OTTAWA, ON (November 4, 2022): The federal government has announced that Chinese state-owned enterprises must immediately divest their stakes in three Canadian critical mineral companies. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute has been at the forefront of warning about the dangers of China’s growing influence over critical minerals worldwide and Canadian supply chains in particular and welcomes this policy reversal from Ottawa.
MLI’s large body of work on this issue has included:
- Over 880 mentions of MLI experts and authors in national and international media, commenting specifically on how China’s dominance of critical minerals poses a threat to Canada’s interests.
- Papers, commentaries, and other publications discussing strategic resources (such as critical minerals and energy resources) in the context of authoritarian threats from countries like Russia and China.
- Expert webinars on why it is crucial for Canada to seize a leadership role on critical minerals.
- Parliamentary testimony from MLI experts, such as Senior Fellows Charles Burton and Jeff Kucharski’s comments at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology on the subject of Chinese ownership over Canada’s critical minerals.
Additionally, Senior Fellows Charles Burton, Stephen Nagy, J. Michael Cole, and Jonathan Berkshire Miller have appeared frequently before the Special Committee of the House of Commons on Canada-China Relations.
“Ottawa appears to be recognizing with greater clarity the true nature of the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party regime,” says MLI Senior Fellow Charles Burton. “Though this recognition has been slow in coming about, the federal government has been sending encouraging signals as of late.”
This most recent decision fits into a pattern of MLI successes combatting China’s attempts to subordinate Canada’s interests to those of the Communist Party regime in China. Other major victories have included the blocking of the Shandong Gold-TMAC Resources takeover, the blocking of the Aecon deal and, perhaps most importantly, stopping Huawei from being involved in Canada’s 5G infrastructure.
MLI was also the leading voice urging caution on the Nexen-CNOOC deal and sounded the alarm in early 2022 when our government failed to do a security review when a Chinese state-owned enterprise sought to purchase a Canadian lithium producer operating in Argentina.
These are but a few notable examples of a clear trend: MLI is leading the debate on Canada-China relations. And we are being noticed for our work.
Our efforts have been so successful that they have attracted the ire of China’s diplomatic representatives; the Institute is proud to have been officially condemned by the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.
According to MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley, “MLI has a unique distinction: we are the only think tank in Canada to be denounced by Beijing and blacklisted by Russia.
“Ottawa’s move to protect Canada’s critical mineral supply chains from Chinese state influence is a welcome change in approach from the government. It is good to see that Canada’s decision-makers are waking up to the threat posed by China about which our experts have long warned.”
For more information, media are invited to contact:
Skander Belouizdad
Communications Officer
613-482-8327 ext. 111
skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca
