Tag Archives: Macdonald-Laurier Institute

It’s Time to Take Defence of the Canadian Arctic Seriously — Get the Ships & Planes We Need Now! “China’s intent to dominate the Arctic region of North America is of increasing priority for the Xi Jinping regime.” Charles Burton, Former Canadian Ambassador to Red China

Posted on by

China to Wage War on America from the Arctic

by Gordon G. Chang

Translations of this item:

  • This month, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that “China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean.”
  • The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.
  • Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had “never planted a listening device there.”
  • That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.
  • “China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes.” — Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, to Gatestone, July 2023.
  • All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.
  • The U.S.’s generous “engagement” approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.
  • China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.
  • [F]or China the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.
  • China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
[F]or China the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. Pictured: The Chinese research vessel and ice-breaker Xuelong arrives in China’s Fujian province on June 27, 2010, in preparation for sailing to the Arctic. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

This month, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that “China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean.”

The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.

China had installed the “polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system” on floating ice in the Arctic on August 9, 2021. Information obtained by the device was uplinked to Chinese satellites.

The research institute, a Chinese central government agency that “plans and coordinates China’s polar activities,” stated that the devices could be used for “subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection, and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters.” This buoy “can be massively used in the construction of the Arctic Ocean environmental monitoring network.”

Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had “never planted a listening device there.”

That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.

Not much is known about the removed Chinese devices. Pierre LeBlanc, a former commander of the Canadian armed forces in the Arctic, told Voice of America that Canada has not revealed the location of the removed buoys or their type, but it is nonetheless apparent the Chinese military placed them in or near Canada’s Northwest Passage without permission.

“China’s intent to dominate the Arctic region of North America is of increasing priority for the Xi Jinping regime,” Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute told Gatestone. “Moving forward from the illogical assertion that China is a ‘near-Arctic nation’ and Xi’s touting of the ‘Polar Silk Road,’ China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes.”

Retired Lieutenant-General Michael Day told the Globe and Mail that China’s buoys would likely have been mapping environmental conditions such as seabeds and ice thickness. Buoys can also monitor ice movement, ocean currents, water temperature, and salinity.

All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.

The frozen Arctic is a hot topic these days, and China is trying to control it. The Polar Research Institute of China attempted to buy an airport in Lapland, Finland, but under U.S. pressure the government there blocked the purchase.

In addition, a Chinese state mining company attempted to buy land close to a facility maintained by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the joint Canada-U.S. military command that provides early warning. That purchase was also stopped.

“Since the advent of the Cold War, the Arctic has been the domain of two nuclear powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation,” said James Fanell of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy to this publication. “These two states demonstrated an understanding of the balance of power and observed an uneasy truce within the waters of the Arctic. Since 2017, the People’s Republic of China, led by Xi Jinping, has made it clear it covets access to the Arctic and recognition of its major-power status there.”

China has, Fanell points out, announced three Blue Economic Corridors, one of which includes the Arctic. These corridors are part of Xi’s worldwide Belt and Road Initiative.

Unlike Moscow and Washington, Beijing, with its forays into the Arctic, is upending stability. As Fanell, also a former U.S. Navy captain who served as Director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, points out, “Beijing arrogantly believes they deserve a place in the Arctic Council to ‘call the shots’ and expand Chinese influence and access to this vital region atop the planet.”

The U.S.’s generous “engagement” approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.

There are eight states with territory inside the Arctic Circle. With the exceptions of Russia and Sweden, all are NATO members. This year, Sweden should join that alliance.

Moreover, the five Arctic littoral states—the Arctic Five of Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States—are all NATO members other than Russia. This gives America the ability to determine outcomes in the Arctic, especially if Washington were to oppose China’s initiatives, as it of course should.

China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.

The Chinese know the value of the Arctic. Warming temperatures are melting Arctic ice, making drilling and mining in the region more feasible. Moreover, melting ice opens up shorter routes for container ships and other vessels.

Yet for China, the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.

China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , ,

Media’s Cover-Up Of China’s Influence On Canadian Politics Exposed

Posted on by

Media’s Cover-Up Of China’s Influence On Canadian Politics Exposed

Justin Trudeau empowers China, damages democracy in Canada, and due to media, gets away with it.

Share

Brian Lee Crowley, founder the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think tank focused on Canadian national issues, has unpleasant things to say about China’s presence in Canada. Crowley pulls no punches in an article published this month by The Telegraph in the U.K.

‘Canada’s Secret Service Is Fighting A Hidden Civil War’ 

“The leaks reveal a China hell-bent on suborning Canadian institutions. The allegations include: charges of Chinese interference in elections at every level (federal, provincial and municipal), the existence of Chinese police stations operating with impunity on Canadian soil, the intimidation of Canadians and permanent residents of Chinese origin, and threats to the families of prominent Canadian politicians.”

A motherload of condemnation it is– from the foreign press. It’s Justin Trudeau’s good fortune that he has been successful in taking the anti-China wind out of media sails in Canada.

Stalling, excuses, futile appointments(David Johnson), obfuscation and delays. Government understand the methodology. Each time a piece of damnation bubbles to the political surface, drawing out conclusions for as long as possible is the remedy. Part of which is preventing articles like Crowley’s from penetrating the consciousness of Canadian society.

This man is no conspiracy theory-pushing flake. He holds degrees from McGill and the London School of Economics, including a doctorate in political economy from the latter. His doctoral thesis focused on F.A. Hayek’s social and political philosophy and was published by the Oxford University Press.

“This civil war doesn’t pit Quebec nationalists against English Canada, but centres instead on China.”

“For decades Canada’s national security establishment has sounded the alarm about foreign authoritarian interference. Their dire warnings were ignored.”

By the Liberal Party of Canada, that is. And why not? It’s a reciprocal relationship. The government of China prop-up Justin Trudeau, and in return receive open doors for communist infiltration of Canadian society.

Think this to be a paranoid delusion? Is it not a fact that ex-Liberal PM Pierre Trudeau was a communist enthusiast who opened the doors for China to waltz into Canada, impacting everything from mineral resources to public education.

Sam Cooper is a Canadian investigative journalist and best-selling author, best known for his coverage of Canada-China relations. In a recent article, Cooper writes:

“Based on recent information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), those efforts allegedly involve payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Placing agents into the offices of MPs in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials to gain leverage in Ottawa, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the People’s Republic of China (PRC) views as threats to its interests.”

And still we wait in silence. In an authentic democratic society, inclusive of media independence, these developments would bring down the ruling government.

The fact that it isn’t happening tells us that Canada is no longer an authentic democracy. Adding to the absurdity is the fact that Trudeau’s Liberals are more concerned about uncovering and punishing those who leaked the information than preventing China’s infiltration of our federal political arena.

It’s a surreal experience not once alluded to by mainstream media. Their job has transitioned away from objective news reporting. As financed by the Feds, the role is monolithic in intent: to preserve Justin Trudeau’s pseudo-dictatorship indefinitely. If and when a replacement is appointed, CBC and corporate media will back that candidate.

On the opposite side of the political spectrum is the Conservative Party. Media’s goal here is equally one-dimensional. No matter who leads the party, depict that individual as “right-wing,” racist and homophobic. Crush their potential for victory at all costs.

All of which fits into the pro-China bag that government, media and academia currently work out of. It should come as no surprise that our government is today chock full of China-apologists.

One of them is Senator Yuen Pau Woo, arguably Canada’s greatest China-pusher, appointed to the Senate by PM Trudeau in 2016. Another goes back to the days of Conservative PM Stephen Harper.

Senator Victor Oh, Vice-Chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association, thinks that our China-detractors are serious meanies.

In a video posted to WeChat, Senator Oh spoke about the “need to raise money to cover costs for [people affected] by all of these unreasonable reporters who try to smear Chinese and discredit Chinese.”

Commonly known as the “race card,” we witness how the China-lovers conflate the issues to arrive at a favourite hobby indulged in by Justin Trudeau and his motley crew of neo-communists.

It’s “racism”– end of story. Senators Victor Oh and Yuen Pau Woo wish it was. Likely, they will get all they ask for. The Chinese interference will eventually blow over. Until this is achieved, no federal election will be called.

Upon which we leap to the Mount Everest of foreign infiltration in Canadian society:

Did the government of China win the past federal election for Justin Trudeau?

According to a series of reports in the Globe and Mail newspaper and by Global News, CSIS intelligence sources, “China provided secret funding through its Toronto consulate to 11 candidates who ran in the 2019 federal election.”

The popular vote was won by the Conservative Party, meaning that 11 ridings may have been enough to seal the deal for Trudeau’s Liberals. Media breathe not a word about the possibility.

Is China in charge, or what? It’s the $8,888,888 million dollar question which, more than likely, won’t be answered for decades, if ever.

Justin Trudeau empowers China, damages democracy, and because of media, gets away with it. Isn’t post-modern Canada just the greatest thing?

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Criticism of the Chinese government’s handling of coronavirus is not racism

Posted on by

Criticism of the Chinese government’s handling of coronavirus is not racism

Marcus Kolga: By wrapping themselves in ethno-nationalist rhetoric, the Chinese Communist Party often claims that a critique of their actions is equivalent to a critique of their people—a tried and true tactic in the authoritarian playbook

By Marcus Kolga

In this Feb. 7, 2020, file photo, people wearing masks attend a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded for warning about the outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Hong Kong. China has taken the highly unusual move of exonerating the doctor who was reprimanded for warning about the coronavirus outbreak and later died of the disease. (Kin Cheung/AP File/CP)

Marcus Kolga is a digital communications strategist and expert on foreign disinformation. He is a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad.

When we criticize the actions of governments run by autocrats and dictators, like those in Russia and China, we must bear in mind that it is not the citizens who are responsible for their government’s abuse and negligence; they are in fact, the greatest victims of it.

For instance, the Chinese people bear no responsibility for their government’s illegitimate imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor and Hussein Celil. It is also the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) criminal negligence that directly contributed to the mass outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, and the ensuing pandemic we face today. In fact, I very much doubt the families of China’s COVID-19 victims are celebrating their government’s actions today.

When we criticize the actions of these governments, we must be very specific and accurate in directing our criticism towards those who are in power. In the case of China, it is the Communist Party that holds exclusive decision-making power, and in Russia, the Putin regime. In both cases, the people of these nations have no meaningful say in the decision-making process of their governments, and face arrest and imprisonment for criticizing them.

MORE: When will the Chinese government be held accountable for the spread of coronavirus?

By generalizing our disapproval and outrage towards the citizens of these regimes, we risk hurting and stigmatizing these communities, and that plays directly into the disinformation warfare tactics that such regimes are engaged in against the Western world, including accusations of “racism.”

Authoritarian regimes frequently label foreign criticism of their policies as “racist” as a way to delegitimize them and polarize debate. By wrapping themselves in ethno-nationalist rhetoric, these regimes often claim that a critique of their actions is equivalent to a critique of the people itself; this heightens the need to be precise with our language and aware of the propaganda efforts of authoritarian regimes. It’s a tried and true tactic in the authoritarian playbook.

China’s former ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, accused the Canadian government of “white supremacy” last year, when Canada demanded the release of its citizens who had been arbitrarily detained in China, in retaliation after Canada complied with a U.S. extradition request for Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou.

MORE: China kidnapped two Canadians. What will it take to free them?

Last week, the E.U. published a report that warned Vladimir Putin is seeking to use the COVID-19 pandemic to destabilize Western nations and undermine our alliances. The report states that the Russian government’s cynical disinformation attack is designed to “aggravate the public health crisis in Western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national health care systems, thus preventing an effective response to the outbreak.”

In the apparent absence of any evidence that would disprove the E.U. claim, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pskov accused the E.U. of “Russophobia” in an effort to intimidate European policy-makers, critics and media into silence.

The same tactic has been used by the Russian government to discredit Canadian political leaders, like Chrystia Freeland, whose Ukrainian background has been cited as tainting her judgment. Putin critics, like myself, have also been labelled “Russophobic” for advocating for Canadian Magnitsky human rights legislation, a law that was lauded as the most pro-Russian measure that any Western government could take, according to assassinated Russian pro-democracy opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov.

Yet the concerns of Canadians who are worried about ethnic communities being stigmatized by the global pandemic must not be dismissed either. As the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin has pointed out, President Trump’s recent reference to COVID-19 being a “Chinese virus” is “simplistic but technically accurate,” and plays into the hands of Chinese Communist Party propagandists, who in turn use this to provoke anti-Trump and anti-Western sentiments.

Leading U.S.-based Chinese human rights activist Jianli Yang told me that he “may not like the term ‘Chinese virus’ that President Trump has been using in the past few days,” but he doesn’t believe “it is intended by him for any racist meaning.” He believes that Trump was using the term to counter the Chinese government’s attempts to “divert responsibility for its mishandling of the outbreak which has resulted in this global pandemic.”

Yang believes that “there should be and must be a moment when all, victimized individuals and countries, come together to hold the CCP regime accountable.”

Here in Canada, we can be fairly certain that our governments’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, at all three levels of government, have been shaped by our sensitivity to potential accusations of racism by Chinese government propaganda. Why else did Canada refrain from limiting travel from Hubei and China, only to close off virtually all foreign travel mere weeks later?

Canada is not alone in facing such foul accusations.

In Sweden, a former, long-serving Swedish MP, Gunnar Hökmark, wrote in a recent opinion piece that “China’s leaders should apologize to the world for epidemics coming from China because of the dictatorship’s failure to address food safety, animal standards, and because its repression of truth and the freedom of its own citizens.” China’s ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou condemned the statement and accused Hökmark of “stigmatizing” China. China’s ambassador also went on to criticize Hökmark, his colleague Patrik Oksanen and their think tank, the Stockholm Free World Forum, for being part of an “anti-China political machine” and for “attacking, slandering and stigmatizing China.”

Canadians and our government must take great care to avoid generalizations that risk stigmatizing Canadians of Chinese heritage, or any other community, whose governments engage in similar repressive behaviour, including the Russian and Iranian regimes. However, we must also be alert to regime propagandists who seek to dismiss and silence legitimate criticism of their actions when they smear critics with false accusations of “racism.”

As Jianli Yang underlined for me, “the Chinese Communist regime is not justified in accusing anyone of racism, who criticize its early-stage covering up of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the latest information (disinformation) war against other countries.”

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,