Citation Guide: Any link with no citation is a link to another entry in this blog, which I felt required n citations as they cite their own sources in turn, and are the work of the author
Well, it seems that China felt they had not embarrassed themselves enough after the recent Belt and Road Summit, so by God (or whoever they swear by) they set out to make proper fools of themselves this time. Within the past week, they have publicly mocked the UK for being a "less independent than India (which is not out of the ordinary; 'US puppet' is China's standard-issue insult for any nation found guilty of not being a Chinese puppet)." They have also threatened Australia with nebulously defined "consequences (Rogan)." This too is fairly normal when Australia refuses to bow to Beijing's manipulation, though I want to see the looks on the faces of the Central Military Commission the day Australia takes China's bluster seriously and fights back.
However, the Chinese embarrassment of the week that almost nobody noticed (perhaps because it was an update to an incident that happened months ago, or perhaps because it came from a diplomat no one has ever heard of rather than from the press hall at Tiananmen) was when China's ambassador to Canada was implicated in what could legitimately be called an act of war (Tibetan Journal Staff).
First, Global Times' Moronic Remarks
When the Communist Party of China decides they have nothing of substance to say to increase their diplomatic standing and feel like they will do better switching to schoolyard ‘burns (a frequent occurrence),' they distribute them through anonymous editorials in state-owned tabloid Global Times, and an editorial from 29 April (GT Staff) was one of their most pitiable attempts yet to try and alter international opinion to suit them. This editorial began as garden-variety Chinese bitterness over Huawei's global rejection, though the author puts their foot in their mouth by admitting that Huawei tech can only be trusted with "increased security measures." It goes on to give the usual half-assed assertions that it would be unthinkable for any nation to reject Huawei (or any other Chinese entity) unless they were under pressure from the US, and rounds this out with derisive mocking of the UK so juvenile that I could almost devote an article to laughing at the editorial in return.
From there though, it goes from pouting to head-spinningly arrogant and bellicose.
The economic cooperation that China provides concerns its core interests. Any country that follows the US in order to hurt China should pay the price no matter how nicely they talk.
On the Huawei issue, there are two types of countries: those that follow the US and boycott Huawei and those that do not. China's attitude toward these countries should be different. China should keep firmly in mind that Australia took the lead in boycotting Huawei.
One has to wonder if Beijing vets this stuff before they print it. For one thing, by referring to Huawei as a "core interest," the same phrase used for their laughable sovereignty claims over Taiwan, Tibet, and the West Philippine Sea, they are admitting that Huawei acts on behalf of the Chinese government, though this was already shown in a recent academic study using publicly available information (Balding). They reinforced this with the assertion that any blow against Huawei's sales is done "to hurt China." Secondly, this passage shows China's rather peculiar belief that they have the right to punish their target customers for not buying their product. Ponder that one. Third, they show an impressive prowess in doublethink by referring to the boycott against Huawei as US-led in one sentence and Australian-led in the very next, and fourth, the last sentence gives a narrow-eyed, not-even-veiled threat of retaliation against Australia for what is, in China's twisted mind, a crime against China ("how dare these laowai not only refuse to buy our spyware, but dare to warn other countries that it is spyware?").
Tom Rogan of the Washington Examiner writes "Australia, in particular, has been a great U.S. ally in all things, and toward China especially today. Trump should warn Xi that any aggression against our allies, whether economic or otherwise, will result in commensurate U.S. retaliation." I find it no surprise that less than a week after this, President Trump sent China reeling by suddenly growing cold in trade talks (Wigglesworth, Badkar & Mitchell).
I wonder if China made the connection.
Canada's China Crisis
The admonition of Pan-keng says, "an unruly and insolent people should be wiped out, leaving no remnants, no seeds of trouble sown in the land." This was how the Shang Dynasty prospered."
-Sima Qian, Records of the Historian (page 7 of Wang Guozhen's translation）
A few insults and empty threats are nothing new. One gets accustomed to those when one deals with a nation as childish as China. What is new, is their open violence against Canadians, first within China (Wesctott), and now on Canadian soil, under the direction of the Chinese ambassador to Canada.
Ever since Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou (Chief Financial Officer of Huawei and daughter of its founder) for espionage and fraud back in December, China has responded the only way China's long and bloody history (Mosher, p. 40-41, 56 & 97) has taught them how: violently. Two Canadians have been handed death sentences by what are laughably called courts in China, for charges which typically land Chinese citizens less than 20 years (Mulroney), one of which came after a rushed and public retrial of a conviction from 2012 (Petricic).
Considering that China's own leaders rather openly declare that China's courts are not in any way independent of the Party and that they are a means of political governance (Yan, p. 15), and that China's judges must consider not only what the law says but also what "social impact" their rulings will have (Yan, p. 78, 78 & 80), it is impossible to come to any conclusion other than the obvious: these death sentences are China's revenge against Canada for having the audacity to think Chinese aristocrats are bound by foreign law (including laws prohibiting espionage) when travelling abroad. The nerve of these Canadians, right? Don't they understand China is the "Central Nation," the "Celestial Empire," whose destiny is to rule "All Under Heaven" and, "like the sun rising in the east, [to] illuminate every corner of the land with a brilliant flame (Xi, p. 29)?"
China's ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, was quick to publicly lambast the Canadian population back in January for daring to question China in this matter, asserting that Canadians had an obligation to protect Meng Wanzhou's "legitimate rights" to violate their laws, and that any concern for their own countrymen, rather than the "superior" Chinese, was based on "white supremacy (Lu)," which the Canadians, much to their credit, didn't fall for for an instant (Busta).
Anyway, after delivering this asinine allegation, the ambassador took time for one more conference to threaten "reprisals" if Canada did not permit Wanzhou's spyware company (Huawei) to be part of Canada's 5G network, much the same way they would later threaten Australia (Fife, Chase & Curry), before disappearing from the public light for a while. What he was doing in the interim has only recently come to light, and it's going to spell harsh consequences for China.
The Case of Chemi Lhamo
Chemi Lampo is a Canadian citizen of Tibetan origin (though far too young to have lived in Tibet prior to the Chinese Occupation) who attends the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus. This past February, shortly after Ambassador Lu did such a fine job of putting the "ass" in "ambassador," Lhamo was elected president of the UT:S Student Union. as soon as the spotlight shown on the new president-elect, her Tibetan culture came to light, and there is nothing that brings out the savage, racist snature in Chinese students abroad like the sight of one of their repressed ethnic minorities doing something with their life other than grovelling at the feet of their Han occupiers.
Lhamo immediately became the target of online harassment, ranging from racist slander to outright death threats, all laced with exactly the kind of jingoism one would expect from the Chinese (Creery; Blackwell), but there's a twist. The accompanying wave of protests against Lhamo (by Chinese students who claimed that Lhamo's election as Student Union president somehow violated the rights of Chinese students... somehow) was organized by the Chinese Consulate (Shih, Rauhala)! This led many, including Ms. Lhamo herself, to suspect that the cyberbullying campaign was the work of the United Front Office and that the Chinese Ambassador himself might have been involved, according to Freetibet.org.
There is indication that some of this intimidation and bullying may have as its source the nefarious inclinations of some diplomats here in Canada.
-Garnett Genuis, Canadian Member of Parliament (MP)
And according to a recent report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, she's right (Tenchoe).
“It appears likely that the coordinated campaign against Chemi probably originated in the planning of the United Front Work Department Canada desk, simply because the degree of response simultaneously suggests that it wasn’t a spontaneous action by a large group of unconnected individuals,” Charles Burton, a consultant with CSIS and a former diplomat to China has told Free Tibet.
The release of these findings, the 4th of May, comes less than a week after China's threats against Australia, a member of the "Five-Eyes" alliance (along with the US, UK, Canada and New-Zealand).
I can't emphasize enough, this is a deliberate, premeditated act of war against a US ally (the systematic and planned use of violence to endanger the lives of Canadian citizens, now on Canada's own soil, and with diplomats coordinating it cannot be interpreted as anything else), and the revelations of it come concurrent with China's threats of similar acts of war against another US ally, Australia. I doubt Canada will want to escalate things to the level I'm about to mention, but if they do declare this to be an act of war, as they can, by definition... then the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization will be treaty-bound to come to their defense. That would mean China just went where not even the USSR was crazy enough to go: they just attacked NATO.
Works Cited
Balding, Christopher and Clarke, Donald C. Who Owns Huawei? 7 April, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3372669
Blackwell, Tom. "Tibetan-Canadian Student Politician, Uyghur Rights Activists Come Under Attack by Chinese Students in Canada." National Post. 14 Feb, 2019. Web, 5 May, 2019.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/tibetan-canadian-student-politician-uyghur-rights-activist-come-under-attack-by-chinese-students-in-canada
Busta, Shannon. "From the Comments: ‘Foolish Statements Won’t Win Our Support.' Readers Respond to Accusations of ‘White Supremacy’ From China Ambassador." The Globe and Mail. 10 January, 2019. Web, 7 May, 2019.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-from-the-comments-foolish-statements-wont-win-our-support-readers/
Creery, Jennifer. "Don’t Mind the Haters: Tibetan-Canadian Student Chemi Lhamo Brushes Off Pro-China Cyberbullying Campaign." Hong Kong Free Press. 31 March, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/03/31/dont-mind-haters-tibetan-canadian-student-chemi-lhamo-brushes-off-pro-china-cyberbullying-campaign/
Fife, Robert; Chase, Steven; Curry, Bill. "China Threatens Reprisals if Canada Bans Huawei From Its 5G Networks." The Globe and Mail. 17 January, 2019. Web, 7 May, 2019.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-china-threatens-reprisals-if-canada-bans-huawei-from-its-5g-networks/
Free Tibet Staff. "Death Threats Against a Pro-Tibetan University Student in Canada Were 'Likely' Organized by Chinese Diplomats, Source Says." *Free Tibet. 2 May, 2019. Web, 7 May, 2019.
https://freetibet.org/news-media/na/death-threats-against-pro-tibetan-university-student-canada-were-likely-organised
Global Times Staff. "Huawei a Touchstone For Ties With China." Global Times. 29 April, 2019. Web, 5 May, 2019.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1148053.shtml
Lu Shaye. "China’s Ambassador: Why the Double Standard on Justice for Canadians, Chinese?" The Hill Times. 9 January, 2019. Web, 7 May, 2019.
https://www.hilltimes.com/2019/01/09/double-standard-justice-canadians-chinese/182367
Mosher, Stephen W. Bully of Asia. Washington, 2017. Regnery Publishing.
ISBN 978-1-62157-696-9
Mulroney, David. "With Lives at Stake, Canada’s Misguided Vision of China Demands a Careful Reboot." The Globe and Mail. 30 April, 2019. Wen, 7 May, 2019.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-with-lives-at-stake-canadas-misguided-vision-of-china-desperately/
Petricic, Sasa. "Beijing Digs In: Canada's Complaints Are Met With 'Death-Threat Diplomacy' From China."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-death-sentence-robert-schellenberg-1.4982627
Qian, Sima. Trans. Wang Guozhen. Selections from 'Records of the Historian'. Beijing, 2017. China Intercontinental Press.
ISBN 978-5-5085-3050-5
Rogan, Tom. "Why China Just Threatened Australia, Insulted Britain, and Cut Canadian Imports." Washington Examiner. 2 May, 2019. Web, 5 May, 2019.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-china-just-threatened-australia-insulted-britain-and-cut-canadian-imports
Shih, Gerry & Rauhala, Emily. "Angry Over Campus Speech by Uighur Activist, Chinese Students in Canada Contact Their Consulate, Film Presentation." Washington Post. 14 February, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/angry-over-campus-speech-by-uighur-activist-students-in-canada-contact-chinese-consulate-film-presentation/2019/02/14/a442fbe4-306d-11e9-ac6c-14eea99d5e24_story.html
Tenchoe, Lobsang. "Death Threats Against Chemi Lhamo Likely Coordinated by Chinese Diplomats: Canadian Intelligence Consultant." * 4 May, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
http://tibetexpress.net/10240/death-threats-against-chemi-lhamo-likely-coordinated-by-chinese-diplomats-canadian-intelligence-consultant/
Tibetan Journal Staff. "Death Threats Against Chemi Lhamo Were Organized by Chinese Diplomats in Canada." Tibetan Journal. 4 May, 2019. Web, 5 May, 2019.
http://www.tibetanjournal.com/death-threats-against-chemi-lhamo-were-organized-by-chinese-diplomats-in-canada/
Westcott, Ben & Yong Xiong. "Second Canadian Sentenced to Death in China for Drug Smuggling." CNN. 30 April, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/asia/canada-china-death-sentence-intl/index.html
Wigglesworth, Robin; Badkar, Mamta; & Mitchell, Tom. "Trump Trade Threat Rattles Global Markets." Financial Times. 6 May, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
https://www.ft.com/content/56966630-7003-11e9-bf5c-6eeb837566c5
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ISBN 978-7-119-11394-4
Yan Jirong et al (other authors not listed in this translation). Trans. Huang Fang. China's Governance. Beijing, 2017. Renmin University Press.
ISBN 978-7-300-24625-3