Canada-China Focus: Occasional News Bulletin for March 2nd
 
Canada-China Focus
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Canada/US and China in the News:

Counterpunch: "The Chinese Balloon the Biden Team‘s Hot Air"

Published: February 23, 2023
Written by: Melvin Goodman

"The balloon crisis has exposed two major problems with Biden‘s overall handling of foreign policy.  First of all, there is no sign of what Biden wants from China on the key political and economic issues that confront the United States, which also characterizes U.S. policy toward Iran and North Korea for that matter.  Second, Biden appears to be going along with the anti-China warmongering that is dominating the discussion of China among policymakers, politicians, and pundits.  Third, is there a pragmatist in the house?"
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Vancouver Sun: "Letters to The Sun: CSIS comments hurt an entire community"

Published: February 22, 2023

In June 2010, Richard Fadden, then head of CSIS, made suggestions that city councillors in two cities were under the influence of the Chinese government. Fadden provided no proof, nor named names, but being ethnically Chinese and a city councillor at the time, the suspicions fell on me, and just about every ethnically Chinese municipal councillor at the time. I vividly recall the threats, hate mail, and racial comments I received, and this spread to the broader Chinese community. Fadden‘s comments dogged me for all of the decade I was on city council.

 

 

 

CBC News Interview: "Government's TikTok ban 'overly political,' tech expert says"

Vass Bednar, the executive director of McMaster University's master of public policy program, questioned the decision to remove and block TikTok from all federal government devices while not asking similar cybersecurity questions about other apps.
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Updates on China:

Al Jazeera: "All you need to know about China‘s plan for Russia-Ukraine talks"

Published: February 24, 2023

"China has released its much-anticipated position paper on the Russia-Ukraine war, in which it calls for a ceasefire and talks between the two parties.
Conflict and war “benefit no one”, China said on Friday in the 12-point paper, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Russia‘s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine."
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Foreign Policy Analyses:

The Conversation: "Emergencies Act inquiry report should tackle the racist origins of national security"

Published: February 15, 2023
Written by: Reem Bahdi, Fahad Ahmad, Jeffrey Monaghan, and Yasmeen Abu-Laban.

"Any discussions of national security demand consideration of a much broader set of questions. What is national security? Whose national security matters? What counts as a national security threat? And should national security policing powers be expanded?"
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Yves Engler blog post: "Globe’s go-to-guy on China interference an expert in election rigging"

Published: March 1, 2023
Written by: Yves Engler

“Former chief electoral officer calls for independent inquiry into Chinese interference in Canadian elections,” blared the front of Friday’s Globe. The former head of Elections Canada, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, told The Globe, “the reasonwhy this is important is that the legitimacy of government is what is at stake. We have to trust that the electoral process is not being tampered with by a foreign government.
Turning to Kingsley to opine about election interference highlights Canadian hypocrisy and ties to the US imperial structure pushing to contain China’s rise."
Historical Reflections:

Book Chapter: "White Supremacy, Political Violence, and Community, 1907 and 2017" in Confronting Canadian Migration History

Published: 2019
Written by: Laura Ishiguro and Laura Madokoro
Edited by: Daniel Ross
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"In thinking about the recent Stand Up To Racism event alongside the 1907 parade and riot, we could tell a story about how much has changed in a city now willing to turn out in numbers to drown out calls for a “White Canada.” But we could equally tell a story about how little has changed in a settler colonial city still organized around inequality and rage, including ongoing anti-Asian racism. Both of these arguments would be important and well supported with evidence, but here we want to reflect on a different issue. What questions does the 1907 event raise for us, and how do these relate to the questions we might ask–or more pointedly, often fail to ask–of the present?"

The full book is available at: https://openlibrary-repo.ecampusontario.ca/jspui/bitstream/123456789/570/5/Confronting-Canadian-Migration-History-1554310825.pdf 

 

 

 

Smithsonian Magazine: The Surprisingly Important Role China Played in WWI. 
In turn, the peace talks that ended the war had an enormous impact on China’s future

Published: August 17, 2017
Written by: Lorraine Boissoneault

"While the Pacific theater was a major and well-known battleground of World War II, it may come as a surprise that Asian nations played a role in World War I. Both Japan and China actually declared war on Germany in hopes of gaining regional dominance. While China never sent troops into battle, its involvement in World War I was influential—and had impacts that stretched far beyond the war, going on to shape the country's future indelibly."
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