After teasing Canadians for years, the Indo-Pacific Strategy, released November 27, disappoints on many levels in terms of substance and cold war mentality in attitude. The policy strengthens Canada’s commitment to the military industrial complex with half a billion dollars being allocated over five years. The money will be used to engage in international military exercises (like the RIMPAC) and to increase the number of warships deployed in the area. The anti-China hawks won the day as the policy has taken a belligerent tone by labelling China as “an increasingly disruptive global power.”
The strategy calls for $2.3 billion spending in investments to strengthen Canadian “infrastructure, democracy and Canadian citizens against foreign interference.” It maintains a fortress-like attitude to foreign investments, i.e., from China, as it seeks to prevent state-owned enterprises from investing in critical mineral supplies.
The Indo-Pacific Strategy is clearly aimed at confronting Beijing as the 26-page document mentions China more than 50 times. The document says that Canada will maintain a one-China policy when it comes to Taiwan, but it exposes its interference in internal Chinese and Taiwanese affairs when it says, “Canada will oppose unilateral actions that threaten the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.” The Strategy is really a re-hash of policies in the Indo-Pacific shown by the Trudeau administration over the past few years. It has put dollar values to military spending in the area and it has solidified its anti-China position by codifying it in the document. As Canada becomes increasingly isolated in its anti-China policy, it will be interesting to see how the Indo-Pacific Strategy unfolds in the coming years.
Social-democrat hero pushes “left” side of Canadian state’s anti-China narratives
The day after the release of the Indo-Pacific policy, the Canadian darling of the liberal-left, Naomi Klein, tweeted about the “uprising” in China, calling for regime change, as people show their grief for the 10 people who died in a fire in Urumqi and their frustration towards the on-going Zero-Covid measures. No matter what people in the west say about China’s approach to Covid-19, the facts speak for themselves.
China, with a population of 1.4 billon people, 15,930 have died from Covid, according to John Hopkins University, which has been tracking Covid statistics. Contrast this to the United States, leader of the “free world,” with a population of 332 million, who has suffered 1.1 million Covid-19 deaths. Even Quebec has more Covid deaths than China at 17,314.
China’s Zero-Covid policy is based on the safety of the people as the primary factor. The Chinese government has faith in the people that through self-reliance, they will be able to bring the economy back to common prosperity once the disease is defeated. Whereas, in Klein’s world, the economy is primary to protect capitalist enterprises. The people now must fend for themselves with not even a mask requirement.
Klein doesn’t say anything about the workers at the Foxconn (a company headquartered in Taiwan province) factory in Zhengzhou, the largest iPhone producer, that have walked off the job. They are striking for pay that was promised and against the company’s lax Covid-19 measures. Perhaps Klein is concerned that the new iPhone will be out late this year.
Klein has a following in the anti-communist social democratic left which projected her to fame and profit, charging a speaking fee of $50,000 to $100,000. Her anti-China efforts are governed by the propaganda of the western imperialist forces. Two examples quickly come to mind, the Tiananmen Incident 1989 and her being enamoured with Chai Ling and Liu Xiaobo, Chinese “dissidents.”
She accepts the western narrative on Tiananmen without question. Whereas, serious journalist sources from Wikileaks to Jay Mathews have researched and investigated the Tiananmen “massacre” and concluded that it is another anti-China hoax. Chai Ling, now living in the US, was bloodthirsty in Tiananmen Square, “I cannot tell [the other students] that what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed.” As for Liu Xiaobo who died in 2017, he was a war monger and a pro-colonialist who supported the US aggression in Vietnam and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Liu is quoted as saying that China needed 300 years of colonialism to achieve western standards of civilization. His work in China prior to his arrest was funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy. These are Klein’s examples of Chinese “heroes.” Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 in the same way that Barack Obama was awarded the peace prize in 2009, after which he proceeded to send more troops to strengthen the invasion of Afghanistan that wreaked destruction to that country for 20 years.
Canada out of step with the world in its approach to China
In the Canadian government’s desire to be in lockstep with American policies on China, Canada is once again behind the trend. Four of the Five-Eyes countries, US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK may be undergoing an attitude adjustment. US president Joe Biden had a full scale three-and-a-half hour meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, NZ’s Jacinda Ardern had a face-to-face meeting with Xi, as did Australia’s new prime minister Anthony Albanese who is taking a more conciliatory tone different from the attack dog approach of his predecessor. UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, had a meeting scheduled with Xi but cancelled at the last minute when the NATO countries at the G-20 held an emergency meeting based on disinformation that Russia fired missiles into Poland. The Fifth Eye, Canada, has not had a face-to-face high level meeting with China’s leaders since 2017 when Trudeau visited China.
Canada’s other Western allies have also been taking a more conciliatory tone as Xi Jinping, fresh from the 20th congress of the Communist Party of China, embarked on a diplomatic mission to improve relations with the West. Over the past weeks, Xi met with Germany’s Olaf Scholz, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, Italy’s new PM Georgia Meloni and the president of the European Council, representing the EU, Charles Michel is visiting Beijing December 1 to “rebalance” European relations with China. Xi is also on a diplomatic charm offensive in the Asia-Pacific, meeting with a number of Asian leaders including Japan’s Fumio Kishida and India’s Narendra Modi. The head of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong was the first foreign leader to visit China following the 20th congress of the CPC. The visit cemented comradely relations of the two socialist countries.
Other western countries have also gone off-script from the American de-coupling strategy. One example is the Netherlands defying US pressure not to sell electronic chips to China. In the meeting with Mark Rutte at the G-20, Xi asked the Dutch PM to resist “the politicisation of economic and trade issues.” These countries concluded that re-engaging with China would be in the best interest of their economies which have been wracked by their contributions to the war in Ukraine.
The geopolitical losers complain about Chinese interference in Canadian elections
Justin Trudeau is driven by headlines, and this has exposed him as a lightweight in world diplomacy as exemplified by Xi Jinping’s lesson to him in Diplomacy 101 at the G-20. He is now caught up in the media instigated narrative of Chinese interference in Canadian elections.
The complainants of Chinese meddling are the losers in the last federal elections. The danger for the electoral process is that when these forces don’t win, they scapegoat China as the cause instead of their own policies. They have so little confidence in the Canadian electorate that they don’t accept the fact that people who rejected them are capable of voting against them because of their policies. Chinese Canadians have the right to reject the Conservative candidates and party whose policies they do not support. This is called the democratic process and Chinese Canadian have every right to participate in this process.
The narrative of Chinese interference in Canada stirred up in the media, probably by planted disinformation from the intelligence establishment, began circulating even before the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. The media campaign focused on the Chinese Canadian community and how it uses social media like WeChat to politically organize. WeChat is used by 1.24 billion people around the world, with over 1 million users in Canada, over half of the Chinese Canadian community. WeChat is like the American social media giants Twitter and Facebook rolled into one.
A Global News article resurrected this China interference story released on November 7, written by notorious anti-China reporter Sam Cooper. Cooper wrote, based on un-named intelligence sources, that the Chinese consulate in Toronto provided a $250,000 splash fund to 11 candidates from both the Liberal and Conservative parties to influence the election outcome. No names were given by Cooper, only conjectures. Trudeau then became the target of the right-wing media demanding what he knew about Chinese interference in the elections and when he knew it. The PM denied having any information of Chinese interference and repeated that Canadian elections are fair without any interference.
The Commons standing committee on procedure and house affairs called an inquiry on the Global News allegations. Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault was called to testified and stated that he wasn’t aware of any Chinese interference in the elections prior to seeing reports in the news. Perrault said, “I’m not aware of any specifics regarding campaigns of interference by Beijing other than what I read in the news article.”
Another anti-China reporter. Tom Blackwell continues the assault on Chinese Canadians’ right to participate in free and open elections. In an article in the National Post, released on November 25, Blackwell infers that efforts of the Chinese Council for Western Ontario Elections (CCWOE) come at Beijing’s behest. Information on the CCWOE came from the Chinese Canadian Media News:
The main responsibilities of the Western Ontario Chinese Election Committee are: to increase the voting rate of Chinese people and their awareness of political participation, and to work with other ethnic groups to prosper the multicultural construction of Canada.
What is Blackwell’s evidence? Again, in the best traditions of McCarthyism, it’s all innuendo and no substance. He does not allow Chinese Canadians to have different opinions and political points of view from the “mainstream.” He says that some of the same people of the CCWOE are aligned with the 100 associations strong Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO). The Confederation was founded in 1985 and the principles and objectives of this organization are:
(1) To make unified efforts to protect and promote the solidarity and cooperation of the Chinese community in Toronto, and the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese in Toronto.
(2) To encourage and promote activities that enrich and strengthen the cultural, educational, social, political, economic, and commercial status of the Chinese.
(3) To promote the preservation and development of Chinese language, culture and traditions and to encourage and enhance the understanding, appreciation and respect of other ethnic groups towards the Chinese culture and traditions.
(4) To work for and contribute to the national unity, national prosperity, multiculturalism and general welfare of Canada.
(5) To promote understanding of China among Chinese and other ethnic groups and to contribute to friendly relations between Canada and China.
The CTCCO seems to have gotten under Blackwell’s skin as he writes extensively on Chinese Canadian organizations who promote Point 5, “understanding of China among Chinese and other groups.”
All these right-wing reporters seem to attack any democratic rights of Chinese Canadians who may have sympathy for Beijing and the Communist Party of China. One of the ludicrous stories from Sam Cooper in Global News is that the CTCCO was directed by Beijing to corner the market on personal protective equipment (PPE) and send them to China. This article in Toronto.com showcased how Sam Cooper’s original story was filled with lies and half-truths.
Taking a page from the Trump play book, the easiest application of Sinophobia is to convince Canadians of the foreign threat to our cherished democratic process. This is why the stories of Chinese meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections have re-surfaced. Still without any evidence. The media is playing its part as cheerleaders for the new anti-China Indo-Pacific Strategy.
The highest level of the Canadian government, the prime minister, had no information or evidence on Chinese interference in Canada’s elections. Justin Trudeau admitted such, but this lack of information did not stop him from blabbing about Chinese interference in Canada at the G-20 conference, until China’s president Xi Jinping put him in his place.
Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly had the same talking points when she cornered her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi at the G-20. When asked by a reporter what the Chinese response was, she retorted with her imperialist arrogance, “It was not a discussion.” Joly has been saying that Canada’s new policy on the Indo-Pacific released on November 27 will be tough on China. And she is certainly creating the atmosphere for a tough on China attitude.
Real life consequences of Sinophobia and anti-China rhetoric
The media’s McCarthyite reporting and the Sinophobic tone of the government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy are having real life consequences. Similar to the case of Qing Quentin Huang, who had his charges of spying for China dropped in January 2022 due to lack of evidence (after eight years), there is now a case against Dr. Yuesheng Wang. A researcher in battery technology for Hydro-Quebec since 2018, Wang was arrested for spying for China in November. After he was charged, Hydro-Quebec dismissed him from his job. In detention for two weeks, the 35-year-old obtained bail on November 28, but he could also have his life ruined by the security forces’ zeal to hunt enemy agents. This is an ongoing case for which Chinese Canadians and all justice-loving Canadians should be concerned.
William Ging Wee Dere is a member of The Canada Files’ Advisory Board. He is the author of the award-winning “Being Chinese in Canada, The Struggle for Identity, Redress and Belonging.” (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019). He was a political organizer and a leading activist in the 2-decade movement for redress of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act. He is a member of the Progressive Chinese of Quebec.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 