Charles Burton: Kovrig and Spavor’s two-year ordeal and what it means for Canada-China relations

Charles Burton: Kovrig and Spavor’s two-year ordeal and what it means for Canada-China relations 

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/charles-burton-kovrig-and-spavors-two-year-ordeal-and-what-it-means-for-canada-china-relations

Ignorant hubris of CCP's ignoble leaders makes them culpable for deep suffering of these innocent Canadians. But Ottawa has also mismanaged the situation due to its own misconceptions.

Tohti and Burton: Canada must respond to China's harrowing genocide

 Tohti and Burton: Canada must respond to China's harrowing genocide

by Mehmet Tohti and Charles Burton

If the international community does not condemn China’s campaign against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province, a precedent will be set and such atrocities will be adopted by other regimes.

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/tohti-and-burton-canada-must-respond-to-chinas-harrowing-genocide

Burton: Joe Biden is coming – and Beijing should be worried

Joe Biden is coming – and Beijing should be worried 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-joe-biden-is-coming-and-beijing-should-be-worried/

"But this is really about China’s worry that its hubristic global expansionist plans – a key element in the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimating ideology – are about to be seriously derailed. In contrast to President Donald Trump’s claim that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “terrific” and a “very special person,” the president-elect recently called Mr. Xi “a thug,” a global disruptor “who doesn’t have a democratic bone in his body.” Moreover, Mr. Biden has vowed to host a “global Summit for Democracy” next year, to bring together the world’s democracies and “strengthen our democratic institutions, honestly confront nations that are backsliding, and forge a common agenda.”

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China has urged that, this December, supporters of democracy around the world buy a bottle of Australian wine to show support for Australia against Chinese economic coercion. Evidently, the Australian reds are particularly good. This holiday season, let’s drink to that – and to a tougher, changing horizon for Beijing."

Charles Burton: What a Biden Presidency means for Canada-Chinese Relations

 

• Charles Burton: What a Biden Presidency means for Canada-Chinese Relations

https://cdainstitute.ca/charles-burton-what-a-biden-presidency-means-for-canada-chinese-relations/

It is hard to know how Biden will manage China. He has said that he regards Xi Jinping as “a thug”. He also has identified the Chinese policy towards the Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang as a genocide. He hopes to lead an international campaign to pressure, isolate, and punish China. So, from that point of view, his stance on China is much more aggressive than the Canadian government’s. The issue is whether or not Biden will carry on the general orientation of the Trump administration under current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo with regard to how the U.S would stand for the international rules based order, which includes, respect for freedom, democracy, rights, and entitlements of citizens in those areas.

If Biden decides to negotiate a grand bargain with China that would include concerns that weren’t central to the Trump administration, such as climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, particularly relations with North Korea, and other issues like global health, then he might be prepared to make concessions to the Chinese

Burton: Canada should manage our China policy more honestly (opinion piece in Ottawa Citizen)

Burton: Canada should manage our China policy more honestly 

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/burton-canada-should-manage-our-china-policy-more-honestly

The argument that “ghosting” might obtain the release of Michaels Kovrig and Spavor, or avoid further economic retaliation that punishes Canadian business and farmers, has proven wrong-headed. After 711 days, two exemplary Canadian citizens are still in prison hell in the People’s Republic of China, neither of them deserving such vulgar abuse as Beijing tries to force Canada to comply with China’s political demands. Beijing obviously does not reward passivity with gestures of goodwill, and if the federal government continues to give in to the PRC’s amoral “wolf warrior diplomacy,” expect China to be thus emboldened to demand that Canada offer successive concessions in years ahead.

Burton: Canada takes note as China gets tough with Australia

Canada takes note as China gets tough with Australia

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/11/12/canada-takes-note-as-china-gets-tough-with-australia.html

Those who have urged that we treat the panda kindly, lest he show his claws and draw blood with his fangs, will urge that Canada continue ignoring the strong recommendations of Commons committees to support endangered Hong Kong democracy activists or to sanction Chinese officials complicit in the Uighur genocide. That perspective implies it would be best that Canada simply risk our alliance with the U.S. by releasing Meng Wanzhou, approving Huawei 5G and continue to allow PRC acquisition of Canadian dual-use technologies.

While Australia has strongly supported Canada over Kovrig and Spavor, it is unlikely that Ottawa will dare to stand with Australia in the face of Chinese bullying, beyond our usual carefully worded “expression of concern.” But Australia’s relations with China today are almost certainly Canada’s tomorrow. As the RUSI report notes, citing the ex-Australian PM and China scholar Kevin Rudd, “the Chinese Communist Party despises and takes advantage of weakness, while it respects strength.”

Burton - "China: History as Destiny"

 China: History as Destiny

By Charles Burton,
Senior Fellow, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa

As published by The Dorchester Review, Spring/Summer, 2020

https://williamgairdner.ca/some-deep-insight-on-china/

Burton: As China’s global actions worsen, Canada looks at its feet

 Burton: As China’s global actions worsen, Canada looks at its feet

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/burton-as-chinas-global-actions-worsen-canada-looks-at-its-feet

Threats to the safety of Canadians by any other nation’s ambassador would have them turfed within 48 hours. Cong was instead called in to Global Affairs Canada for a chat requesting that he play nicer in future.

Of course, the People’s Republic of China would expel Canadian Ambassador Dominic Barton in retaliation, but that might not be such a bad thing. The Chinese evidently see him as a pushover, and don’t return his calls. While Ambassador Cong is all over the Canadian media with interviews and webinars, our man in Beijing is a non-person.

Opinion Piece in the Toronto Star "Burton: China threatens and intimidates people within Canada as Ottawa remains silent"

 China threatens and intimidates people within Canada as Ottawa remains silent

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/09/08/china-threatens-and-intimidates-people-within-canada-as-ottawa-remains-silent.html

What of the sotto voce reservations expressed about the impact of Canada doing anything that China would not like on the fate of hostages Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig? After more than 600 days of incarceration, Ottawa’s refrain “we are working very hard” to achieve their release has worn thin. The fact is, Beijing will hold these two innocent men for as long as it benefits the furtherance of China’s agenda in Canada, regardless of any impact on China’s global credibility.

Currently, Beijing has got us where they want us. The tragic fallacy of Canada’s silence is that the longer we remain passive in the face of China’s appalling violations of international trade, diplomacy and human rights, the longer we can expect Kovrig and Spavor to remain in Chinese prison hell.

Burton Opinion Piece in Globe and Mail: "America shouldn’t go it alone in containing China"

America shouldn’t go it alone in containing China 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-america-shouldnt-go-it-alone-in-containing-china/

With little change in China’s recent behaviour, Western policies of appeasement have now been discredited. This presents an opportunity for the U.S. to assert, once and for all, that it is not a declining power. Yet, as Washington reshapes its engagement with China, it needs to start including middle powers in the negotiations. Limiting the engagement to bilateral fora between the U.S. and China has inadvertently given Beijing free rein to exploit power imbalances with smaller countries, weakening the global network of alliances and institutions meant to uphold democracy, justice and peace.

Burton: The Chinese Communist Party is not really very Chinese at all

The Chinese Communist Party is not really very Chinese at all

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-chinese-communist-party-is-not-really-very-chinese-at-all/

"In his discourse on honesty, Confucius stresses how being sincere gives individuals the integrity necessary to make progress along the Way: “Be sincere and true to your word, serious and careful in your actions; and you will get along even among barbarians. But if you are not sincere and untrustworthy in your speech, frivolous and careless in your actions, how will you get along even among your own neighbours?”
But what we get out of the Chinese Communist Party today is dishonesty and insincerity. Kevin and Julia Garratt, who were brutally held for almost two years from 2014, and like Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor also falsely charged with ill-defined espionage crimes, were also just innocent pawns in the Communist Party’s pathetic and contemptible hostage diplomacy."

Burton: In Canada, the tide of opinion is turning on China

In Canada, the tide of opinion is turning on China

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-canada-the-tide-of-opinion-is-turning-on-china/

"In what should be a wake-up call for the federal government, the Canadian public’s perception of China appears to be swinging dramatically.
An Angus Reid poll last week found that four in five Canadians want Huawei banned from any role in building this country’s 5G network, and just 11 per cent of respondents felt Canada should focus its trade efforts on China – down from 40 per cent in 2015. And 76 per cent said Canada should prioritize human rights and the rule of law over economic opportunity.
If Ottawa has been delaying a decision all these months while it awaits the “right moment" to announce that the future of Canadian telecommunications lies with Huawei, it is now clear that that moment will never come."

Think tank slams Ottawa over silence on Beijing attempt to ‘interfere’ with free speech

Think tank slams Ottawa over silence on Beijing attempt to ‘interfere’ with free speech

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/24/think-tank-slams-ottawa-over-silence-on-beijing-attempt-to-interfere-with-free-speech.html

“Canada is evidently more penetrated byagents of the Chinese regime than other countries,” he said. “As a result, the Chinese regime has been able to dampen the kind of response that one would expect from a liberal democracyagainst a regime which is engaging in activities hostile to the interest of Canada and our values.”

Burton: Beijing’s coronavirus bungling makes Canada’s choice on Huawei even easier

Burton: Beijing’s coronavirus bungling makes Canada’s choice on Huawei even easier

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-beijings-coronavirus-bungling-makes-canadas-choice-on-huawei-even/

"The U.K., Australia, France and the United States have called for an international investigation of the PRC and WHO’s apparent mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. If China were found culpable, would Canada still accept Beijing’s assurance that Huawei poses no threat to the security of Canadian 5G infrastructure, or that China will not seek to use it to further its cyber-espionage program in Canada? And in the background, of course, is China’s broad disregard for international rules-based order in trade and diplomacy."

Continuing to do nothing will not deter China: Charles Burton’s Remarks to the House of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations

Continuing to do nothing will not deter China: Charles Burton’s Remarks to the House of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations: Canada’s continuing to do nothing in response to China's aggression will do nothing to deter said aggression, MLI's Charles Burton.

Burton: Why Canada can't let Huawei build a 5G network

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/burton-why-canada-cant-let-huawei-build-a-5g-network

"Does Canada honestly want to send the profits from billions of dollars of 5G installation to China’s Huawei, a dishonest and dissembling corporate entity that is digitally facilitating Xi Jinping’s ever strengthening program of political repression?"

"In New Zealand, a startling report by scholar Anne-Marie Brady to that nation’s Parliamentary Inquiry on Foreign Interference details the Chinese Communist Party’s massive scheme of enticing foreign politicians, academics and business people to promote China’s agenda through political lobbying, the media and academia. Besides offering business opportunities or free trips to China, using bribery or honey traps and so on, there are also 'consultancies' in which prominent advisers pocket up to $150,000 per annum just for being affiliated with PRC entities. So long as the foreign adviser promotes relations with China on PRC terms, the money keeps coming.

Back in Ottawa, the new Special Committee on Canada-China Relations needs to seriously explore whether what is happening in New Zealand can happen here. As decision day on Huawei edges nearer, we need legislation requiring transparent reporting of Canadians’ income derived from foreign sources. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

Patience is lapsing for Canada’s indecision over Huawei. The government needs to take a stand, once and for all, on the security threat of Huawei 5G. The real question is: Why would any disinterested party think that going with Huawei 5G is the right thing for Canada?"

Burton: Many concerns as Canadians wait for evacuation from China

Burton: Many concerns as Canadians wait for evacuation

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/02/04/many-concerns-as-canadians-wait-for-evacuation-from-china.html

For many Chinese the anxiety grows daily, trapped in their homes, afraid to go out and lacking supplies of surgical masks or food supplies. In the meantime, party General Secretary Xi Jinping appears to have gone to ground, vanishing from his dominance in the media, his political future evidently uncertain.