China readies its counterattack against Canada

Ottawa panicked by Beijing’s pressure to release Meng

Waves of strong condemnation and possible counterattacks from China on Canada’s detaining of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has sparked deep anxieties from the Canadian government and society.

Chinese Ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye called Meng’s detention “a premeditated political action in which the US wields its regime power to witchhunt a Chinese high-tech company out of political consideration” in an article he wrote for the Globe and Mail on Thursday.

In the article, titled “After Huawei arrest, has Canada lost its sense of justice,” Lu said that the Canadian side detained Meng in an unreasonable way given that she has not been charged according to Canadian laws, and her arrest is clearly not judicial independence but a miscarriage of justice.

Meng was released on C$10 million ($7.5 million) bail on Tuesday, after being detained by Canadian authorities on an extradition request from the US.

Chinese analysts said that the incident deeply and profoundly hurt Chinese people’s long-establishing friendly feelings to Canada, who may react intensely if the Canadian side fails to correct its mistakes.

Moreover, Canada has lost its independence over sovereignty, which damaged its international image as people from other countries may have second thoughts about visiting Canada over concerns of unwarranted detention, Li Haidong, a professor at the China

China’s anti-corruption campaign has won sweeping victories and efforts have to be made to develop new systems and groundbreaking innovations in regular and long-term supervision, a meeting of the top decisionmaking body of the Communist Party of China (CPC) announced on Thursday, highlighting the effectiveness of China’s anti-graft drive and indicating the battle against corruption will extend beyond government sectors to all other areas including the financial sector.

Since the 19th CPC National Congress, a sweeping victory has been won in the fight against corruption and major outcomes achieved in exercising full and strict governance over the Party, according to a statement released after the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting, presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed that discipline must be strictly adhered to. Action should be taken to do away with the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake and bureaucratism, and ensure the implementation of the major decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee, said the statement.

Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, told the Global Times on Friday that the “sweeping victory” means that the frequency of high-level corruption has been contained since the 19th CPC National Congress.

A national supervisory system has been built across China. The National Supervisory Commission is systematically carrying out its duty. While there are still officials who have not stopped their corruption practices, the scope of corruption across the country has largely been brought under control since the 19th CPC National Congress, Su added.

Since the 19th CPC National Congress, the commission has investigated more than 70 midlevel officials. Between January and September, nationwide disciplinary inspection and supervision organs filed about 464,000 cases in which 400,000 people were punished.

Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University told the Global Times that the different phases of the campaign against corruption are defined in accordance with the number of people punished, rank of officials and the entire disciplinary ecology of the Party.

Five years ago, the CPC leadership launched a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, which has led to the downfall of a number of high-ranking officials, known as “tigers,” and lower-level “flies” who served at the grassroots level. Among the “tigers” felled in the campaign were Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou.

A total of 440 officials at or above provincial level have been investigated for corruption over the past five years and China is working with the international community to hunt corruption suspects who had fled overseas, leading to the capture of 3,453 fugitives, Xinhua reported.

The CPC will secure a “sweeping victory” in its fight against corruption to avoid the cycle of rise and fall, Xi said at the opening of the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017.

Although a sweeping victory has been won, the anti-corruption fight remains grave and complex, and the strict governance over the Party remains a long and arduous task, the statement said.

The meeting called for efforts to develop new systems and mechanisms for disciplinary inspection and supervision, to make groundbreaking innovations in regular and long-term supervision, and address the corruption that occurs on the people’s doorsteps.

The countrywide corruption campaign and the national supervisory system will continue to develop and reach beyond government sectors to include “State-owned companies, financial sectors, universities and other public institutions,” Su said.