China’s President Xi Jinping has done Justin Trudeau a big favor by chastising him in front of the cameras for allegedly leaking elements of their brief one-on-one at the G20 summit to the media.
The leak complained of by XI Jinping came from the minutes drawn up by the Prime Minister’s Office and summarizing the subjects which had been discussed during this meeting, in particular the interference of China in Canada, without specifying what interference it was. The irritation of the Chinese president shows that Justin Trudeau has stood tall. The arguments of the conservatives, who deplore his softness in front of the Chinese giant, have thus lost their force.
At the same time, the Global News network was spreading bizarre news, based on unnamed sources, that the Chinese government interfered in the 2019 federal election campaign by awarding some $250,000 to an underground network linked to 11 Liberal candidates. as curators. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reportedly informed the Prime Minister. The operations consisted in placing agents of the Chinese Communist Party and also members of the Liberal Party of Canada or the Conservative Party of Canada within the offices of deputies with the aim of influencing their positions relating to China. The targeted candidates have not been identified and, according to Global News, CSIS has concluded that this interference did not affect the election results. That would be all that was missing.
At the end of October, we also learned that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was investigating the presence of “police stations” set up by China on Canadian soil, whose officers allegedly harassed Chinese nationals. There would be three such positions in Toronto. A spokesperson for the Chinese government rather describes these establishments as “service stations” intended to assist Chinese people abroad free of charge. Big deal.
This week, a Chinese researcher, employed by Hydro-Quebec in its research center on transport electrification and energy storage, was accused of industrial espionage.
It’s not new. Trade secrets learned from Nortel are suspected to have been used in the emergence of wireless communications giant Huawei. Thousands of Chinese nationals end up in Canada in companies and research centers without it being known who of them work for China or report to it. The Trudeau government has so far turned a blind eye; his position on Canada’s relations with China was naïve. Until Beijing threw two Canadian nationals, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, into prison and held them for almost three years.
Since then, his point of view has not been the same. It is in this context that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, is working on an Indo-Pacific strategy, the China component of which contrasts with past nativity.
In a speech delivered last week in Toronto, Mélanie Joly outlined the strategy expected in December. There is no question of cutting economic ties with China and the other autocratic or dictatorial regimes on the planet, or of considerably reducing their scope, as recently mentioned in a speech in Washington by the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland. Without being complacent towards Beijing, Mélanie Joly delivered a realistic and lucid vision, marked by realpolitik. She spoke of “the rise of China”, a China “increasingly upsetting the world order” and seeking to shape the world “in such a way that it is more permissive for interests and values that deviate more and more from ours.
Canada will challenge China when it has to and cooperate with it when it has to, she said. “Now is not the time to isolate yourself. And it is with India, an imperfect democracy but a democracy all the same, that the country will strengthen ties. In this regard, we should not be under any illusions either.
Since the end of October, the Trudeau government has prohibited foreign state-owned companies from holding interests in mining companies exploiting strategic minerals, which certainly includes lithium, but also potash and copper. It is Chinese companies that are targeted. It was time. In addition, the Minister will equip Canadian diplomacy to deepen its understanding of China’s actions, strategies and influence around the world through specialists stationed in key embassies.
In matters of foreign policy, clarity and firmness are better than naivety, good-naturedness and confusion. Mélanie Joly, and with her all of Canadian diplomacy, seems to have understood this.