AUKUS Security Alliance Exposes EU’s Fecklessness

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have announced a new tripartite strategic alliance aimed at countering China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. The AUKUS defense agreement, under which Australia will acquire American-designed nuclear-powered submarines, is a welcome paradigm shift intended to enhance the projection of Western military power in the region.

AUKUS will supplement the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (also known as “The Quad”), a military partnership between Australia, India, Japan and the United States aimed at protecting freedom of navigation in the broader Asia-Pacific region. It will also strengthen Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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No One Outside Of China Allowed To Attend 2022 Winter Games In Beijing

The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday that the only people allowed to attend the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, China, are those who live in China.

“Tickets will be sold exclusively to spectators residing in China’s mainland, who meet the requirements of the COVID-19 countermeasures,” the IOC said.

I’m sick of the Olympics anyway.

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The Meng-Michaels saga ended, Canada is turning back to its Huawei 5G controversy — and the potential of public backlash

…  A decision on Huawei’s participation is part of a broader national security review of next-generation wireless technology. The new technology is as much as 100 times faster than existing 4G technology.

But the decision had seemingly been stalled as Canada’s relationship with the People’s Republic of China spiralled during the saga of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou and Canada’s “two Michaels.”

One pollster said those events would make it hard for the Canadian government to now allow Huawei access to the 5G network.

Failing to block Huawei’s involvement would result in swift backlash from Canadians, in fact, predicted Mario Canseco, president of Vancouver-based polling firm Research Co.


There is no reason to delay Huawei’s exclusion. But Trudeau is the figure-head of Canada’s China class and he will protect their interests above all others.

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Tasha Kheiriddin: Liberals must demand probe into any China election meddling

It’s a common trope that foreign policy is never a ballot question. As riled up as Canadians got about Afghanistan in our recent election, research showed it had little impact on the choices they ultimately made. Bread and butter issues like childcare or concerns about climate change mattered more than how well the prime minister performed — or did not perform — on the world stage.

Or did it? 

Oh yea, Justin will be right on this, as soon as the China class gives him the go-ahead.

 

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Evergrande’s Fall Shows How Xi Has Created a China Crisis

The developer’s collapse isn’t leading to global contagion, but China’s looming economic disaster might.

A major mistake of the Cold War was the tendency of Western observers to overestimate the Soviet Union. I have often wondered if the same mistake is being repeated with the People’s Republic of China. Then again, for every article over the last 10 years that predicted China’s economy would overtake that of the U.S., there were at least two prophesying a “China crisis.”

“The endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun,” wrote David Shambaugh in 2015. Wisely, he added: “Its demise is likely to be protracted.” That same year, Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates warned, “We’re getting inexorably to a tipping point in China.”

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The 2 Michaels are home. But what about the 115 Canadians still detained in China?

All eyes were on Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on Saturday as the two returned home following nearly three years spent in apparent arbitrary detention in China.

Heartwarming images and video surfaced of the two reuniting with their families. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday called their homecoming “good news for all of us,” noting that they had both gone through an “unbelievably difficult ordeal.”

But as of Sunday at least 115 Canadians remain in custody in Chinese prisons, Global Affairs Canada said in an emailed statement to Global News. Not all Canadians imprisoned in China are in arbitrary detainment, but the agency said at least four of those jailed are on death row.

It appears most are drug dealers…

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White House says ‘no link’ between Huawei case and freed Canadians

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted Monday that there’s “no link” between the U.S. settling criminal charges against a Huawei Technologies Co. executive last week and China’s release, hours later, of two Canadians accused of spying.

Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, received a hero’s welcome from the Chinese government upon her return to Shenzhen on Saturday after reaching a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors.

…She said the U.S. would not refer to the episode as a prisoner swap and dismissed questions about whether China would be encouraged to seize foreign hostages in any future legal disputes.

h/t HallsOfMacadamia

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Repulsive: John Kerry Accepts China’s Genocide to Get Climate Deal

“Well, life is always full of tough choices in the relationship between nations,” said John Kerry, responding to Bloomberg’s David Weston on September 22. Weston had asked him, “What is the process by which one trades off climate against human rights?”

What is wrong with Kerry’s response? For one thing, such a trade-off violates the Genocide Convention of 1948, which requires signatories, such as the United States, to undertake “to prevent and to punish” acts of genocide. China is committing “genocide,” as defined in Article II of the Convention, against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic minorities.

Imagine Kerry dealing with the Nazi regime.

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China says Canada should ‘draw lessons’ from Huawei exec case

BEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuters) – The release of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou shows China’s strength and Canada should “draw lessons,” China’s foreign ministry said on Monday, after state media called it an opportunity for a reboot of bilateral relations.

Meng landed in Huawei’s home city of Shenzhen aboard a government-chartered plane on Saturday to much fanfare, ending her near three-year U.S. extradition fight, the same day two Canadians detained by Beijing shortly after Meng’s 2018 detention returned home.

Meng’s return shows the ability of the Chinese government and ruling Communist Party to protect its citizens, companies, and interests, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular daily briefing.

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Adam Zivo: Canada needs to talk about China’s apparent election interference

Though the recent election was mostly an expensive waste of time, it highlighted an emerging problem that all Canadians should be worrying about: China’s interference into Canada’s domestic politics.

For months, disinformation experts have been sounding the alarm about influence campaigns organized by the People’s Republic of China. In February, CSIS noted that China is aggressively targeting Canadians — a sentiment which was echoed by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, as well as civil society actors such as the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

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Canada is soft on China and the U.S. knows it

Canada was never a global superpower and, frankly, didn’t need to be. Where other nations had military might and economic weight to throw around, we had international goodwill, a reputation for doing the right thing, and an enviable relationship with the United States. Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that relationship has now been squandered at the cost of our international credibility.

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Chinese government initiated dialogue to release two Michaels: Canada’s ambassador to the U.S.

EDMONTON — Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. says the Chinese government initiated the dialogue to release Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Speaking to CTV’s Question Period Sunday, ambassador Kirsten Hillman said that as the judicial negotiation of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s case with the U.S. Department of Justice came closer to a resolution, China began to bow to pressure to release the two Canadians.

I don’t doubt it. But it was done to suit China’s ends & not out of the goodness of their heart or fear of public opinion. It further serves to drive a wedge between Canada and its allies, especially the US. Trudeau is a useful idiot.

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Joe Biden and China on a collusion course?

While reading a New York Times story about the Justice Department plan to drop serious charges against a Chinese tech executive, I looked for the Hunter Biden angle. It wasn’t a long search.

After noting the 2018 arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, at the request of the Trump administration, the Times called the case a “symbol of the tumultuous relationship” between America and China.

Then came this: “The deal to release Ms. Meng could signal a more conciliatory approach in Washington’s stance toward Beijing under the Biden administration.”

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Terry Glavin: Only Chinese strongman Xi Jinping knows why the Michaels were released

We should all be very happy that the 1,019-day prison ordeal endured by Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China has finally ended. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quite right that we should be happy for them, and for their families, if only because everything else about this whole squalid business has given Canadians every reason to feel disgusted, embarrassed, ashamed and angry.

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