James West
August 29, 2016<\/p>\n
Justin Trudeau\u2019s much ballyhooed sojourn to China in pursuit of an elevation of Sino-Canadian relations is fraught with risk to Canada\u2019s economic sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Already, the influence of billions in dollars from China on Canada\u2019s real estate market has displaced hundreds of thousands of Canadians from their affordable rentals into accommodations far less desirable and secure. <\/p>\n
At the same time, our apparent national willingness to overlook such human rights atrocities as the persecution of Ilham Tohti, the Uyghur economist serving a life sentence in China for merely expressing a desire for equal treatment by the Chinese government for his people, is a shameful desecration of Canadian human rights standards. This is an educated and law abiding man whose entire wealth was unilaterally confiscated by the state after a closed trial of dubious legal process, and whose family are now penniless and homeless. Are we really willing to ignore the despotic stripping of an innocent man\u2019s possessions and freedoms, and the impoverishment of his family in favour of improved relations with a nation whose naked ambition makes a mockery of the very idea of human rights?<\/p>\n
In this aspect, I find troubling the Liberal government\u2019s failure to comprehend that their relations abroad are fully capable of cancelling out the significance of human rights advances domestically.<\/p>\n
If you conduct business with such an entity, and welcome its commerce, you simultaneously import their values \u2014 environmentally, socially and politically \u2014 and tacitly overlook transgressions of Canadian standards.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Postmedia\u2019s Peter O\u2019Neil in June 2016<\/a>, Trudeau indicated a cautious approach was, in fact, his intent. <\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s certainly a goal to look towards, but there\u2019s an awful lot of work to do to get towards that, whether it\u2019s on human rights and governance issues, whether it\u2019s on respect for the rule of law around Canadian investments\u201d in China, he said.<\/p>\n China\u2019s attitude toward its human rights atrocities illuminates its apparent conviction that it is well within its rights to violate basic tenets of international law in the prosecution of individuals without due process.<\/p>\n During a Q&A with reporters in Canada, also in June 2016, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi berated Amanda Connolly of online news site IPolitic<\/a> after she queried the minister about Canadian Kevin Garratt, detained since 2014 in China on charges of espionage and stealing state secrets.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to say that your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance \u2026 I don\u2019t know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable,\u201d he said through an interpreter.<\/p>\n Data collected by the government of British Columbia shows that the ratio of buyers in 5,118 transactions who declared themselves citizens of China at 4.57 per cent, or 234 transactions just in the month of May 2016. The next largest group of foreign buyers was South Korea, with five transactions, or 0.1 per cent.<\/p>\n While stronger relations with China does position Canada to better lobby for improved human rights and adherence to international legal standards, the attitude and continuing unilateral transgression against non-Han Chinese within its own borders \u2014 in Tibet, for example \u2014 suggests that no real change is planned, or desired.<\/p>\n For many Canadians, the idea of closer trade and political relationships with a communist country that tramples the values Canadians value most is anathema. Let\u2019s hope Justin Trudeau shares and projects those values.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/docs.uyghuramerican.org\/images\/bc-real-estate-sales-may-2016.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n