the Craziest Week of Sino-Canadian Relations in 3 Years: Mid-Week Roundup Tuesday, Nov 15th, 2022
Trudeau meets Xi, Espionage Charges by RCMP tied to CCP, Indo-Pacific Strategy hits $1 billion in funding, the 🇨🇦-🇨🇳 Committee meets tonight + like another 10 big stories
Welcome to Maple Kingdom, where now more happens in 48 hours than used to happen in a month between 🇨🇦-🇨🇳. Here’s our top 5 of the last two days:
Trudeau Meets Xi on sidelines of G20
A Quebec-based researcher for Hydro QC is charged with espionage
The Indo-Pacific Strategy hits $1B in funding
CACN committee meets tonight
Must Read: Immigration Fraud in BC
Trudeau meets Xi
Trudeau and Xi spoke for 10 minutes today on the sidelines of the G20 where Trudeau brought up the subject of election interference. This meeting should be seen as a win for Trudeau who was being “shut out” of Xi meetings (Trudeau left out in the cold as China’s Xi engages in a whirlwind of diplomacy at G20 )
Earlier this week, Trudeau had a chance to call the events of the last decade in Xinjiang a genocide but demurred in what can only be described as a fumble.
The question on the minds of a lot of the China-watching commmunity in Canada after this informal meeting must be: if Sam Cooper had not published on the election interference, which according to reports the Trudeau Gov’t has known about since January, would he have brought it up with Xi?
A Quebec-based researcher for Hydro QC is charged with espionage
A former researcher for Hydro Quebec, focused on batteries and fuel cells, was charged with 4 crimes by the RCMP related to espionage for the Chinese Government.
S. 19 R.S.C – Obtaining trade secrets
S. 342.1 CC – Unauthorized use of computer
S. 391 CC – Fraud for obtaining trade secrets
S. 122 CC – Breach of trust by public officer
We know little so far about the case other than the crown has identified Yuesheng Wang as a flight risk.
Interestingly, his twitter, ResearchGate, GoogleScholar etc are are still available, where you can read his research papers and see some of the patents that have precipitated the charges.
The Indo-Pacific Strategy hits $1B in funding
Without seeing the strategy yet, we’ve cleared a billion CAD of announced funding, 880 million of which is development funds.
There is something interesting to note here: as Canada gears up for this infrastructure push, questions should be raised on if this is the optimal spread of funding compared to other priorities within the Indo-Pacific strategy.
This funding will open doors to Trudeau being attacked for over-spending, as inflation in Canada continues to be top of mind for many voters. The conservatives will have a field day talking about how the liberals have raised money through a carbon tax to fund bridges in Malaysia while our own infrastructure is crumbling. There will be much political hay made of this announcement.
CACN committee meets tonight
Tune in tonight to see Jonathan Berkshire Miller, one of the most interesting thinkers in Sino-Canadian relations, alongside Dr. Tong Lam from UofT and Colin Robertson and finally Dr. Justin Massie.
Also joining is Elbridge Colby, a controversial figure with deep ties to the military-industrial complex in the US. We’ve written about the conflicts of interest he has before, but just to highlight:
Colby worked in 2014-2019 for the Center for a New American Security, which is funded by Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Bell Helicopter, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Boeing and DynCorp. These are arms manufacturers and defence contractors.
Since then, he seems to have been part of WestExec Advisors which stated “we help tech firms who are trying to figure out how to sell in the public sector space, to navigate the DOD, the intel community, law enforcement.”
The Marathon Initiative itself doesn’t take money from corporations according to its website, but the co-founder of the Marathon Initiative is also the Vice-Chairman of CEPA (and is listed as president on tax filings) which is funded by arms manufacturers.
He writes about the “plausible, increasingly likely” chance of war with China.
Finally, greater defence efforts seem consistent with Canada’s own self-interest. A war with China or, for that matter, Russia, is plausible, not only over the horizon but in this decade. And it appears increasingly likely that North America will be part of a war with either of these major powers, each of which possesses long-range strike and daunting cyber capabilities. Indeed, Canada is a way of threatening or even indirectly hitting America without directly hitting it.
So what we have here is two people who spent their careers being paid by companies who make military equipment to tell governments to buy military equipment.
Spoiler alert, he wants us to buy more arms from the companies that he’s funded by. Surely we can do better.
Tune in here tonight from 6:30PM EST.
Here’s a twitter list of the members involved
Must Read: Immigration Fraud in BC
Not much to say here other than you should read this excellent long-form piece on the amazing degree by which intermediaries defraud hopeful Chinese immigrants who want to come to Canada.
Tweet Threads to Follow:
Readings Today:
Trudeau announces funding for Indo-Pacific pledges during visit to Southeast Asia summit we’re now a billion dollars deep in the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
They Dreamed of Canada. But They Were Scammed incredibly sad story of immigration scams in Canada. This is a piece everyone should read.
Has the Trudeau government finally got Beijing’s number? Narrator Voice: it did not.
CSIS official tells MPs China “foremost aggressor” in foreign interference this is an important milestone in the saga- its been all recent elections, and its not going to stop anytime soon. Massive vindication for Michael Chong, who raised this early and often.
Trudeau spoke with China's Xi about 'interference' on sidelines of G20 summit
Biden’s Chance With China US piece, very good
Chinese Version of the Xi Jinping x Joe Biden Meeting
OP ED: Sean Speer: As global tensions rise, Canada cannot afford an uncertain China strategy
OP ED: Canada needs to get real about the threat that Beijing poses to our values “To put it simply: The People’s Republic of China is the No. 1 economic, strategic, technological, political and security threat to the Western world for the next century – and it’s not even close. The Chinese Communist Party will continue to pose a direct threat to not just the Western world’s interests, but also our values. The challenge has existed for years now, but academics, business leaders, and policymakers too often looked away, because there was always more money to be made.”
OP ED: LILLEY: Trudeau quick to use genocide when speaking of Canada but slow on China this video will be an albatross around Trudeau’s neck.
OP ED: Karthik Nachiappan: Helping India rise would be a shrewd geopolitical move for Canada “The Trudeau government’s inability to devise strategic foreign policy has left diplomacy to the whims of personal preference, international optics and domestic politics. Working with pluralistic democracies like India should be in Canada’s national interest, but perhaps the effects of electoral politics, party preferences and possibly institutional inertia has complicated the issue.”
Trudeau pledges cash for infrastructure and making vaccines in developing countries roundup of the $750 million
House of Commons committee will probe China’s alleged interference in 2019 election its official, the probe has arrived
Why Ottawa let Chinese forces attend a 'military sciences' meet in Canada The theme of the academic meeting in October 2021 was “resilience and cohesion in the face of new forms of disruption,” and one of the sessions dealt with “China and Russia’s information space attacks on democracy.”
Worker at Canada's largest electricity producer charged with spying for China, police say “Wang, who is from Candiac in the province of Quebec, allegedly committed the crimes at the electricity utility from February 2018 to October 2022. An RCMP special national security unit began investigating in August, police said.”
RCMP Hydro-Québec employee charged with espionage, leaking secrets to CCP developing story
Threat of war: What you need to know about the future of Taiwan-China tensions solid explainer on Taiwan.
Trudeau left out in the cold as China’s Xi engages in a whirlwind of diplomacy at G20 already outdated
Events Tomorrow
CHINA Town Hall - Hand on the Pulse: Changing Canadian Public Opinion on China
November 16, 2022 | 8:00PM - 9:00PM
A recent Pew poll showed that Canadian public opinion of China has grown increasingly unfavourable over the past decade. From the two Michaels to China’s zero-Covid policy to Communist Party influence abroad, many pressure points have surfaced. Canada also has a large and diverse population of Chinese descent that enriches and participates in Canadian politics and society. This panel brings together diverse voices to discuss how Chinese in Canada have historically been treated, and what lessons there are for people-to-people exchange today.
The Indo-Pacific Strategy of Canada and the U.S.
November 16, 2022 | 10:00AM - 11:00AM
How does the rivalry among superpowers and the retreat into regionalism affect global security, technology, supply chains, and trade flows? What role do non-state actors — social movements, non-governmental organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and more — have to play in this new political landscape? What does the weakening of our institutions mean for our ability to address inequality, uphold human rights, address the changing reality of borders, and save our warming planet? And what is Canada’s role in this changing world?
Great panel, half of which we’ve interviewed for this substack.
