Canada needs a much more realistic policy toward China

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on January 30, 2019.

With the departure of John McCallum, he of the remarkably undisciplined mouth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in the market for a new ambassador to China.

That’s urgent. With relations at a new low, Canada needs a top-rank representative in Beijing. A fill-in deputy, no matter how expert, isn’t enough.

But it’s clear now that what Trudeau and his government really need is a whole new policy toward China. The old one has collapsed and won’t be revived even once the Canadian citizens arbitrarily detained in China are eventually released.

McCallum’s usefulness as ambassador was fatally compromised after he blurted out some inconvenient truths about the arrest in Vancouver of the Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of U.S. authorities who want her extradited to face a litany of charges that they outlined in detail on Monday.

The fact that McCallum was basically just telling the truth about Meng’s case didn’t make things any better. On the contrary, it made them worse. McCallum was saying in public what could only be mentioned behind closed doors: that Meng’s case is highly politicized and should be seen as part of a much bigger struggle between the U.S. and China.

Canada is being squeezed between the two giants as they renegotiate their relationship in trade and technology. American officials can insist all they like that the case involving Meng, CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, has nothing to do with those negotiations. But the Chinese certainly don’t see it that way, and neither do some Americans (including, at one point, President Donald Trump, who mused about using Meng as a bargaining chip with Beijing).

All indications are that things are going to get worse for Ottawa, and for the imprisoned Canadians, before they get better. The indictment unveiled by the U.S. Justice Department contains sweeping charges against Huawei and Meng herself, involving obstructing justice, stealing trade secrets and evading sanctions.

There’s a political context to all this, but they can’t be just swept away. This is a serious case that will take months to unfold.

The damage to Canada’s reputation and that of the government from the McCallum episode is clear.

In China, where strength above all brings respect, there’s open contempt for Ottawa’s confused message. The official China Daily portrays Trudeau as allowing the U.S. “to lead him by the nose.” The unofficial Global Times writes that “Ottawa is now as sensitive as a frightened bird” on the Meng issue. We just look weak.

And in Canada, the government looks at best uncertain on an important and delicate international issue. It’s still not clear whether McCallum’s statements were a personal error on his part or part of a bungled attempt to mollify China.

At this point, Canada needs to get back to rallying international support for getting the detained Canadians released. Beijing needs to keep hearing the message that it is seriously damaging its reputation by treating foreign citizens as legal hostages in the dispute over Meng’s fate.

In the longer term, Canada needs to develop a much more realistic policy toward China, with fewer illusions about the chances for democratic evolution there. The government of President Xi Jinping is clearly on a very different path; it’s out to assert China’s role in the world, with little regard for our quaint notions of democratic norms.

We have to be clear-eyed about who we’re dealing with. That means, for a start, dialing back expectations about the type of agreements Canada may be able to make with China in the foreseeable future. And it means, almost certainly, joining the majority of countries in the “Five Eyes” intelligence network in barring Huawei from next-generation telecom networks.

In the meantime, please, no more unforced errors.

— Toronto Star

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