By his supreme idiocy, U.S. President Donald Trump has stirred up
, but largely to the benefit of America’s archrival, China. Although Prime Minister Mark Carney is European in his manners and predilections, he is a charter member of the cadre of useful idiots who seem intent on imposing Chinese vassalage on Canada.
The
has proposed that Canada strengthen ties with the European Union, but Europe is, for now, a spent force. Canada is more delectable for China. It has many of the raw materials that Beijing craves, with
at the fore. Canada also has a large Chinese diaspora community, roughly
of Chinese descent, that Beijing seeks, with some success,
to its ends.
One would expect some Canadians to resist these trends but
an establishment, including American corporations and Wall Street, that remain remarkably untroubled with Beijing’s
of becoming a
by 2049. So, while assaulting Trump for his trade policy, Canadian political leaders seem to be missing that the West’s greatest long-term challenge is the relentless
.
British Prime Minister
to
in order to “
” and revive the country’s moribund economy seems more like the road to ever great irrelevancy, as is the case for much of Europe. China is trying to build
in London that will help it surveil and harass those who fled Communist rule for the assumed safety of Great Britain.
Trump may be a posturing maniac, but the China challenge is of a more considerable magnitude. China already dominates the industrial world; it
roughly as many factory exports as the U.S., Japan and Germany combined. It is the world’s the world’s
and the biggest steel producer. It is also investing heavily to take over the
from leading companies like Bombardier, Boeing and Airbus.
Carney and other members of the elite cannot address these threats as long as they adhere to notions like “net zero,” an obsession of Carney and his fellow poobahs. For all his talk about building energy infrastructure, Carney’s green obsessions could instead lead Canada into a dependent relationship with solar and electric vehicle manufacturers based in China, a country that emits
than the U.S. and the EU combined.
In embracing this double standard, Carney and much of the Canadian elite qualify as classic “useful idiots,” as defined
. Essentially the same people who seek to block oil drilling and place burdens on Canadian mining, agriculture and industry for environmental reasons seem to have little trouble sourcing from a country that’s on a
. A greener Canada will have to kowtow to China to procure the requisite
and
for processing them. This represents what Muhammad Ali called the “rope a dope,” essentially using the
to supplant its own industries with those of the world’s biggest GHG emitter.
This occurs in part because the
and their allies in the green movement, itself partially
, seem fine with disarming western industry and lowering the middle class’s quality of life. If you think Trump threatens Ontario’s auto industry, the threat from China is even greater. Slapping tariffs on China is one of the few things winning Trump support from even
.
But that’s not the worst of it. Under such circumstances, China can build support both from its former citizens who are anxious to cash in on Beijing’s largess, along with left-wing activists to business interests that are lining up to make their fortunes selling resources to China.
Canada is an ideal place for Chinese political interference. In January, the sitting Liberal member of Parliament for Markham—Unionville, Paul Chiang,
Chinese-language media that electing his Conservative rival, Joe Tay, a former Hong Kong civil rights activist, would cause “great controversy.” Hong Kong police have placed a approximately
on six foreign activists, including Tay, for violating Hong Kong’s
. Even after Chiang seemed to encourage voters to turn a Canadian citizen in to the Chinese government to collect the bounty, Carney did not abandon his candidate.
China takes advantage of our liberal institutions — and our comparatively open economies — to undermine them. The Chinese government has become skilled at
the technological edge of the West while trying to silence any objections to Beijing’s awful
.
Before jumping into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s lap, Carney and his cronies might want to consider the long-term economic and political costs. Today, particularly with the imbecilic Trump at the helm, America may seem like the biggest ogre. But MAGA will not rule forever, nor will Trump escape mortality. His unnatural coalition of wealthy oligarchs and rabid populists is intrinsically weak and is already showing signs of splintering.
More critically, the U.S. shares not just a border but many of the same values as Canada — certainly far more so than the Chinese Communist Party. But to deal as equals with the U.S., or other countries, Canada’s identity needs to be more than just
. Canada’s own internal divisions are not insignificant, as evidenced by the recent comments by Bloc Québécois Leader
that Canada is “an artificial country with little meaning.” And it’s also likely that Carney’s recent
will not be able to forestall a
between Ottawa and many provinces, notably Alberta.
In the short run, Carney will likely use the American bogeyman to paper over the serious divisions within the Canadian polity. This message will appeal to his potential partners in the NDP. Yet despite what the blathering media and political classes say, America and Canada have more in common than either does with the true quasi-fascist state emerging in China. It will take wiser heads than those who now rule in Washington and Ottawa to rebuild an alliance that’s advantageous to both countries.
National Post
