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Erin O’Toole: As prime minister, I will stand up to China
Every time we refuse to stand up for liberty and our core beliefs and interests as a nation in the face of aggression from the Chinese regime, we legitimize its beh…
When campaigning to become the prime minister in 2015, Justin Trudeau was asked what country he most admired. The people in attendance at the event looked on in disbelief when he stated that he most admired China. His reason? Trudeau believed China’s “basic dictatorship” allowed its government to move swiftly to implement its agenda.
Trudeau’s obsession with China should not come as a surprise. For decades, many Canadian corporate and financial insiders were espousing deeper and closer ties with China at all costs. They were willing to look past the Chinese government’s numerous human rights abuses, flagrant trade abuses and security issues because the potential to sell into the massive Chinese market was so lucrative.
Beijing knows this and plays on it. And Trudeau was a student of this school of thought, which is why he asked the head of the Canada-China Business Council to lead his transition team into government.
I will soon be asking Canadians to trust me to be their next prime minister. I will say right up front that the country I admire most is the one I have dedicated my life to serving: Canada. But Canadians deserve to know where I stand on China.
We must be sure that Canadians realize that our political differences with the Communist government in China has nothing to do with the country of China, or its people. The millions of Canadians with Chinese ancestry are not connected to our diplomatic differences with Beijing.
In fact, the vast majority of Chinese-Canadians saw their families immigrate to Canada for the liberties and opportunities that they could never have there. We cannot allow our diplomatic relationship with China to lead to any discrimination against Canadians.
Second, I want Canadians to know that over the last four years I have been consistently asking for a more serious foreign policy approach to Canada-China relations. I have been asking for Canada to take cybersecurity and other issues seriously and ensure that Huawei is not allowed to contribute to our 5G infrastructure.
I have been raising human rights concerns for the oppressed Uyghur minority in China. I have raised concerns about China manipulating United Nations agencies, from the World Health Organization to the International Civil Aviation Organization. And I have been asking the government to speak up for Hong Kong and Taiwan, which have been targeted by the Communist regime.
I have often said that Canada needs an “eyes wide open” approach to China, in order to see the country as it is and not as corporate lobbyists would like it to be. While Trudeau bases his views on what he has been told by these circles, I have based my views on my own experiences: as a lawyer who investigated counterfeiting and other intellectual property issues based out of China; as a veteran who has been watching China’s military expansion and its ambitions in the Arctic; and as a Canadian who believes that we cannot ignore human rights abuses and bad conduct just because we want to grow our exports.
Trudeau’s approach to China has failed, and it’s weakened our standing in the world. We must stand up for our citizens who have been detained as bargaining chips in an extradition case, even if it leads to more reprisals from Beijing.
We must work with our allies — including India, Japan and the Five Eyes countries — to counterbalance China’s trade actions and present a united front of opposition to the treatment of the Uyghurs and the violation of the “one country, two systems” agreement for Hong Kong. We must grow new markets and repatriate some critical manufacturing to ensure we can weather the likely pushback we will get from China for standing on principle.
Canada is a small country when compared to China, on an economic basis, but we are a giant when it comes to our commitment to our values and our allies. Rather than fawning over the potential trade we could be doing with China, we should be resolute in our commitment to free trade with countries that value liberty and respect international norms. As the global trading system realigns following the pandemic, Canada must help lead this process to ensure we benefit from it, rather than being dragged along as an afterthought.
Every time we refuse to stand up for liberty and our core beliefs and interests as a nation in the face of aggression from the Chinese regime, we legitimize its behaviour and encourage more bad actions. We also show our allies around the world that our commitment to freedom is shallow.
National Post
Erin O’Toole is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
