Attack on China is unwarranted

Re: Kenney slams China’s handling of COVID-19; Premier urges ‘reshoring’ manufacturing capacity back to North America instead, May 14

What a pity when we read the “slamming” remarks of Mr. Premier (Jason Kenney) against China, which were delivered at the virtual roundtable of the Canadian American Business Council.

A large body of facts and data suggest that China did not “play down, obfuscate or cover up the dangers posed by the novel coronavirus when it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.”

If Mr. Premier did not deliberately turn his head away, these facts and evidence are presenting themselves crystal clearly before his eyes. Oh, no, he is holding a magnifying glass with preconceived judgment, to be particularly critical of China’s handling of a never-seen-before virus every step of the way.

If so, please also be ready to accept a similar attack and reckoning of how he has handled the outbreak in Alberta or even policy-making ever since he took office.

If there is a comparison between what he has done during the outbreak with what Wuhan has, he will not look smarter.

However, we disdain to bring the details up because attacking Mr. Premier was never one of our goals.

What we have pursued is a joint fight against the virus to achieve a win-win situation based on mutual respect, for example, helping Alberta to finish testing of 11 million (Wuhan standard), i.e. every resident within the next 10 days to secure the economy reopen with zero risk of public health.

“… A deliberate effort to onshore production, particularly on critical supplies”? Please go ahead. We are more than happy to share with him our rich experience on how to quickly set up factories, just like how we built two entirely new hospitals with 2,600 beds in about 10 days in Wuhan.

Please don’t hat us with “wolf-warrior diplomacy” since we are compelled to fight back.

We are defending ourselves with facts and reasons rather than slander and stigma. Those who are enjoying attacking others but not able to endure counterattacks are not fit to call the other side “wolf-warrior.”

A final friendly reminder for the premier: You are based in Edmonton not in Ottawa. And your China-blaming comment might not please Mr. Trump since he will not spare a glance, let alone those American audiences as many of them are not fond of Mr. Trump, but instead have profitable and unshakable businesses with China.

The Chinese Consulate General in Calgary