Sunday, December 17, 2017

Bill Bishop's Critical Point on Chinese Influence Threat to Canadian Democracy

Bill Bishop
@niubi
It is a mistake to talk about “Chinese influence”. That is a dangerous conflation that can spark anti-Chinese sentiment. The issue is “Chinese Communist Party influence operations”. Warning against those is not anti-Chinese. Don’t be lazy, and don’t let CCP media conflate the two
7:02 pm · 16 Dec 2017 from Wyoming, USA

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Burton: Canada-China relations are now ripe for a rethink

http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/burton-canada-china-relations-are-now-ripe-for-a-rethink

Besides skewering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s China strategy, Beijing’s gruff refusal last week to factor labour, gender or environmental rights into free trade talks likely marks Canada’s last gasp in a futile, decades-long effort to engage China in global institutions on Western terms.

Friday, December 01, 2017

My Opinion Piece in Saturday Globe and Mail: "Does Trudeau really believe trade with China is ‘free’?"

Does Trudeau really believe trade with China is ‘free’?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/does-trudeau-really-believe-trade-with-china-is-free/article37166201/

Mr. Trudeau would represent Canada best if he gave China a frank review of the reasons why we cannot commit to free trade with a non-transparent, state-directed, duplicitous and corrupt economic regime. He should also brief his Chinese hosts on Canada's "Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Magnitsky Law)" that came into effect in October. Recently, 19 Venezuelan officials joined the list of Russians and South Sudanese on the Canadian Magnitsky sanctions list because, as the government explains, they are "responsible for, or complicit in, gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, have committed acts of significant corruption or both." Presumably the same criteria applied to Russia and Venezuela will shortly be applied to larger numbers of Chinese officials. Or does China free trade trounce that, too?