Saturday, May 10, 2025
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
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
        • Provincial COVID Misery Index
        • Beyond Lockdown
        • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • 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
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
        • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
        • Provincial COVID Misery Index
        • Beyond Lockdown
        • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • 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
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
        • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Kovrig and Spavor’s two-year ordeal and what it means for Canada-China relations: Charles Burton in the Vancouver Sun

December 10, 2020
in Foreign Affairs, China: The dragon at the door, Latest News, Columns, Foreign Policy, In the Media, Charles Burton
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

Ignorant hubris of CCP’s ignoble leaders makes them culpable for deep suffering of these innocent Canadians. But Ottawa has also mismanaged the situation due to its own misconceptions, writes Charles Burton in the Vancouver Sun.

By Charles Burton, December 10, 2020 

The arbitrary, brutal incarceration of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in Chinese prison hell is about to enter its third year. This horrendous fiasco is indicative of what is going agonizingly wrong in China’s relations with the West.

The ignorant hubris of the Chinese Communist Party’s ignoble leaders makes them culpable for the deep suffering of these innocent Canadians. But Ottawa has also mismanaged the situation due to its own misconceptions and lack of willingness to meet this challenge.

This entire saga can be understood as a cascading series of miscalculations. The first was the PRC authorities allowing the Huawei CFO to travel to Canada at all. The U.S. warrant for Meng Wanzhou’s arrest had been issued for months. China felt the Canadian elite were sufficiently co-opted by PRC interests that Canada would never act on this extradition request. Evidently, they thought wrong.

After a week of impatient but futile entreaties by the Chinese Embassy, it was apparent Meng’s extradition process would proceed. Likely most worrying for Communist officials was the risk that she could reveal Huawei’s rumoured connections with the PRC’s security and military intelligence apparatus. Presumably to forestall that, Kovrig and Spavor were kidnapped by agents of the Chinese Ministry of State Security and subjected to psychologically torturous conditions.

Here again China appears to have miscalculated. Beijing would have expected the disappearance of two relatively obscure Canadians to initially pressure Ottawa but to ultimately be forgotten. China’s Communist leaders didn’t expect the detainment of Kovrig and Spavor to emerge as the dominant, intractable issue in Canada-China relations.

China also assumed that its subsequent efforts at economic and trade coercion would convince Canada to release Meng, again demonstrating its misunderstanding of Canada’s legal and political systems. China wrongly thought bullying through diplomatic channels — its “wolf-warrior” diplomacy — would make Canada submit.

But Canada did send mixed messages that encouraged Chinese aggression. Highly regrettably, some Canadians tried to appease the Communists by calling for Meng’s release. These retired Canadian politicians and civil servants gave China the mistaken impression that they wielded power in Ottawa, which emboldened Beijing.

China was further encouraged by the persistent weakness of the governing Liberals. By not meeting China’s challenges, Ottawa communicated that aggression would be met with passivity. With no direct consequences, China believed its belligerence would yield dividends. On this point it was also wrong.

Not only has Canada, to its credit, refused to release Meng, but now only seven per cent of Canadians have a positive impression of China. Huawei, which at one point appeared likely to get the nod to develop Canada’s 5G, no longer has a viable telecom partner in Canada. And opposition politicians have seized upon this moment to strengthen calls for a serious, principled foreign policy toward China.

Beijing has so far failed to secure Meng’s release and, for virtually all Canadians except those around the cabinet table, the jig is up; Canadians now understand, and distrust, China.

U.S. President Elect Joe Biden could complicate Beijing’s predicament, as his stated goals of confronting China multilaterally will seriously limit Beijing’s ability to pick on smaller states. A U.S.-led multilateral strategy will make weakness from Ottawa less viable.

Canada must recognize that our relations with China are a function of an integrated Party-state-military-civilian-market PRC regime complex whose strategic intent is severely at odds with our own interests and values. Currently, Canada deals largely with the PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a weak player in the Chinese system. We should put far more resources into comprehensive engagement with all power elements in China, in the same way we manage relations with the U.S.

It’s a necessary but challenging task. Canada still lacks linguistic, cultural and political wherewithal to defend our interests against a very sophisticated engagement by China.

And while Canada’s approach to China continues to flounder, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor must wonder, day after excruciating day, why nobody turns up to bring them home.

Charles Burton is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad, and a former counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.

Tags: foreign policyCharles BurtonDragon at the DoorCanada-China relationsForeign Affairs

Related Posts

The US should be worried about Canada’s foreign policy: Casey Babb in The Hill
United States

How Did Trump Impact the Canadian Election? Brian Lee Crowley on American Thought Leaders: Tonight at 9PM ET

May 10, 2025
Canada must launch review of paediatric gender clinic practices: Mia Hughes in the National Post
Gender Identity

Canada must launch review of paediatric gender clinic practices: Mia Hughes in the National Post

May 9, 2025
Growing success with post-secondary education in Indigenous communities: Ken Coates & Sheila North for Inside Policy Talks
Inside Policy

Growing success with post-secondary education in Indigenous communities: Ken Coates & Sheila North for Inside Policy Talks

May 9, 2025
Next Post
Resource sector making progress on reconciliation: Dan Pujdak in the Hill Times

Resource sector making progress on reconciliation: Dan Pujdak in the Hill Times

Newsletter Signup

  Thank you for Signing Up
  Please correct the marked field(s) below.
Email Address  *
1,true,6,Contact Email,2
First Name *
1,true,1,First Name,2
Last Name *
1,true,1,Last Name,2
*
*Required Fields

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

© 2023 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
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • 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
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video

© 2023 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

Lightbox image placeholder

Previous Slide

Next Slide

Share

Facebook ShareTwitter ShareLinkedin SharePinterest ShareEmail Share

TwitterTwitter
Hide Tweet (admin)

Add this ID to the plugin's Hide Specific Tweets setting: