An editorial published in the Wall Street Journal July 5 (http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-xi-jinping-ascendancy-1467748121) is predicting the possible "removal of Premier Li Keqiang, the one Hu ally on the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of Chinese politics." Mr. Li is scheduled to visit Canada in September.
This Li visit could therefore become a replay of the fiasco of Prime Minister Harper's going to Chongqing to "build relations" with Bo Xilai as Bo's purge was already in process. The Canadian Prime Minister was the last foreign leader to be seen with Bo just prior to his arrest in 2012.
But a similar miscalculation on our part substituting a Premier of the State Council and more importantly a Standing Committee of the Politburo member as Mr. Li is could be a lot more damaging to Canada-China relations.
Chinese factional politics is a dangerous game. Canada should take care not to become inadvertently drawn into it to our peril.
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