Tasha Kheiriddin: Will Trudeau take his government’s own China policy seriously?

As the world watches the brave people of China rise up against their government, demanding freedom on pain of death, Canada’s government unveiled its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy. It includes a new “clear-eyed understanding” of China.

“China’s rise, enabled by the same international rules and norms that it now increasingly disregards, has had an enormous impact on the Indo-Pacific, and it has ambitions to become the leading power in the region,” the document reads. “China is making large-scale investments to establish its economic influence, diplomatic impact, offensive military capabilities and advanced technologies. China is looking to shape the international order into a more permissive environment for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.”

The assessment is not wrong, but its use of the present tense is laughable. China has been doing these things for decades, in Canada and around the world. Its Belt and Road Initiative has furthered Chinese economic interests through the construction of massive infrastructure projects in developing countries, often at a cost of major indebtedness. Its Confucius Institutes have spread pro-Chinese Communist Party revisionist history to nine million students at 525 institutes in 146 countries and regions, whitewashing events like the Tiananmen Square uprising and encouraging campuses not to allow speakers like the Dalai Lama.

Furthermore, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, “What I have said many times at this point is we will challenge when we ought to and we will co-operate when we must.” The strategy lists a host of points of “cooperation” with China: “climate change and biodiversity loss, global health and nuclear proliferation. And China’s economy offers significant opportunities for Canadian exporters.”

With China’s vast market, those opportunities might appear limitless, but China’s portion of Canadian trade is not. Seventy-three per cent of our exports go to the United States, less than five per cent to China. Is compromising our national security and democracy worth $19 billion of agricultural goods and raw materials? Instead of growing trade with autocratic China, Canada should pursue increased opportunities with democratic nations, including India, something the strategy does recommend in the form of proposed free trade talks.

As for climate change, China has shown little willingness to cooperate. As recently as three weeks ago at COP27, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China had no obligation to participate in a global climate compensation fund and instead stressed his solidarity with countries calling for more action by developed nations.

The strategy does make a few important points, including emphasizing the need to differentiate between the actions of the Chinese government and those of the Chinese people. It also seeks to deepen collaboration with South Korea and Japan and increase Canada’s military presence in the Indo-Pacific, though with our defence forces already stretched to the limit, it is hard to see how Canada will be able to do this without a massive infusion of funds and personnel.

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And the strategy also leaves out key elements to counter foreign interference, including the creation of a Foreign Agents Registrations Act (FARA), to track lobbying by CCP funded companies and their representatives, something the Opposition Conservatives have been demanding for years.

The biggest question, though, is how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will act. For the past seven years, Trudeau and his government have failed to contain the growth of Chinese influence, which has permeated Canadian politics to the point that Global News recently reported on the financing of 11 candidates by the CCP in the 2019 election, which was allegedly conveyed to the Prime Minister in January of 2022.

To this, Trudeau responded that “we’re seeing countries… whether it’s China or others, are continuing to play aggressive games with our institutions, with our democracies,” but later denied having been briefed on the issue. Meanwhile, he and his MPs ducked the question in the House of Commons for over a week, accusing the Conservatives of fomenting “false concern.”

This isn’t a time for whataboutsim or partisanship; this is a time for leadership. Unless Trudeau goes further, legislates FARA and takes concrete action on interference, Canada — and Chinese Canadians — won’t be any safer from foreign influence. And the new strategy will be nothing but a paper tiger.

Postmedia News