Editor's note: The following is an edited translation of a commentary that first appeared on the Chinese-language website "Commentaries on International Affairs" on December 9, 2018. The translated version was first published on the website China Plus.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng urgently summoned Canadian Ambassador to China John McCallum on December 8, urging Canada to immediately release Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who was detained while changing planes in Vancouver at the request of the United States.
Canada's eagerness to jump to the frontline of a political kidnap is bewildering to the eyes of those who keep a close watch on international affairs.
Just a few months ago, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was openly criticizing the U.S. imposition of steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports for reasons of alleged national security: “Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
Media and members of the public line up outside the British Columbia Supreme Court to attend the trial of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, December 7, 2018. /VCG Photo
His country launched retaliatory measures, including bringing the U.S. to the WTO panel, and slapping a 25-percent tariff on US imports worth 12.6 billion U.S. dollars, starting on July 1. The international community commended Canada for standing up for its own interests.
However, the Canada that “will not be pushed around” has just now played the part of a dishonorable “pusher”: its detention of the Huawei executive at the request of the U.S is both despicable and unsettling.
One reader of Canada's biggest newspaper, the Globe and Mail, Alex Duhaney in Ottawa wrote: “I am deeply ashamed that our government would participate in the kidnap and ransom of a leader of a foreign company. This brazen act has brought dishonor to our current leadership, and placed at risk Canadians who are conducting business abroad.”
Another reader in Victoria, British Columbia called Larry Hannant, wrote: “Recently re-imposed by the Trump administration in defiance of a prior United Nations Security Council agreement, the punishing blockade of Tehran has been widely condemned. Rather than doing ‘the right thing,' Canada appears to have thrown itself willy-nilly into an international dispute on behalf of an isolated rogue administration intent on provoking conflict with most of the states of the world.”
In recent years, some Western countries have been working tirelessly to defame Huawei, calling it a spy and a threat to information security. But Canada was different from other Western countries and had not barred this Chinese tech giant from participating in its crucial projects. Major Canadian telecom service providers all use Huawei-made products; BCE and Telus are working with Huawei on 5G networks; some Canadian universities also have forged partnerships with the Chinese company.
In recent months, the Canadian government, seeking to expand trade, has been in close contact with the Chinese side to promote negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement.
A man walks past a Huawei store at a shopping mall in Shanghai, China, December 6, 2018. /VCG Photo
After Canada, Mexico and the U.S. signed the NAFTA 2.0, there has been wide media coverage on the so-called “poison pill” provisions introduced by the United States. As such, Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to reiterate Canada's resolve to promote the negotiation of free trade agreements with other countries. More than 70 Canadian experts have also drafted a report on how to circumvent the “poison pill” clauses and promote economic and trade relations with China.
Last month, Canada's Finance Minister Bill Morneau and International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr were in Beijing to attend the first "China-Canada economic and financial strategy dialogue," which they jointly hosted with Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong. The Canadian government later stated that “the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to deepening and expanding the Canada-China economic and trade relationship.”
However, all these efforts and resulting grounds of cooperation have now been put in question by the arrest of the Chinese business executive. Gordon Houlden, director of the Chinese Institute at the University of Alberta, said “the whole thing is a bad news story for us … The chances of the Canadian government allowing Huawei to become involved in the implementation of 5G technology in this country must now be very slim indeed. The Americans simply won't tolerate it."
"Conversely, the Chinese are unlikely to agree to sectoral free-trade negotiations, a Canadian goal.”
Canadian Internet users are distraught too, seeing that their cheap 5G data plans may go up in smoke. Many of them encourage the Canadian court and politicians to “stand on their hind legs and deny the extradition of Meng Wanzhou to the United States.”
After all, the so-called illicit activities are nothing but the invention of some politicians, whose sole purpose is to impede trade between other countries, corporations and individuals.
Hopefully, Canada's judiciary and government can avoid becoming the victims of this politically-motivated kidnapping.
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