlawful by international courts, around the world.

The depth and breadth of these activities has resulted in increasing calls by international partners to develop a collaborative strategy to mitigate China's nefarious activities.

In light of this, the ill-informed initiatives of MPs Ashton and Manley seem both poorly timed and devoid of any defensible logic or rationale.

John Gilmour, Ottawa