tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117169222024-03-06T22:34:47.634-05:00Charles Burton's BlogPrincipled realismCharles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.comBlogger959125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-58091650038128602162024-02-26T17:26:00.002-05:002024-02-26T17:26:20.150-05:00Canada and other U.S. allies tensely envision Trump 2.0: Charles Burton in the Toronto Star<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Canada and other U.S. allies tensely envision Trump 2.0: Charles Burton in the Toronto Star </span></b></p><p><a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/canada-and-other-u-s-allies-tensely-envision-trump-2-0-charles-burton-in-the-globe-and-mail/">https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/canada-and-other-u-s-allies-tensely-envision-trump-2-0-charles-burton-in-the-globe-and-mail/</a></p><p>If he regains the presidency, Trump’s plan to make America great again includes 10 per cent tariffs on all imports. Canada — America’s third-largest supplier — wouldn’t be getting a bye.<br /><br />Replacing reciprocal free trade with a protectionist wall would inflict pain in all directions, including for American consumers, who end up paying more for many goods. For Canada’s export-driven economy, the fallout could mean unemployment for thousands of households, devalued stock markets (including the nest eggs of millions of retirees), and internal regional infighting that makes the 2022 truckers’ convoy look like a high school debate.<br /><br />Concerns about Trump go beyond fiscal. With the world’s second-largest land mass but a small tax base (just over one-tenth the population of the U.S.) Canada cannot realistically defend its massive territory without the collaborative assurance of a united NATO. Losing America’s resources and leadership would be devastating to the alliance’s ability to defend its member nations.<br /> <br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b><br /></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-16007088494461145082024-01-19T18:48:00.001-05:002024-01-19T18:48:39.252-05:00Burton: Taiwan’s election results don’t ease the sense of looming tragedy <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Taiwan’s election results don’t ease the sense of looming tragedy</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-taiwans-election-results-dont-ease-the-sense-of-looming-tragedy/">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-taiwans-election-results-dont-ease-the-sense-of-looming-tragedy/</a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></p><p>China’s hostility was deepened by the fact that democratic elections were held at all. On China’s heavily censored social media, searches for “Taiwan election” yield a notice reading “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the content of this topic is not displayed.”<br /><br />But what makes Beijing even more concerned is that Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching-te, earlier in his political career, was an unabashed advocate for Taiwan making a unilateral declaration of independence. Mr. Lai toned this down in his recent campaign speeches, professing to continue his predecessor’s less confrontational line with Beijing. But a very plausible danger from this week’s election result stems from China’s conviction that, under Mr. Lai, there will be no “return of Taiwan to the embrace of the motherland” through peaceful negotiation. And China will not stand idly by if it perceives Mr. Lai as manoeuvering internationally to bring about de jure affirmation of the reality that Taiwan is de facto an independent state that is being denied sovereign national rights under international law. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-77139854366012794102024-01-08T11:54:00.000-05:002024-01-08T11:54:32.321-05:00Burton and Seaboyer: China's meddling in Taiwan is an alarming warning for Canada<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">China's meddling in Taiwan is an alarming warning for Canada </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/chinas-meddling-in-taiwan-is-an-alarming-warning-for-canada/article_e48b66ba-abf0-11ee-bf98-47971997da48.html">https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/chinas-meddling-in-taiwan-is-an-alarming-warning-for-canada/article_e48b66ba-abf0-11ee-bf98-47971997da48.html</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="subscriber-only"><p>Beijing
openly wants the DPP displaced and the KMT returned to power. Last
month a senior Chinese Communist Party official chaired a meeting of
Chinese state and party agencies to support this end. The upshot so far:
lifelike, computer-fabricated videos depicting candidates saying things
they never said, or carefully edited clips of politicians saying things
in unguarded moments they wish they hadn’t said.</p>
</div><div class="subscriber-only"><p>China has also
created a network of “Trojan horse” fake social media groups, purporting
to support one party or another, that spew fake scandals and conspiracy
theories to discredit the DPP. There is also evidence of individual
citizens being tracked. For instance, if someone buys an ebook on
Taiwanese politics, AI detects not only when the purchase was made but
when the person is actually reading it. They are then micro-targeted
with AI-generated messaging that undermines what they have just read.</p><p>Canada's turn is coming, and we must likewise tolerate no foreign
interference in electing governments that guide the country on the world
stage. Canada’s election outcomes should be determined by Canadians
alone.</p><p> </p></div></div>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-49857091327393690502024-01-05T21:42:00.002-05:002024-01-05T21:42:36.915-05:00 Institut pro politiku a společnost: Interview with Charles Burton, Canadian expert on China policy<p> </p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u2F_P0o44SA?si=d83NoNvLFV4YKTXh" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-899776684299730032024-01-05T21:40:00.001-05:002024-01-05T21:40:18.673-05:00Charles Burton on Bill C-34: Testimony to the Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology<p> </p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cwQnQ9U4TNM?si=s8WRx5i8kPxDsljM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-276036914489950652024-01-05T21:36:00.003-05:002024-01-05T21:36:49.100-05:00CDN response to Chinese interference? Pathetic and ineffective. / Charles Burton, MLI in Parliament<p> </p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJYc4SQ_Izw?si=P4kUbSZbTN04CeGj" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-84605184591342326772024-01-05T21:35:00.000-05:002024-01-05T21:35:23.488-05:00The China Problem - CNAPS panel discussion featuring Charles Burton, Miles Yu at Hudson Institute<p> </p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbL-MJH4v_M?si=UIysC3honxNIuK-S" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-52205841226264098962024-01-05T21:26:00.001-05:002024-01-05T21:26:46.849-05:00Burton: Canada must face the facts: China is now closed for business<p> </p><div class="c-primary-title article-title text-pb-5 c-primary-title-feature" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Canada must face the facts: China is now closed for business</b></span></div><div class="c-primary-title article-title text-pb-5 c-primary-title-feature" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="c-primary-title article-title text-pb-5 c-primary-title-feature" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-canada-must-face-the-facts-china-is-now-closed-for-business/">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-canada-must-face-the-facts-china-is-now-closed-for-business/</a></span></div><div class="c-primary-title article-title text-pb-5 c-primary-title-feature" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="c-primary-title article-title text-pb-5 c-primary-title-feature" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">To mute domestic disgruntlement over the economy, Mr. Xi might play the nationalism card through military engagement in the South China Sea and Taiwan as soon as 2027. As well, the regime has been reaffirming its Leninist core through renewed predominance of state-controlled enterprise over successful capitalists, to the extent that large Chinese companies have developed PR plans to respond to sudden “disappearances” of their chief executives.<br /><br />Foreign businesspeople embroiled in arbitrary commercial disputes are increasingly denied exit from China until they comply with demands from Chinese state counterparts. And there are ever more controls and restrictions on security of business data, including bans on foreign businesses in China sending information to servers outside the country.<br /><br />Then there are growing concerns about China’s political stability, as evidenced by the purge in 2023 of the Foreign Minister, the Minister of Defence and a range of senior military figures. This can’t be good. <br /></span></div>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-73884788742697094312024-01-05T21:23:00.001-05:002024-01-05T21:23:20.675-05:00Burton: China likely to escape scot-free in persecution of two Canadians <p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> China likely to escape scot-free in persecution of two Canadians</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/china-likely-to-escape-scot-free-in-persecution-of-two-canadians/article_644384da-7778-5830-b3a6-56483b4a07f8.html">https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/china-likely-to-escape-scot-free-in-persecution-of-two-canadians/article_644384da-7778-5830-b3a6-56483b4a07f8.html</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">While few specifics are known about Spavor’s claims, media reports depict a connection to Kovrig’s former job at Canada’s embassy in Beijing, and later with the International Crisis Group think tank, roles in which he would allegedly meet with people in China, engage them in his fluent Mandarin, and mine the conversations for nuggets of insight into China’s political or economic affairs.<br /><br />Chinese authorities, of course, don’t like such activities. One expects that Kovrig and his superiors, both in government and the ICG, would have been well aware that this type of work would irritate Beijing, thus the danger of arbitrary detention on trumped-up charges was always there whenever he visited China without the protection of a diplomatic passport. And so it was.<br /><br />One particularly troubling aspect of this sort of activity is the risk it presents to people who might unknowingly be sources for these information-gathering practices. Apparently Spavor and Kovrig routinely got together for drinks and sessions of good-humoured conversation. But friendships with diplomats imply that observations shared in a bar can end up the next morning in a report to Ottawa, and on to the Five Eyes. Was this possibility lost on Spavor? Was Kovrig perhaps not as forthcoming as he could have been about the full dimensions of their chats? <br /></span></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-58034673959217565932023-10-30T09:12:00.003-04:002023-10-30T09:12:36.467-04:00Burton: Sapped of both hard and soft power, Canada needs action to keep up in a dangerous world<p><b>Sapped of both hard and soft power, Canada needs action to keep up in a dangerous world</b></p><p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-sapped-of-both-hard-and-soft-power-canada-needs-action-to-keep-up-in-a/" target="_blank">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-sapped-of-both-hard-and-soft-power-canada-needs-action-to-keep-up-in-a/ </a></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>Speaking to an international crowd of leaders, ministers and other representatives who had gathered earlier this month in Beijing for a forum that marked 10 years of China’s Belt and Road Initiative global infrastructure program, Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared that “changes of the world, of our times, and of historical significance are unfolding like never before.”<br /><br />Quite right. Will the Russian invasion of Ukraine be resolved without war with NATO? Will armed conflict in the Middle East, fomented by Iran, spiral into a regional war? Would China open a third front by invading Taiwan? If the atrocious provocations to war by Iran, Russia and China develop simultaneously on three fronts – setting off a world war in Asia, the Middle East and Indo-Pacific – where will Canada stand?<b><br /></b></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-49048265931751207002023-09-11T08:18:00.001-04:002023-09-11T08:18:44.861-04:00Burton: For the foreign-interference inquiry to be effective, Justice Hogue needs the right tools<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">For the foreign-interference inquiry to be effective, Justice Hogue needs the right tools </span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-for-the-foreign-interference-inquiry-to-be-effective-justice-hogue/">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-for-the-foreign-interference-inquiry-to-be-effective-justice-hogue/</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">For Canadians, the crucial
outcomes of this whole exercise could be captured in a few questions:
Will any more Chinese diplomats involved in election interference be <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-expels-chinese-diplomat-over-foreign-interference/" target="_blank">expelled from Canada</a>?
Will their proxies working here be held to account and see their day in
court? Will we end up getting an effective foreign influence
transparency registry to gain insight around any persons of influence in
our Canadian democracy who have conflicts of interest by receiving
benefits from a foreign state or its representatives (e.g. agents of the
United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party)? Will we
get more clarity on why the government projected such an indifferent
response to alarming reports of foreign malign, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-china-foreign-interference-canada-guide/" target="_blank">including activities detailed</a> in a large number of federal government intelligence assessments?</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">Mr. LeBlanc said Justice Hogue will bring “fresh eyes” to topics that
she otherwise has no demonstrated credentials to address. She is a
respected and capable jurist, but will clearly need a lot of support,
including leading experts with deep knowledge in the field, in order to
fulfil this critical mission. If not, she could fall into the trap that
evidently bedevilled her special-rapporteur predecessor David Johnston,
who had to rely on “curated access” to top-secret documents and
less-than-thorough debriefings from senior bureaucrats and politicians
who might be worried that their denials of any evident ineffectiveness
in countering Chinese <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/topics/foreign-interference/" target="_blank">interference </a>in Canada’s democracy will not stand up to scrutiny. <br /></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-58108929675389122242023-08-28T07:46:00.001-04:002023-08-28T07:46:23.196-04:00Burton: China’s growing economic angst is another political threat for Xi <p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">China’s growing economic angst is another political threat for Xi</span></b><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-chinas-growing-economic-angst-is-another-political-threat-for-xi/">https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-chinas-growing-economic-angst-is-another-political-threat-for-xi/</a></p><p> </p><p>The end of the economic boom threatens China’s
“post-Tiananmen bargain” in which citizens tolerate marginalized civic
freedoms and rule of law in return for continuously improving living
standards. Suddenly, Mr. Xi seems politically vulnerable. His rule has
been markedly more repressive than those of his recent predecessors –
reversing Deng Xiaoping’s 1980s initiatives of “opening and reform” and
exhortations to “liberate thought” against Maoist dogma – and because
Mr. Xi has purged all his political rivals over the past 10 years, when
things go wrong in this era, the buck stops with him.</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">If Mr. Xi has indeed
compromised in his ability to weather political damage because of his
handling of the economy, his mishandling of COVID, or sudden
disappearances of his senior officials, then these will only add to
longer-term grievances that have quietly accumulated during his rule:
the persecution of #MeToo protesters, China’s growing income gap, the
economic privileging of “red nobility” elites, the unfair and corrupt
legal system, pervasive state surveillance and strict censorship of
social media.</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">Against this
backdrop, unemployed youth who feel resentful and badly done by could,
as Chairman Mao put it in quite a different context, be the spark that
sets off the prairie fire. There is much precedent for this in Chinese
history.</p><p> </p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-53633798991365788442023-08-21T18:17:00.001-04:002023-08-21T18:17:48.358-04:00The Strategic Thinkers Series | 16 | Identifying the China Threat | Robert Spalding & Charles Burton<p><b>The Strategic Thinkers Series | 16 | Identifying the China Threat | Robert Spalding & Charles Burton </b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n8ARPISy6BM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-17071350556709196272023-07-26T12:40:00.000-04:002023-07-26T12:40:39.970-04:00Interview with Charles Burton: Two Former Mounties Charged: Unpacking Chinese Foreign Interference in Canada <p> </p>
<iframe width="570" height="320" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iXYUuwrNCjc" title="Two Former Mounties Charged: Unpacking Chinese Foreign Interference in Canada" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-3254989243586881692023-07-21T17:25:00.001-04:002023-07-21T17:25:53.816-04:00Interview with CTV News Channel on Charges Against Ex-Mountie<p> </p>
<iframe src="https://webapps.9c9media.com/vidi-player/1.9.24/share/iframe.html?currentId=2731108&config=ctvnews/share.json&kruxId=&rsid=&siteName=national&cid=%5B%7B%22contentId%22%3A2731108%2C%22ad%22%3A%7B%22adsite%22%3A%22ctv.ctvnews%22%2C%22adzone%22%3A%22embed%22%7D%7D%5D" width="560" height="315"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-30781785551918520372023-07-10T11:01:00.001-04:002023-07-10T11:01:16.917-04:00Burton: Is anybody out there protecting us from China’s agenda?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> Burton: Is anybody out there protecting us from China’s agenda?</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.ipolitics.ca/opinions/is-anybody-out-there-protecting-us-from-chinas-agenda" target="_blank"> https://www.ipolitics.ca/opinions/is-anybody-out-there-protecting-us-from-chinas-agenda</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As if to underscore Ottawa’s
paralysis, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s much touted public
consultations on creating a Foreign Interference Transparency Registry
has so far has gone nowhere. Likewise, Canada’s much-delayed
Indo-Pacific Strategy statement last spring — which seemed designed to
reassure our allies that Canada will stand up and respond to China’s
threat to world peace — has apparently ended up in the bottom of a
drawer in the Prime Minister’s office, along with other feel-good
statements of intent. And Canada’s dismal 1.29 percent of GDP spending
on NATO means we’re not only stiffing those allies but leaving our
Arctic essentially undefended, as </span><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/dnd-china-surveillance-operations-airspace-waters-1.6756548"><span style="font-weight: 400;">China is already doing the type of surveillance activities</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that would precede the deployment of nuclear submarines in our northern waters. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ottawa has made no clear commitment to
help defend Taiwan, whose sovereignty and freedom has been under growing
threat from Beijing year by year. China has also been incrementally
making South Korea more susceptible to economic coercion, as their
economies increasingly intertwine. For Beijing, the allure of a unified
pro-China Korean peninsula would be a huge geostrategic game changer,
and bode very badly for Canada and the free world.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfortunately, so long as vested
interests in Ottawa quietly do Beijing’s bidding while they remain in
positions of public trust (so as not to jinx any post-political career
law firm appointments or lucrative board memberships), China will
continue to enjoy what amounts to veto power Canadian sovereignty and
security.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-71507423149583068792023-06-02T07:56:00.000-04:002023-06-02T07:56:06.871-04:00An honourable man in the wrong place at the wrong time: Charles Burton in iPolitics<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> An honourable man in the wrong place at the wrong time</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/an-honourable-man-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time-charles-burton-in-ipolitics/">https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/an-honourable-man-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time-charles-burton-in-ipolitics/</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></p><p>After a long and distinguished career, now an elderly gentleman in
his 80s, this rapporteur assignment is likely David Johnston’s last
significant act of public service. With his Harvard and Cambridge
pedigrees from the early 1960s, he is the product of a Canada that was
politically dominated by a small elite of men whose attitudes of <em>noblesse oblige</em> to women, the lower classes and Indigenous people were matters of honour.</p>
<p>The former Governor General and one-time university president is a
lay reader in the Anglican Church and proponent of the YMCA ideals of
“muscular Christianity.” Even in youth, when he was a highly
accomplished athlete, Johnston’s notion of fair play and a “man’s word
is his bond” made him the ideal candidate for the archaic role of
representative of Her Majesty the Queen in Canada, which he carried out
with great pride.</p><p> Let’s face it, Johnston’s dismissal of news media reports about leaked
intelligence reports as “misconstrued” is not based on the kind of
rigorous investigative tactics that the situation demands. During his
interviews, nobody was speaking under oath and they unlikely felt
intimidated by Johnston’s genteel questioning. When he looked them in
the eye and asked, “were you aware of the reports about Chinese
government sponsored interference in Canada’s democratic process?” and
they all responded that they were not, Johnston may have been quite
inclined to conclude there was no need for deeper interrogation, and
that it would indeed be dishonourable and insulting to question anyone’s
denial.</p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-66450065941259330242023-05-17T14:17:00.002-04:002023-05-17T14:17:13.442-04:00Burton: Beijing doing the wrong thing could be right for Canada<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Beijing doing the wrong thing could be right for Canada </span></b></p><p><a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2023/05/17/beijing-doing-the-wrong-thing-could-be-right-for-canada.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;"> https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2023/05/17/beijing-doing-the-wrong-thing-could-be-right-for-canada.html</span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p>These are not good times for Canadian politicians or businesspeople with
interests in maintaining the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”
charade that has characterized Canada-China relations. If anything,
Beijing — which declined an opportunity to defuse the latest crisis —
seems primed for confrontation.</p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-49113739988995297832023-05-11T11:20:00.001-04:002023-05-11T11:20:18.877-04:00Charles Burton's Interview with Tenzin Tsundue<p> </p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mIjIod70PM8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-90548662069545376332023-04-27T08:19:00.000-04:002023-04-27T08:19:14.713-04:00Burton: To protect Canadian sovereignty, we need transparency about foreign influence <p> </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Burton: To protect Canadian sovereignty, we need transparency about foreign influence </span></b><br /></p><p> </p><p><a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/burton-to-protect-canadian-sovereignty-we-need-transparency-about-foreign-influencehttps://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/burton-to-protect-canadian-sovereignty-we-need-transparency-about-foreign-influence">https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/burton-to-protect-canadian-sovereignty-we-need-transparency-about-foreign-influencehttps://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/burton-to-protect-canadian-sovereignty-we-need-transparency-about-foreign-influence</a></p><p> </p><p>In assembling its sphere of influencers, Beijing targets occupations that retired politicians and senior civil servants tend to move to, after careers spent serving the public trust. These could be people who are compensated by the Chinese regime through board memberships or other paid associations; or who receive income from Canadian companies that do business with China; who are associated with law firms who represent Chinese firms or Canadian firms who do business with the Chinese regime; or indeed who receive income from Canadian public policy think-tanks that in turn are funded by China-associated sources such as Canadian companies who do business with the Chinese regime.<br /><br />Obviously, the ability of these Canadians to continue receiving benefits from Chinese sources will not be helped by anything that encourages public support for policies aimed at squelching the malign activities of Beijing’s agents. In the face of credible reports of illegal activities overseen by Chinese diplomats in Canada, they keep their own counsel, be it about election interference, Chinese “police stations,” military researchers entering our country on falsified visa applications whose mission is to obtain sensitive Canadian technologies, or harassing Canadians including those of Uyghur and Tibetan origin who speak their minds about China’s human rights violations.<br /></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-37805453306382734482023-04-25T17:11:00.005-04:002023-04-25T17:11:35.763-04:00China hungers for Canada’s resources – that’s why CIC is flighty in Glencore-Teck tussle: Charles Burton in the Globe and Mail<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> China hungers for Canada’s resources – that’s why CIC is flighty in Glencore-Teck tussle: Charles Burton in the Globe and Mail</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/china-hungers-for-canadas-resources-thats-why-cic-is-flighty-in-glencore-teck-tussle-charles-burton-in-the-globe-and-mail/">https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/china-hungers-for-canadas-resources-thats-why-cic-is-flighty-in-glencore-teck-tussle-charles-burton-in-the-globe-and-mail/</a></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b></p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">When CIC invested $1.7-billion
in Teck stock in July, 2009, it looked like another step in Beijing’s
overall strategic plan to lock down global resources while they were
cheap. But the picture is more complicated than that.</p>
<p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">As a sovereign wealth fund
that manages part of the People’s Republic of China’s foreign-exchange
reserves, CIC is fully integrated into the Chinese Communist
Party-state’s corporate, military and security apparatus, subordinate to
the overall vision of the party. As General-Secretary <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/topics/xi-jinping/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Xi Jinping </a>has put it, “government, military, civilian, and academic; east, west, south, north, and centre, the party leads everything.”</p>
<p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">CIC’s leadership org chart
shows the board of directors and the “supervisory board” (that is, party
committee) as both being on the same plane at the top. That would seem
to make them equals, but it would be naive to suppose that the
supervisory board does not dictate to the board of directors. In
autocratic political systems, some boards are definitely more equal than
others, and the CIC’s priorities are whatever the Chinese Communist
Party says they are.</p>
<p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5">Like all China institutions,
CIC is programmed by the party to serve the regime’s geostrategic goals
throughout the world. However, being beholden to the party-military
state is much more than a master-servant relationship; it is a
symbiotic, interactive bond. While the idea is to prudently husband
China’s foreign investment and make money, CIC’s raison d’être is not
primarily economic profitability but to serve other Chinese regime
purposes as well.</p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-49694602241560360912023-04-23T08:52:00.002-04:002023-04-23T08:52:29.892-04:00Burton and Shahrooz: Exactly whose interests would be revealed in a Foreign Influence Registry Act?<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> Burton and Shahrooz: Exactly whose interests would be revealed in a Foreign Influence Registry Act?</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2023/04/23/exactly-whose-interests-would-be-revealed-in-a-foreign-influence-registry-act.html">https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2023/04/23/exactly-whose-interests-would-be-revealed-in-a-foreign-influence-registry-act.html</a></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></p><p class="text-block-container">The path to achieving FIRA is fraught
with challenges, not least because so many respected private-sector
Canadian leaders — who associate with both major political parties —
have through naivete or greed become beholden to regimes hostile to
Canada’s interests. Now these enablers find themselves quietly urging
parliamentarians to let this pesky influence registry matter quietly
slide out of sight.</p><div class="article-related-inline ymbii-related-inline"></div><p class="text-block-container">There
is also concern that any legislation meant to neutralize foreign
subversion of Canada’s institutions will fall short of our allies’
strong measures, being kept weak so as not to not expose any
ex-politicians now benefitting from significant income streams from
Chinese regime-related sources, which have been described as “life
transforming amounts of money.”</p><p class="text-block-container">As
CSIS has exposed, the primary culprits behind the rise of foreign
interference in Canada are China, North Korea, Iran and Russia. China’s
United Front Work Department has been the most active, launching
disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining any legislative attempt to
challenge Beijing’s influence operations in Canada.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-59176525493368555352023-02-22T19:47:00.000-05:002023-02-22T19:47:01.946-05:00CTV News Channel: Russia's Putin meeting with China's Xi is a bad sign for Ukraine and NATO: Burton<p> </p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fBoZIYThO_Y" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-57813328182423496962023-02-22T12:21:00.003-05:002023-02-22T12:21:45.835-05:00Burton: What is this government doing to protect Canada’s sovereignty against China?<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">What is this government doing to protect Canada’s sovereignty against China? </span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-is-this-government-doing-to-protect-canadas-sovereignty-against/#comments" target="_blank"> https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-is-this-government-doing-to-protect-canadas-sovereignty-against/#comments</a></span></p><p><br /></p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt">Canadians may well wonder what their government is doing to
protect them from China’s schemes. Yet no serious action seems to have
been taken by Canadian authorities: no court cases or RCMP
investigations appear to have been launched, and no diplomats have been
ejected. Indeed, the sheer size of Beijing’s diplomatic corps here
should have long ago raised alarms. China has 146 envoys accredited in
Canada, compared to 46 from Japan, 36 from India and 23 for the UK.</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt">We
also know the CSIS material has been shared with our Five Eyes global
partners and other allied intelligence agencies, as well as among senior
government officials; Global News has reported that CSIS briefed Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau on interference efforts in the 2019 election.
But significantly, it doesn’t seem to have been transferred to the RCMP –
the organization that would undertake an investigation, lay charges and
advise the government about diplomats potentially engaging in these
activities, which could be cause to send them back to Beijing.</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5 font-pratt">This
past weekend, however, Mr. Trudeau unequivocally stated that “the
outcomes of the 2019 and the 2021 elections were determined by
Canadians, and Canadians alone, at the voting booth.” This was an odd
statement to make, however, since Canada is a secret-ballot democracy;
we can’t tell exactly why people vote the way they vote, and so it seems
impossible to actually know if Chinese influence was instrumental in
certain political candidates losing their seats.</p><p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11716922.post-11208804485678311172023-02-19T17:23:00.002-05:002023-02-19T17:25:50.172-05:00Interview with Natasha Fatah on Chinese Election Interference<p> </p><div style="text-align: left;"><b> <span style="font-size: medium;">Interview with Natasha Fatah on Chinese Election Interference</span></b></div><p> </p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.cbc.ca/i/phoenix/player/syndicate/?mediaId=2174027331713" width="640"></iframe>Charles Burtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978035123507647720noreply@blogger.com0