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Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

FSTO said:
^^
Committee work should be where the MP's hold the cabinet and the public service to account for their actions. Not a kangaroo court of gotcha. If the cabinet is confident that their actions are above board and in the public interest they should not be against having to answer pointed questions from the member of parliament from Flin Flon - Cranberry Portage. Sadly it is not like this and therefore, especially during this time of everyone having a platform to broadcast their thoughts, the lack of accountability causes conspiracy theories and refusal to believe to become rampant.
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It's almost fitting that this discussion morphed out of a Chinese Political thread.

What is described above is how parliamentary democracy is supposed to work. Instead, what he have at the moment is very much akin to how the Soviet councils worked: "yes you're a party member. Yes you sit on committees. Yes we're definitely conducting government business stuff...but everything is controlled centrally and God help you if your opinion runs counter to that of the party..."

Both the LPC and CPC have both been proponents of this kind of "democracy" in respect to parliamentary independence.
 
SeaKingTacco said:
I knew the Liberals were cosy with the Chinese, but it actually appears they have been owned lock, stock and barrel by the CCP, if this is accurate.
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Big time. Former PM Jean Chretien is a lobbyist for various Chinese companies and if we had something like the US Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) he would be at the top of the list. Another example, François-Philippe Champagne when he was Foreign Minister owed a Chinese State bank $1.2 million dollars for property owned in London, UK. Makes you kind of wonder how he got his security clearance with that hanging over him?

And during the Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor hostage taking Liberal Party stalwarts like Chretien, Eddie Goldenberg, John Manley and David MacCallum were all out there stating that Canada should cave in and make a deal with China for their release.
 
Kirkhill said:
Two other Liberal stalwarts with China ties.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Pierre Trudeau’s China legacy looms large ahead of PM’s first official visit

As Justin Trudeau leaves Canada for his own first visit to China as Prime Minister, shadows of his father will occupy every room he enters, as his hosts see in him a chance to revive the collegiality they once enjoyed
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
Click to expand...

Quite a sopping piece…
Still, China greeted Mr. Trudeau's election last year with talk of a new "golden era" with Canada.
Click to expand...
…but not golden enough to de-imprison Michael x 2 until Canada answered China’s not-so-subtle blackmail to free Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou…
 
I'm just interested to see how this flagrant violation of our sovereignty by China will be addressed by the Champagne Socialists Trudeau government:


RCMP investigating Chinese 'police' stations in Canada​


Human rights group says more than 50 exist worldwide, including 3 in Greater Toronto Area​

​

There are at least three Chinese police outposts in and around Toronto in predominantly Chinese neighbourhoods, according to a report by human rights group Safeguard Defenders who say they’re being used to pressure some nationals to return to China. Now, the RCMP says it’s investigating whether any criminal activity is taking place.

The RCMP says it's investigating Chinese "police" stations in Canada.

This comes after the Spain-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders reported that more than 50 exist worldwide, including three in the
Greater Toronto Area in predominantly Chinese communities.

They include a residential home and single-storey commercial building in Markham and a convenience store in Scarborough.

"In most countries, we believe it's a network of individuals, rather than ... a physical police station where people will be dragged into," said Laura Harth, a campaign director at Safeguard Defenders.

"It's completely illegal under international law. It's a severe violation of territorial sovereignty."

 
dimsum said:
I'd say that's more the G&M. The Star is between Lib/NDP.
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I remember sometime ago, hearing from a well known commentator ( can’t remember who) that the unofficial motto of the Star is “Think NDP, vote Liberal”. Others more knowledgeable than I have used the term “house organ of the Liberal Party” describing the Star.

The Globe seems more “conservative” in that it seems to editorialize for the Laurentian establishment and conserving the institutions. They appear to be anti-Liberal/pro-Tory when it comes to defending those institutions, and will go anti-Tory/pro-Liberal when the shoe is on the other foot.

:)
 
Retired AF Guy said:
Big time. Former PM Jean Chretien is a lobbyist for various Chinese companies and if we had something like the US Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) he would be at the top of the list. Another example, François-Philippe Champagne when he was Foreign Minister owed a Chinese State bank $1.2 million dollars for property owned in London, UK. Makes you kind of wonder how he got his security clearance with that hanging over him?

And during the Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor hostage taking Liberal Party stalwarts like Chretien, Eddie Goldenberg, John Manley and David MacCallum were all out there stating that Canada should cave in and make a deal with China for their release.
Click to expand...
Don’t forget Peter Harder and Dominic Barton. MacCallum was especially greasy in his pro-Beijing pimping.
 
Wow... this is pretty cool:

U.S. military weighs funding mining projects in Canada amid rivalry with China​


Canadian companies told they qualify under Defense Production Act

The Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters in Washington, is being asked to fund civilian projects to build more reliable supply chains of critical minerals that are vital in everything from products like electronics, cars and batteries, to weapons. Canadian companies are entitled to apply. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

The United States military has been quietly soliciting applications for Canadian mining projects that want American public funding through a major national security initiative.

It's part of an increasingly urgent priority of the U.S. government: lessening dependence on China for critical minerals that are vital in everything from civilian goods such as electronics, cars and batteries, to weapons.

It illustrates how Canadian mining is becoming the nexus of a colossal geopolitical struggle. Ottawa just pushed Chinese state-owned companies out of the sector, and the U.S. is now considering moving public funding in.

U.S. military weighs funding mining projects in Canada amid rivalry with China

www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org
 
More, from The Economist, on US-China and ASEAN's worries:

"Young, motivated and connected: South-East Asia today is probably the world’s most dynamic region. Its nearly 700m people are disproportionately youthful. They are keen to learn, innovate and apply themselves. And, more than anywhere else in an increasingly protectionist world, they see their future prosperity as part of a global economy, supporting open trade and exchange much more often than opposing it. (The tragedy of Myanmar, in the grip of a ruthless, inward-looking junta, is the exception that proves the rule.) As the region emerges from the pandemic, the interest of outside investors is piqued, above all in Indonesia. In the past, South-East Asia’s most populous country has underperformed. But under President Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, a new drive for growth is under way, one that is more open to foreign investment than previously, including in new areas such as electric-vehicle (ev) batteries."

"South-East Asian leaders might be expected to relish all the attention on their region. Instead, the summitry finds many in a nervous, even unhappy, mood. One reason is President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Most South-East Asians do not feel that it is their fight, and only a minority of the region’s governments have openly condemned Russia’s aggression. But Asian leaders have to grapple with the consequences of the war, like disrupted food supplies and rising prices. Though neither Mr Putin nor President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine are attending the summit, Jokowi tried hard to bring them there and get them to talk. As he stressed in an interview with The Economist on the eve of the summit, dialogue is the essential precondition for progress on any thorny issue."

"... to all leaders in Asia, the faraway war in Ukraine offers a bracing lesson—about the signal importance of peace in their own region. As the prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, bluntly put it at a national-day rally in August: “Look at how things have gone wrong in Europe. Can you be sure that things cannot go wrong in our region too? Better get real, and be psychologically prepared.” Last week Cambodia’s strongman, Hun Sen, whose turn it was to host the annual round of summitry staged by the ten-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (asean), said that the region was “now at the most uncertain juncture” even as it desired peace, security and sustainable growth. Mr Hun Sen referred vaguely to the “strategic challenges we all face”."

"In public, Asian policymakers are rarely more forthcoming about what those challenges are. In private, they are clear: a downward spiral in relations between China and America. President Xi emerged all-powerful from the Chinese Communist Party’s five-yearly congress. He packed the Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists and spoke of a titanic struggle with an American-led West. For his part, President Biden announced in early October draconian controls to stop Chinese companies benefiting from American technology, notably in the fields of chip design and artificial intelligence. This year he has also broken with a decades-long policy of rhetorical obfuscation in which America refused openly to commit itself to defending Taiwan, the self-governing island whose eventual unification with the mainland is the Communist Party’s most sacred tenet."

"Technology and Taiwan: of the two, Taiwan is of more existential concern to South-East Asian policymakers. They have long worried about a superpower clash. But in the past, the speculation was more about a conflict in the South China Sea, where China’s vague but expansive “nine-dash line” encompasses nearly the whole sea and where it has built military installations on offshore reefs. Now, says a regional diplomat, the worry is all about Taiwan. “The nine-dash line,” the diplomat says. “That’s not a red line. [For China] Taiwan is the real red line.”"

"In that context, regional strategists are alarmed by the American shift in rhetoric. They deplore the visit to Taiwan in August by Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, as needlessly provocative. China responded with live-fire military exercises all around the island. They are nervous about the consequences if Ms Pelosi’s potential Republican replacement, Kevin McCarthy, follows through on his promise to visit Taiwan too. Regional policymakers think, as do some analysts and business types in America, that the Biden administration has gone too far ... [and] ... They are also worried that a shortage of trust acts as an obstacle to communication. Mutual disdain only grows. A South-East Asian who talks to both sides says that Chinese officials look at America’s political polarisation as proof of great-power decline. The Americans assume that, with Mr Xi’s dominance, their counterparts are merely “messenger boys”, with no authority of their own. Both sides complain that conversations are superficial. What is missing, says the diplomat, is that officials are not pulling their counterparts aside for frank discussions over how to defuse tensions. “The quality of conversations [needed] to help prevent crisis are just lacking,” he says. The pandemic, in reducing face-to-face meetings, has not helped."

"As for the weaponisation of technology against China, even America’s closest friends in South-East Asia worry that the Biden administration is leading the region down a dangerous road. Its overwhelming desire to keep China down, they say, forces countries to take sides in ways that make them highly uncomfortable. Singapore has already accepted that in a bifurcated world where technology is “friend-shored”, the city-state will end up hewing to American-led supply chains. But what if America extends sanctions to tech-heavy Chinese firms operating outside China? This, says one Singaporean official, would create an enormous dilemma for a place whose reputation is built on being a safe, predictable and open business jurisdiction. As for Indonesia’s budding ev industry, will America one day force it to choose between it and China?"

"Mr Biden and his team are aware of some of the region’s concerns. Arriving in Cambodia straight from the climate summit in Egypt, the American president assured ASEAN it was “at the heart” of his policy in the Indo-Pacific region. He promised a “new era” of co-operation. Certainly, says one political leader, South-East Asians want engagement with America to be within a more “balanced” framework. So where, he asks, are the carrots? ... [but] ... Mr Biden’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, America’s proposition for economic engagement in the region, provides not much investment and next to no new access for Asian firms to American markets. Areas where America could make a big difference, such as helping finance the region’s transition to a low-carbon economy, remain largely unexplored. Only a few pockets of his administration, such as the Department of Commerce, are pushing for more openness. Much of the administration’s Asia policy, say many in South-East Asia, is driven by anti-China ideology."

"There, too, Mr Biden is aware of such concerns. After all, some analysts and business leaders back home also believe he badly needs to stabilise ties with China. Acknowledging the worries is a key point of his meeting with Mr Xi on November 14th in Bali. Mr Biden’s officials suggest the meeting will help put a floor under relations between the two countries. Few in Asia think it is a floor that relations cannot before long crash through."
 
Good article by Omer Aziz in the Globe and Mail:

----------​

"In November, 2017, when I was still a foreign policy adviser in the federal government, the big topic of discussion was Beijing’s pursuit of a free-trade deal with Canada. Officials in Ottawa seemed almost giddy about the idea. In meetings, people repeated common assumptions about China being more or less a benevolent actor, and how it was in Canada’s economic interest to lock in more deals with Beijing.

But our business community, academics and foreign policy gurus got China completely wrong. Beijing was not trying to be our friend, much less our partner: It was trying to split apart the Western alliance, starting with Canada. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Beijing that December, he was, unsurprisingly, given the cold shoulder. Canada had been baited.

Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly gave a major speech in Toronto that offered a preview of a radically different – and much needed – approach to China. For the last two years, a new “Indo-Pacific” strategy has been in the works and apparently will be released soon. In her speech, Ms. Joly called China “an increasingly disruptive global power.” This comes after a report that earlier this year, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed the Prime Minister’s Office about Chinese interference in the 2019 federal election.

The delay in this foreign policy change has been troubling, and not just because the world is changing rapidly. If the same false assumptions about China continue to underlie the new policy, Canada will suffer.

To put it simply: The People’s Republic of China is the No. 1 economic, strategic, technological, political and security threat to the Western world for the next century – and it’s not even close. The Chinese Communist Party will continue to pose a direct threat to not just the Western world’s interests, but also our values. The challenge has existed for years now, but academics, business leaders, and policymakers too often looked away, because there was always more money to be made.

Now, we must be clear about what this threat represents. Last month, the White House released its National Security Strategy, and explicitly declared that China had both “the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective.” Despite being the greatest beneficiary of that same system of rules, China seeks to create an entirely different world – one in which autocracies thrive, the powerful subdue the powerless, and the citizen – including the more than a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang who have been detained in “re-education” camps – is indoctrinated and then decimated by a surveillance state that never stops watching.

Canada’s foreign policy needs to address China and the world as it is. The core components of our coming strategy should include shoring up democratic alliances in the region and playing a leadership role rather than acting as a bystander. Canada should work with China where there are mutual interests – such as on climate and public health – but it should do so cautiously and prudently. We should deepen ties with countries in South America and Africa, where China has been active, and support democratic efforts to check China on every front. On all other issues – such as elections, human rights and the rule of law – Canada must unapologetically champion its values.

At home, Canada must ensure the integrity of its elections, help businesses safeguard their trade secrets, and strengthen its cyber infrastructure. There should be a life-in-prison penalty for any citizen or resident found guilty of passing off intelligence to Beijing, and a ban on the export of any high-tech equipment to China. More importantly, institutions such as universities, businesses and the Department of Foreign Affairs must free themselves of the groupthink that has dominated discussions about China for three decades. The Foreign Affairs Minister and Prime Minister, in particular, should be receiving objective advice on China and the Indo-Pacific that is untainted by bias. At a minimum, we must have the knowledge and foresight to compete in this new world of rising autocracies – and that requires having a clear strategy backed by action.

China is one of the world’s cradles of civilization, but it is now run by a cabal that has absorbed the lessons from totalitarian dictatorships of the past. This will be a long struggle that will require patience. “Let China sleep,” goes a quote attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, “for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” China has already awoken, bided its time, and built its strength. Now the real challenge begins."

----------
​
I can only wish that something more than a tiny, insignificant minority of Canadians will ever read it.
 
Yet China is designated a developing country by the WTF.

The WTO agreements include numerous provisions giving developing and least-developed countries special rights or extra leniency — “special and differential treatment”. Among these are provisions that allow developed countries to treat developing countries more favourably than other WTO members.
Click to expand...

China, a country of wpns of mass destruction, with the means to deliver, a military of 2.5 million (largest in the world), miliary budget of USD 230 million (estimated).
 
Rifleman62 said:
Yet China is designated a developing country by the WTF.



China, a country of wpns of mass destruction, with the means to deliver, a military of 2.5 million (largest in the world), miliary budget of USD 230 million (estimated).
Click to expand...

It's OK, our foreign aid payments should help them develop faster ;)


Few Canadians know about aid given to China​


Federal agencies paid out a total $6.5 billion in foreign aid worldwide in 2020 according to government stats.

A total $14.2 million went to China.

Cabinet in a separate report tabled in the Commons detailed a portion of Chinese aid, a total $941,140 in grants awarded through a Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.

“The Fund provides modest funding for small scale, but high impact projects,” said the report.

Spending included:
• $37,654 to “foster dialogue on the challenges of young female offenders” in China;
• $31,791 on “empowerment” to “help low income single mothers and girls grow up happily”;
• $30,801 on “enhancing environmental justice and ecological restoration”;
• $18,668 to “advocate equal reproductive rights for non-married women and lesbians”;
• $1,248 for “increasing understanding” of sanitation workers.

www.westernstandard.news

Few Canadians know about aid given to China

Federal agencies paid out a total $6.5 billion in foreign aid worldwide in 2020 according to government stats. A total $14.2 million went to China.
www.westernstandard.news www.westernstandard.news
 
Bruce Monkhouse said:
Just read on CP24 news, that flashes across the screen, that an employee of Hydro-Quebec just got nailed on espionage charges for passing info to China.
Click to expand...
Impeccable timing I must say.

More here from the Canadian Press:

RCMP arrest Hydro-Québec employee allegedly sending secrets to China

By The Canadian Press — The Canadian Press — Nov 14 2022

MONTREAL — A Montreal-area Hydro-Québec employee is being charged with espionage after allegedly providing trade secrets to China "to the detriment of Canada's economic interests," the RCMP said Monday.

Yuesheng Wang, 35, was arrested at his home in Candiac, south of Montreal, on Monday.

He will appear in court in Longueuil, Que., Tuesday to be charged with "obtaining trade secrets in the course of his duties with Hydro-Québec," according to an RCMP spokesman. He will also be charged with using a computer without authorization, and with fraud and breach of trust by a public officer.

RCMP Insp. David Beaudoin told reporters this is the first time in Canada that someone has faced the economic espionage charge, which falls under the Security of Information Act.

"This investigation is of great importance for us and sends a clear message," he said a news conference at the RCMP's Quebec headquarters in Westmount. "It demonstrates our commitment and that of our partners to work with at-risk sectors."

He said Wang is accused of obtaining "industrial secrets" in the course of his duties at Hydro-Québec.

Wang, he said, allegedly did research for Chinese research centres and a Chinese university, and published scientific articles and filed patents associated with them rather than with Hydro-Québec. He also allegedly used information without his employer's consent, harming Hydro-Québec's intellectual property, he said.

Beaudoin declined to say whether the accused was paid by China for his alleged actions.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between February 2018 and October 2022. The espionage charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, he said.

In a news release, the RCMP said its national security enforcement team began an investigation in August after receiving a complaint from Hydro-Québec's corporate security branch.

"Foreign actor interference is a priority for many law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world," the RCMP wrote. "Hydro-Québec is considered a critical infrastructure and a strategic interest to be protected."

In a statement, Hydro-Québec said Wang was a researcher who worked on battery materials with the Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, known as CETEES. The utility said its security team launched its own investigation before flagging authorities. It added that Wang's employment has been terminated.

“Our detection and intervention mechanisms allowed our investigators to bring this matter to the attention of the RCMP, with whom we have worked closely ever since," said Dominic Roy, senior director responsible for corporate security.

"No organization is safe from a situation like this one, which is why we must always remain vigilant and transparent, and we must not tolerate violations of the company’s code of ethics."

The employee did not have access to information related to Hydro-Québec's "core mission," and his accesses were revoked when suspicions arose, the company added. It said the centre where he worked develops technology for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

While it's the first time the trade secrets charge has been laid in Canada, Beaudoin said foreign interference is a growing priority for law enforcement.

"We are more and more active in that sphere because we do believe that it is a subject that directly affects national security," he said. "Because of our increased involvement, we are looking at many more files than we used to in the past, and because of that today we were able to lay the criminal charges."

Wang will remain in detention until his court appearance, he added. Beaudoin could not confirm whether Wang is a Canadian citizen.


This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2022.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
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Link
 
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