FERNANDO: Trudeau's China Cowardice a National Problem

On Canada Day, Canadians Must Unite And Recognize The Threat Posed By Communist China

By Spencer Fernando, exclusive to the National Citizens Coalition

Under the increasingly radical and aggressive leadership of the Communist Party, China is an economic, political, and ideological threat to everything Canada stands for.

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The Cold War is dead!

Long live the Cold War!

We like to think that with the fall of the Soviet Union, there’s no longer a major existential threat to the idea of individual freedom, free markets, and state sovereignty.

Unfortunately, recent events have shown that is no longer the case.

For some time, China has been rising in economic and military strength, and with that rise have come concerns about what form a more powerful China would take.

However, those concerns were long mitigated by the leaders of China’s Communist Party, who showed relative restraint on the world stage, and – at times – seemed to be incrementally moving towards some opening up of the political system.

All of that has changed.

As Steve Bannon puts it, China is now controlled by a ‘Radical Cadre’ of the Communist Party. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping – who has become the ‘Core Leader’ of China (AKA a Dictator) – China has shown a new level of aggression.

And much of that aggression is being directed towards Canada.

Whether it’s the massive amount of Fentanyl coming into our country from China (which China refuses to stop despite their immense state-power), whether it’s the banning of Canadian products under laughably false pretenses, or whether it’s the worst of them all – the kidnapping and arbitrary detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, we can see that China is treating our nation with contempt and is bullying us mercilessly.

Yet, the response to this has been nothing short of pathetic.

The Trudeau government has shown total weakness, refusing to retaliate, begging for meetings like Oliver Twist saying ‘please sir can I have some more?’

Unsurprisingly, China sees this weakness and continues to treat our nation like garbage.

The weakness goes far deeper.

As much as this is a failure of Justin Trudeau’s leadership, there is also a deeper weakness that infects almost the entire Canadian elite.

And while I could go into that weakness in detail, Andrew Coyne has done so in a blistering National Post column, excerpts of which can be read below:

“While Meng awaits her extradition hearing in one of her Vancouver mansions, in the rooms where Kovrig and Spavor are held the lights are reportedly never turned off. They are interrogated daily, without lawyers present; consular visits are restricted to once a month.

They had better get used to it, for all anyone in this country is prepared to do about it, or even seems to care. Were this the United States, Britain or any other country, their fates would be the subject of blanket media coverage and round-the-clock vigils, reflecting their fellow citizens’ concern for their well-being.

But this is Canada, where the response is to shrug and ask what else is on? Fellow citizens? What’s that?

I don’t doubt that behind the scenes government officials are doing everything they can, or think they are. But the pressure to bring the Canadians home is surely less for the conspicuous failure of other Canadians to give a damn.”

Later, Coyne says “And yet for all of China’s lawlessness, for all its bestial mistreatment of our citizens and baseless attacks on our interests, the most common response in this country is not to demand that China repair its relationship with Canada, but to ask how Canada can mollify China.”

And before we think there’s any hope to be found in past leaders, Coyne explains how both former Liberal and Conservative (Progressive Conservative) PM’s seem willing to do China’s bidding:

“Of these easily the most craven example has been the two former prime ministers, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien, in their traditional roles as footmen to the Desmarais family, whose interests in China are well-known. Not a day after Mulroney emerged to suggest that Chrétien be sent as an emissary to negotiate the hostages’ release, Chrétien revealed his proposed negotiating strategy: the minister of justice should simply refuse to extradite Meng to the United States. Presto, problem solved!”

The key problem: A lack of National Unity.

There is a problem here that goes beyond the Trudeau Liberals (though they are a key cause of it), and even goes beyond the corrupt, craven, and cowardly political and business elites who want to surrender to China.

The problem is a lack of National Unity.

Canadians should be outraged towards China.

We should be demanding an aggressive and strong response to the numerous ways in which China is acting against us.

We should be denouncing any politician or business elite who demands we surrender to China.

We should be protesting outside China’s embassy.

Those who own Huawei phones should be throwing them away or smashing them and showing the aftermath on social media.

Rogers should immediately cancel Huawei’s sponsorship of Hockey Night in Canada.

We should be throwing tariffs onto products from China.

We should impose restrictions on rich elites from China buying up our property.

We should ban all state-owned enterprises from investing in Canada.

We should kick China’s ambassador out of the country.

We should constantly bring attention to the fact that China has put millions of innocent Muslim citizens in real concentration camps, and has imposed a horrific 1984-style surveillance panopticon. Not to mention the forced organ harvesting.

Instead, none of that is happening.

Our leaders, both political and business elites, have for so long pushed an agenda of wiping out any sense of shared Canadian national identity, that we have now left ourselves unable to respond to a real, serious threat to our nation.

Instead, many people prefer to criticize the politicians of our closest ally, as if a few bad tweets are equivalent to the horrific crimes of China’s Communist State.

Our only response seems to be weakness, as if we can’t even comprehend the possibility of being tough and standing up for ourselves.

What this shows is that the dangerous agenda of turning Canada into a ‘post-national state’ is unfortunately succeeding.

Sure, we can go through the superficial motions on days like Canada Day, giving the appearance of unity and celebration, but that unity is being tested right now by China, and we are totally failing that test.

Wishing away a threat or pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. Pretending China isn’t seeking to humiliate and bully our nation doesn’t change the fact that they are doing so.

That’s why, on this Canada Day, it is time for our nation to wake up, come together, and recognize the fact that Communist China poses a significant threat to our nation, and that only together can we overcome that threat.

Canadians have stood up against authoritarian regimes before. We’ve stood strong for our values, for our right to exist as a free nation, and for a world in which individuals and independent states are respected and protected. We’ve recognized that – whatever differences we may have – our identity as Canadian citizens is what matters most.

Now, we must do so again.

Spencer Fernando is one of the most popular and prolific political writers and independent journalists in Canada. He is an Election Fellow for the National Citizens Coalition. For more from Spencer, visit his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter

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