Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Could Canada be a partner with China? No: Anastasia Lin in the Toronto Star

March 22, 2021
in Anastasia Lin, Columns, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, In the Media, Latest News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

The West has largely stayed silent on the abuses inside China and enabled the CCP to continue them through its partnerships, writes Anastasia Lin in the Toronto Star. This article is part of the Toronto Star’s Saturday Debate series.

By Anastasia Lin, March 22, 2021

Canada was counting on a collaboration with the Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The effort collapsed after Chinese customs held up a shipment of vital materials. As a result, Canada has fallen behind allies in administering vaccines, putting its citizens’ lives at risk. That’s what happens when you try to form a partnership with the Chinese Communist regime.

A former senior government official, Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, told reporters she believes it was retribution for Canada’s detention of Meng Wanzhou, CFO of the Chinese telecom company Huawei. This wasn’t an isolated incident. Since Meng’s arrest in 2018, China has also halted imports of Canadian agricultural goods and raw material and taken two innocent Canadian citizens hostage.

Canada is not alone here. After Australia asked for an honest and transparent inquiry into the origin of COVID-19, China retaliated by imposing trade penalties. Following Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s election victory, China broke communication with Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council and cut the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan by nearly 60 per cent.

Democracies didn’t initiate these confrontations. Instead, they follow a decades-long pattern: Beijing retaliates for Western countries’ lawful actions when they don’t align with the CCP’s interests. Yielding to China’s coercion, economic or otherwise, only emboldens it further.

Partnership with the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) is a time bomb that will eventually explode unless one stops exercising its sovereignty and becomes a tributary state of the CCP. The CCP has shown it can’t be trusted to respect international norms on trade, health, intellectual property and even the liberty of foreigners who visit China.

Canada has tried countless times to form partnerships with the Chinese regime and the result has consistently been one of disappointment. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that the CCP’s aggression is somehow our fault — that we are insufficiently considerate of Beijing’s perspective, or that friends occasionally fight, or that “different cultural norms” foster misunderstandings.

These excuses ignore what the CCP has done to China’s own people. Since 1949, the regime has been directly responsible for the deaths of some 65 million Chinese citizens — and the killing continues to this day. As a native of China, I can tell you that we crave justice and an end to repression as much as anyone.

The CCP’s values are incompatible with the well-being, rights and dignity of both the West and the Chinese people. The CCP is willing to sacrifice human life for its rule, and this mentality is carried through every level of government. That’s why in November 2019, Wuhan officials covered up the coronavirus and arrested courageous Chinese doctors for telling the truth, endangering lives in China and around the world.

The West has largely stayed silent on the abuses inside China and enabled the CCP to continue them through its partnerships. The forced-labour system is a significant source of revenue for Chinese authorities. Local governments have a financial incentive to imprison law-abiding citizens in camps where they make products for export. The business of Western companies helps create those financial incentives.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Western companies — including Adidas AG, Hennes & Mauritz AB, Kraft Heinz Co., Coca-Cola, and Gap Inc. — have become entangled in China’s forced-assimilation campaign against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, which the U.S. State Department and Canadian Parliament have both recognized as genocide.

Residents there are routinely forced into training programs that feed workers to area factories, which supply these companies. Shouldn’t we stop this type of partnership, at least until it confirms that forced labour isn’t part of a company’s Chinese supply chain?

The justification for tolerating China’s bad behaviour used to be that China will steadily liberalize. But that hasn’t happened, and countless innocent Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Falun Gong practitioners and other Chinese people continue to perish in prisons or labour camps for exercising their fundamental rights.

By appeasing the CCP, Canada and the West have encouraged it to act with impunity. Only when we hold China accountable as an equal member of the international community can we have meaningful partnership. That’s not blind confrontation but real partnership. The alternative is submission.

Anastasia Lin is an actor, human rights activist and former Miss World Canada. She is the ambassador on Canada-China Policy for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Tags: Anastasia LinCanada-China relationsChinaDragon at the DoorForeign Affairsforeign policy
Previous Post

Finding a solution to the East Coast fisheries challenge: Ken Coates for Inside Policy

Next Post

No Verdict in Michael Spavor Trial: Anastasia Lin on CTV News

Related Posts

Ukraine must be victorious, for all of our sakes: Balkan Devlen for Inside Policy
Columns

Ukraine’s right to self-defence is self-evident: Chris Alexander in the Globe and Mail

June 2, 2023
Trudeau, Ford to blame for Stellantis shakedown: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post
Columns

Trudeau, Ford to blame for Stellantis shakedown: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post

June 2, 2023
Multimedia: G7 Hiroshima Summit & Beyond
Video

Multimedia: G7 Hiroshima Summit & Beyond

June 1, 2023
Next Post
No Verdict in Michael Spavor Trial: Anastasia Lin on CTV News

No Verdict in Michael Spavor Trial: Anastasia Lin on CTV News

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.