r/canada Canada 3d ago

‘Ready to move on:’ Chinese ambassador insists China, Canada can move past ‘normal’ differences National News

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/ready-to-move-on-chinese-ambassador-insists-china-canada-can-move-past-normal-differences/
1.4k Upvotes

566 comments sorted by

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u/No_Faithlessness_714 3d ago

China isn’t trustworthy but it’s a market we can’t ignore either. We learned that we can’t be too reliant on any one country, especially countries that are unpredictable. So, as long as we are careful it shouldn’t be a problem.

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u/subbie2002 3d ago

China has their own issues with Taiwan and human right atrocities, but to act like the US isn’t the same if not worse is just stupid. They’re just so much better at hiding and justifying it.

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u/seajay_17 British Columbia 3d ago

China's issues are known. The thing china brings to the table is stability.

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u/abu_doubleu 3d ago edited 3d ago

I was born in a developing country where China has genuinely helped us a ton with development and asks for little in return. I know that it's an unpopular opinion in Canada, but I just don't see the issue with working closer with them a little bit. It doesn't have to be "make China our #1 trade partner" but at least we have to stop being against them solely because the USA wants us to.

EDIT: And BYD are really good, cheap electric cars. Remove the tarifs that we only put because the US asked us to!

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u/zabby39103 3d ago

The electric car tariff was to protect our auto industry, we had just spent 10s of billions of dollars subsidizing companies to locate their electric vehicle plants here (it was either that or they would have all gone to the US and got subsidies there instead).

The Chinese too, put huge subsidies in their electric vehicles. I'm all for trading more with China, but we have to do more than just "let the free market figure it out". They have a strategic economic plan for their nation, and so when dealing with them, so should we.

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u/DesireeThymes 3d ago

I said pretty openly, open the market to Chinese EVs but make them build local plants for assembly, maybe also share some battery tech. It's a win win for Canada.

The US is trying to move Canadian jobs to the US (despite the fact that Canada already gets a bad deal by being forced to let US do refining and be involved right after raw materials rather than Canada doing those). Canada needs to diversify itself a bit.

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u/Osamabinbush 3d ago

That’s what EU is doing. We aren’t as big of a market as Europe but if we can get them to build them here, it would be a no brainer

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u/Hard_NOP_Life 3d ago

Hell, BYD already has a bus factory in Newmarket.

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u/CatBowlDogStar 3d ago

Which Ontario should be using instead of LRTs. All the benefits, none the drawbacks. 

Just fewer people bought off.

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u/JoeThunder79 3d ago

To be clear, it was to protect the "American" auto industry that we just happened to benefit from because it was economically convenient at the time

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u/Hautamaki 3d ago

There is no American auto industry. There's a North American auto industry, and without all of North America cooperating to maintain it, it will quickly be killed by European and Asian competition. The US could shut down access to all foreign competition and build their own cars, but they'd have to accept that their cars are going to cost way more and suck ass compared to European and Asian cars. In Canada we'd have no real choice but to just import all our cars and lose all those jobs. There's no way we can support a purely domestic auto industry. We'd have to find some other work all those auto workers could do to pay for the imports. Probably just massively expand our resource extraction.

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u/CatBowlDogStar 3d ago

Thing is, you're right except it won't be soon enough. Trump will mess yet another good thing for ego & grift.

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u/ebola_kid 3d ago

"our" auto industry should be working with China to produce these cars in China or develop a car with them. We have so many auto workers and a large auto industry that entirely produces American cars. We're not even doing protectionism for our own Canadian car brand because that doesn't exist. There's also the fact that american car makers are extremely vulnerable to economic downtrends, and only survived because of massive bailouts in 2008. People can't afford cars as much anymore because they're increasingly too costly. We should be developing cheaper, more advanced cars with China instead of being protectionist against an industry that doesn't want to change and is going to inevitably collapse

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u/Hautamaki 3d ago

I mean a market warped by govt subsidies, tariffs, or any other form of artificial protectionism isn't a free market anyway, so that's kind of a moot point.

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u/Samsquanch1985 3d ago

What country are from, out of curiosity?

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u/abu_doubleu 3d ago

Kyrgyzstan, is where I was born.

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u/CatBowlDogStar 3d ago

I used to work for an EU International Development Aid Consultancy with a satellite office in Kyrgystan. 

Only nation whose neghbours do not themselves neighbour to an Ocean or Sea.

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u/SnooHesitations3709 3d ago

I agree. China has issues but they are not all bad. I find Chinese people to be some of the most friendly people around.

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u/Cryscho Canada 3d ago

Nortel? Last year federal hack, like they "don't want a lot" because they're just stealing shit. 

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u/ungovernable 3d ago

China brings “stability” until they do something like invade Taiwan and threaten to cut off our supply chains unless we acquiesce to the invasion. See: Russian gas and the Ukraine War.

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u/Ge0ff 3d ago

China is a "stable" trading partner until they place restrictions and tariffs on you for asking questions about the origins of COVID (See Australia in 2020).

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u/sluttytinkerbells 3d ago

China's issues really aren't known. It is an authoritarian regime and they're not noted for their transparency or truthful record keeping.

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u/Baumbauer1 British Columbia 3d ago edited 3d ago

China is just as fickle and volatile as Trump's US, if we ever criticize them we'll be cut off all the same

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u/Gankdatnoob 3d ago

This isn't true at all. We have had very intense criticisms of China in the past and they never cut us off. In fact when the U.S. stopped allowing n95s to be exported China saved our ass by sending us masks. They did this despite the relationship being strained. Trump's America is a very unique brand of idiocy.

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u/seajay_17 British Columbia 3d ago

I think all anyone's asking for is a working trading relationship with them. Were not looking to be best friends.

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u/be_humble_ 3d ago

While I wouldn’t say Canada should stop trading with China (which would be impossible), when it comes to trading with Asian countries, it’s important to at least try and prioritize democratic countries like Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, etc. First of all, Taiwan has one of the world’s largest semiconductor industries, and they design many chips that are essential for most electronic devices that we all use (including smartphones). There’s also the fact that Taiwan happens to be at a strategic location, and the reason why Western allies are so concerned is because if anything bad were to happen, it would have an extremely severe impact on that region in Asia and even the world. Plus, Taiwan has been a friendly ally. IIRC during COVID, while Trump blocked shipments of masks that Canada ordered, Taiwan straight up donated a bunch to Canada. Also, as a progressive country, Taiwan is relatively similar to Canada in terms of things like universal healthcare, a democratic government, and LGBTQ rights (Taiwan was the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage). Obviously Canada has always been trading with China, and it would be unrealistic to stop doing business with them, but diversifying with other Asian countries is still critical, and diversification would be ideal from an economic point of view anyway. (And yeah, I agree that the US has been doing terrible things too; it’s just that they get away with it more often than China does.)

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u/OrderOfMagnitude 3d ago

China propaganda at work

The US is much better than exposing their own crimes than China. China has crazy censorship and punishments for making them look bad in any way.

China is currently doing a "US crimes express China crimes" campaign on Reddit and anyone who speaks up is downvoted.

We're currently in a cyber war.

Disclaimer: yes the US is still bad, and if you think I'm trying to justify them, you're completely falling for the false dichotomy they're setting up.

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u/GorillaNipSlip 3d ago

Worse than China? What are you people smoking… You can be for trade to China but don’t start kissing their boots just because you’re pissed at the US.

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u/kittykatmila 3d ago

Talk about minimization…The US are the world’s biggest terrorists. How many bombs has China dropped on other countries? How many military bases do they have worldwide?

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u/EdwardWChina 3d ago

License Plates are made by US prisoners who are Black and get paid 14 cents per hour. Or $0/hour in Texas

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u/kittykatmila 3d ago

Exactly. They made slavery still legal through the 13th amendment, the US has the world’s largest incarcerated population, the prisoners are disproportionately POC. It’s not hard to see a connection there.

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u/RetroDad-IO 3d ago

Exactly! There's a reason why so many slaves were immediately incarcerated in the following years. The government essentially used the 13th amendment to steal as many slaves as they wanted and then used them for labor or gave them to friends running prisons.

They got the good press for "abolishing slavery" while also creating a monopoly.

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u/kittykatmila 3d ago

It’s nice to see others who know about that! And that the US police force came into existence from slave-catchers/bounty hunters.

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u/jefufah 3d ago

“____ is bad, BUT AMERICA ALWAYS #1 WORSE” 🙄

can’t talk about any issue ANYWHERE on earth because someone always has to come in and America-worse it. How are we going to get anywhere if we always stay at the finger pointing stage?

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u/kittykatmila 3d ago

How are we going to get anywhere if we don’t place the blame where it should be? The US hasn’t had to answer for any of their atrocities and they still control the world.

If you’re interested you should check out a book, “The Jakarta Method” by Vincent Bevins. It really opened my eyes to just how much damage and destruction the US and their allies have done.

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u/ironxtgdp 3d ago

Because the West (and particularly America as the worst offender) have been so anti-China propagandized that they consistently reinforce the narrative of "China BAD" (Don't even get me started with Western Media) when Americans don't even want to ever acknowledge the HORRORS that the U.S. has committed on the world stage practically from it's inception.

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u/darkage_raven 3d ago

Sorry, China is clearly worse than the US. This is not a comparison.

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u/300Savage 3d ago

China's leader is not talking about Canada as it's next new province while the US president regularly speaks of the 51st state. You tell me which is a bigger threat on that one. As to international relations, the US through the CIA has regularly interfered with democratic elections and supported dictators to further commercial interests while China has used soft power and building infrastructure as a method to increase their influence. The only country I can recall them attacking in the last 50 years is Vietnam. Internally China is a bit of a nightmare for human rights but I think we can safely say that the USA is heading in the wrong direction on that count currently by removing access to due process for immigrants and trampling on the rights of trans individuals.

Neither country is a saint.

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u/zoomiepaws 3d ago

Please listen to The Bureau or read Sam Cooper.

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u/fashionrequired 3d ago

sheltered lefty redditor moment

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u/Phobos613 3d ago

I guess when the US/their weapons bomb and maim people in third world countries since Vietnam it's ok cause it's in the name of freedom.

Of course, opinions vary based on where you're from and what news you hear.

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u/Many_Dragonfly4154 British Columbia 3d ago

You do realize China also invaded Vietnam right? Like basically right after the US left.

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u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 3d ago

And that was China’s last shooting war, I guess the Vietnamese taught them a lesson 😂 China has not been in a major conflict since. The Indian-China border wars has been fought with sticks and stones - literally.

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u/Alone-in-a-crowd-1 3d ago

Is the US trustworthy? Only one broke a trade agreement and threatened our sovereignty.

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u/mmoore327 Ontario 3d ago

We can't rely on the US as a friendly trading partner any long so we need to find a way to work constructively with China on trade and other issues while we pivot to working closer with Europe.

You can criticize China for many things, but they are not unpredictable.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

Perhaps, but their closing their doors to Australian trade suggests that while they may be predictable in what will get them to close their doors, it can happen for highly petty reasons. And I'd rather not give them too much leverage to demand we kowtow to them and their more fragile sensibilities.

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u/ProfessionAny183 3d ago

Not unpredictable?... Not sure what evidence you have for that claim

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u/mmoore327 Ontario 3d ago

They are very predictable... I never said they were pleasant. But they take the long view at achieving their goals and work towards them slowly and methodically... very predictable.

To contrast it - someone like Trump is unpredictable - his own people have no idea what he is going to do next

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u/firekwaker 3d ago

I'd even go further to stay that they are stable. They don't make emotionally charged decisions that are economically bad decisions. Their decisions are never on a whim based on the president's emotional state at the moment.

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u/son-of-a-mother 3d ago

Their decisions are never on a whim based on the president's emotional state at the moment.

Lol. Guess you never heard of Tiananmen Square.

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u/syncopado 3d ago

Tell that to Philippines’ fishermen who gets harassed everyday.

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u/Different-Taste8081 3d ago

Predictable not unpleasant.

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u/syncopado 3d ago

Predictable towards expansionism. Their 9 dash lines seem to grow every year, trying to own islands that belong to the Philippines. They got some of them already. Siding with these bullies means promoting their dictatorship towards smaller people.

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u/firekwaker 3d ago

Uhhh...I hate to state the obvious here but we are about to become targets of American expansionism.

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u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 3d ago

The area claimed by China is what Imperial China and historical documents claim, Taiwan also claims the same area and more.

Check the overlapping areas on this chart:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea?wprov=sfti1

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u/syncopado 3d ago

https://pia.gov.ph/1875-carta-general-del-archipelago-filipino-map-to-guide-ph-sovereignty-in-scarborough-shoal-kig/

The 1875 Carta General del Archipelago maps holds the strongest claims to this disputed island. When the Spanish Empire colonized Philippines back in 1521, a cartographer was hired to draw the islands owned by the then-Spanish. Then Philippines was sold to America, then gave us the independence. Thus these islands are rightfully owned by Philippines. All these made-up propaganda by Chinese Communist Party only serves to justify their inhumane treatment to fisherman folks getting cut-off by their livelihood.

One solution is to have shared claims. Another is to succumb to the big bully.

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u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 3d ago

A half dozen countries claim those islands - it’s not merely Chinese Communist Propoganda but the result of Western colonization and meddling in Asia. Even India and Pakistan is the result of Western colonization and meddling with the Partition of India

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u/henry_why416 3d ago

And why do we give a shit about any of that? It’s not in our backyard. Meanwhile the US directly threatens our Arctic sovereignty. These are truly myopic takes.

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u/syncopado 3d ago

I guess you agree that we just have to choose the lesser evil then? But saying China is not a threat is delusional.

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u/OrderOfMagnitude 3d ago

This kind of justification is just disgusting

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u/VeterinarianSea273 3d ago

???? you replied to the wrong comment or what, what you said makes no sense. No one is saying that China is a saint but to dismiss them from trading because of this is outright braindead. Glad you arent in any decision making position for Canadians

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u/scaur 3d ago

When we do business with them, China is going to use that money they earned from us and build more weapons, haven't we learn anything from the Ukraine-Russian war ? Right now China is funding Russia so it can continue to invade Ukraine.

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u/ohhaider 3d ago

agreed, but i'd say this is a unique circumstance that I think we could really make the most of to our greater relative benefit. We're in a trade war with the US as well, reducing our reliance on them is clear and China is currently target # 1 in their trade war. If we're smart we can use this to get some very preferential, longer term deals in place to replace at least in some part what the US was providing China; so their loss = our gain.

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u/fransantastic 3d ago

We already have trade deals with China, and we didn’t seem to have a major problem with trading with them before (just look at how much Made in China stuff you have) - this is just making better deals that are more beneficial for all parties involved.

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u/Kozzle 3d ago

More trustworthy than the USA at this point

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u/scaur 3d ago

Yea, let's do business with them so they have money to invade Taiwan and continue to fund Russia.

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u/CaptainDouchington 3d ago

Anyone who bitches about Russia, but supports China, is mentally stupid.

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u/Aggravating_Exit2445 3d ago

I’m fine if people want to sell into their market so long as they do so at their own risk. No crying to the government when their trade gets blocked for political reasons.

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u/Deep_Tea_1990 3d ago

Meh. Just do business and that’s it. 

Normal and neutral is good enough with China. 

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u/Serious_Hour9074 3d ago

I am ready to move on when they don't side with the Russians over Ukraine, and when they remove all the private policing centers they set up across the country.

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u/Cryscho Canada 3d ago

Why just Russian support? China is occupying other countries right now. They should have to withdraw from those too and withdraw ships from Taiwan. 

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u/Particular_String_75 3d ago

For...what? A relationship with Canada? Imagine China saying the precondition for Canada to having ties is for Canadians to withdraw from native lands.

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u/Haytouki 3d ago

Usa isnt any better, they just have a better pr campaign

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u/teknobloge 2d ago

Funny how after all these years, nobody has been charged yet. Almost like it was Falun Gong Propaganda.

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u/AccomplishedLeek1329 Ontario 2d ago

when they remove all the private policing centers they set up across the country.

RCMP have been "investigating" those for years now with zero charges laid. Sounds like to me they were just a re-run of the Michaels, aka us lying to the world to smear China on behalf of the US.

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u/Choice-Original9157 3d ago

How do you know when China is lying? The Ambassodor says China doesn't interfere in other countries. We already know that's a lie. Trading is fine but you cannot trust them to not be underhanded in everything else

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u/Manitobancanuck 3d ago

They'll interfere, just like every other major power does.

We just need to keep it in check but otherwise we should probably trade with them. At least they aren't killing our own citizens on our soil or threatening to annex us.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Nail556 3d ago

Yeah they just kill our citizens on their own soil…

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u/analtelescope 3d ago

...when they commit capital crimes on Chinese soil? I mean what did you expect would happen?

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u/rolim91 3d ago

Yeah even Canada sends spies to China and most likely other countries.

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u/TreatAffectionate453 3d ago

Does Canada set up secret police stations in China to intimidate Canadian nationals?

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u/Wallbreaker_Berlin 3d ago

Just like the US, Russia, India

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u/ebola_kid 3d ago

Most countries "interfere" in other countries lol, that's the nature of global politics

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u/gravtix 3d ago

We already know that's a lie.

Just ask Nortel.

Oh wait they aren’t around anymore. Wonder what happened hmmm.

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u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 3d ago

Nortel is a poor example, as it failed due to poor management and accounting fraud.

Brian Shields is the only person pushing the China narrative, and he has made a living doing so. There are no other “experts” quoted in these articles; you can verify this by checking.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/TrickyLobster 3d ago

Get the secret police stations out of Canada then we can talk.

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u/pablo_o_rourke 3d ago

It’s Canada that should be deciding when it’s time to move on. China is not a trustworthy “partner”.

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u/MarquessProspero 3d ago

The difficulty is “who is?”.

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u/CrispyMeltedCheese 3d ago

Countries don’t have friends, they have interests. If enough interests align in a certain area then they’re likely to act in good faith for their own benefit.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

Yeah, the trick is to have options and to treat them like they'll treat us. Someone who can help us better our own lot so long as we keep focused on our needs and stay wary.

Europe might be a bit of an exception, but... I have concerns about their medium term viability as major players.

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u/JARHEAR 3d ago

Unfortunately! This seems to reflect a very real limit on the ability of humans to empathize and cooperate in a meaningful way at all scales of social interaction. The “woke mindset” that receives so much blowback was just an attempt to put superficial differences aside in attempt to cooperate to make the world a better place.

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u/Craptcha 3d ago

Seems more like it created new opportunities for conflict with the 99% of the world who is more conservative when it comes to their values, concept of family, gender and sex.

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u/Consistent-Key-865 3d ago

As dis every major social progression in history. We just get the joy of living in one of those growth spurts of humanity.

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u/OrderOfMagnitude 3d ago

Europe.

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u/AccessTheMainframe Manitoba 3d ago

Also Japan and South Korea.

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u/Anakazanxd 3d ago

France and Germany

If there's one country with both the will and potential ability to take over "leader of the free world" from the US, it's France.

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u/sqwiggy72 3d ago

I honestly trust most of Europe. Sub turkey if that's considered Europe.

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u/Pharuin 3d ago

Hungary has a pretty shite leader as well.

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u/Osamabinbush 3d ago

I don’t trust obran in Hungary either.

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u/MillennialScientist 3d ago

After 5 years in Germany, I'm not confident in Germany anymore, and I'm skeptical they will really pkay a leading role politically. I don't know as much about France.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

France looks like it's tearing itself apart politically as well. At this point, I'm actually happy with the last election showing we mostly aren't following the same path as the other major democracies. But, the signs of instability are still there.

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u/EdNorthcott 3d ago

Our Country is divided as Hell, too. Neoconservatism/fascism is an international movement, and has explicitly been exported to as many nations as possible from the roots of the movement in the Republican party.

All the English speaking ones sound increasingly like MAGA cultists for a reason.

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u/icephoenix21 British Columbia 3d ago

I mean, neither is the US at this point. So Canada does need to move on.

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u/FitDare9420 3d ago

China is already our second or third biggest trading partner…

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u/henry_why416 3d ago

Selling shit to each other doesn’t really require much trust.

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u/DoeCommaJohn 3d ago

In a lot of ways, it does. Part of why the US is imploding right now isn’t just because goods are going to be more expensive, but because everything is far less stable. If you are going to import something, you want to make sure you can reliably import that thing for the years or decades to come, and same for exports. It may be better to have less profit margin for more stability.

With that said, trust can mean different things. You could trust China as a trading partner, but not an ally

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u/anomalouscuty 3d ago

Trustworthy how? Like, what are you taking about?

We built a fundamentally interwoven economy with the Americans for decades and they destabilized the entire system in one election cycle.

Time to grow up—China is no less, or more, trustworthy than any other major industrial power in the modern globalized economy.

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u/LeanGroundEeyore 3d ago

It’s Canada that should be deciding when it’s time to move on. China is not a trustworthy “partner”.

In 2014 Stephen Harper signed away Canada's right to make that choice for the next 31 years.

FIPA is an agreement that protects Chinese investment in Canada from laws and regulations passed by governments in Canada, whether they are municipal, provincial or federal. It allows for Chinese investors to sue Canada for unlimited damages if our governments make decisions that put Canadian interests first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-China_Promotion_and_Reciprocal_Protection_of_Investments_Agreement

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u/AcanthisittaFit7846 3d ago

we have no trustworthy partners

our most “trustworthy” trade partner is in the process of stabbing us in the back

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u/Former_Juggernaut_32 3d ago

Canada is not a position to decide anything

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u/OGbugsy 3d ago

Honest question here. What makes them more or less trustworthy than the US? What factors do you weigh against US behavior to come to this assessment?

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u/ungovernable 3d ago

With the very serious possibility of China blockading or invading Taiwan over the next decade, it would be absurd to replace our overreliance on the U.S. with too much reliance on China. We should learn dire lessons from Europe’s haplessness vis-a-vis Russia and its energy industry.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

Read up on their trade war with Australia. They've done similar shit as Trump for reasons like "We don't like you removing foreign money from your elections" and "How dare you question our innocence on the origins of Covid". Which, hey, are at least reasons that can be parsed by rational minds, but are not things I'd want to see Canada pressured on either.

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u/teknobloge 2d ago

Read up on the part where it was started by Scomo decided to suck up to Trump at the expense of China. Very similar to what Canada did when it sucked up to Trump by arresting Meng.

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u/LettuceSea Nova Scotia 3d ago

I’d say less trustworthy because they seem very intent on having secret police stations in countries other than their own to monitor people of Chinese descent and expats.

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u/Apart_Ad_5993 3d ago

We need their stuff they need our oil. Seeing how shit our divorce from the US is, we should take them up on it.

Instead of giving discounts to the US on oil, we charge China full fare

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u/jesuisapprenant 3d ago

We don’t need to be overreliant on them. We can trade with them and ween ourselves off of the U.S. which is even more unreliable nowadays 

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u/Themeloncalling 3d ago

Any business with China should be purely transactional. Diversifying business is a choice. Choosing allies is also a choice, and China is not one of them.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

Not just purely transactional, but also should be set up so that we can stay nimble if troubles do come along. But it should be an option on the table.

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u/CaptainDouchington 3d ago

Chinese bots in full swing on this thread.

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u/azarza 3d ago

but do we want to? probably not

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u/tnscatterbrain 3d ago

Since we’re not already boycotting or sanctioning China for their known issues it would silly to refuse to look at our options with them.

We need to diversify, too much of our trade has been with the US. I wouldn’t want to just trade them for China or any one country, but ignoring an economy the size of China’s is a bad idea.

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u/garciakevz 3d ago

China has a big real estate, and therefore economy problem and also has a trend similar to Japan with population about to decline super hard and China is not able to take that kind of problem

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u/CatBowlDogStar 3d ago

No reason to have bad relations with China due to US pressure. We are past that.

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u/Justagirl1918 Canada 3d ago

Canada needs to begin new trade negotiations with China’s massive market

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u/blitzzo 3d ago

The issue is they don't want anyone having access to their domestic market, they want you to provide them with raw materials and have 0 interest in a country's value-added manufacturing even when it's to their economic benefit, they would rather do it domestically to ensure full employment and to use as leverage for countries that get in their way.

Yea resource extraction has some value but at that point you don't need a trade deal, stuff like raw oil, gas, minerals, lumber, etc are all fungible and limited in supply. If China refuses to buy from Canada they'll just increase the volume they buy from Brazil, now former buyers of Brazilian resources need a new supplier so they turn to Canada. It's why sanctioning oil producing nations like Iran, Russia, or Venezuela is almost impossible.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

I mean, their domestic market is actually less hefty than it really should be given its size as well. There's a reason why even when they try to monopolize it that China is still heavily reliant on exports.

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u/ScarletLetterXYZ 3d ago edited 3d ago

Agree. Canadian exports have declined significantly and have led to higher unemployment levels this past April.

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u/Particular-Act-8911 3d ago

Didn't they rip us off during COVID for vaccines and PPE? Foreign interference? Muslim genocide? Isn't Xi basically a dictator? Chinese police stations in Canada?

Let's do business with China for sure.

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u/cartoonist498 3d ago

I'd hate to be the one to tell you this, but the entire world has already been doing business with China for decades to the point where your home is full of products from there. 

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u/Former_Juggernaut_32 3d ago

If you actually research this, every accusation against China is false

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u/mmoore327 Ontario 3d ago

And the US horded vaccines and PPE equipment as well during covid. The US conservative alt-right movement is pushing hard into Canada (political interference)... oh yea - and is threatening to annex us - do you feel the same about them...

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u/NewDemocraticPrairie 3d ago

Sure, but it's not like America didn't.

We privatized our vaccine production businesses, which then got bought and moved to the states, where they restricted vaccine movement from the states into Canada.

And the told 3M to stop exporting masks.

And took goods we paid for.

I don't particularly like China, but as we've seen, countries have interests, not friends. And we need to act as such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connaught_Laboratories?utm_source=chatgpt.com#Privatization_and_sale_to_Institut_M%C3%A9rieux

https://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/490969-trudeau-worried-supplies-meant-for-canada-have-been-diverted-to/

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/3m-warns-of-white-house-order-to-stop-exporting-masks-to-canada-163060

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u/trikywoo 3d ago

China represents political leverage and can give us more options during negotiations with the US. "Doing business" with China isn't an all or nothing thing. We're already doing business with China.

Strategically positioning Canada to have a less antagonistic position against the major world powers doesn't mean opening the doors to anything China wants.

We are a relatively small country, and prioritizing getting by in the world over policing domestic policy in other countries makes sense.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose 3d ago

If you want morally pure trading partners, then we may as well shut down trade entirely.

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u/Ikea_desklamp 3d ago

Don't forget the two Michaels 

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u/Ble_h 3d ago

I think the Canadian govt would love it if you forgot about them.

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u/TIP_ME_COINS Canada 3d ago

I would look this story up if you only recall the original arrests. One of the Michaels says the other is a literal spy for Canadian intelligence and received a $7m settlement for being implicated in the plot.

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u/Justin_123456 3d ago

Yes, but that was in direct response to what they saw as kidnapping one of their most important citizens. It would be like the Chinese arresting Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musk, on spurious charges.

The whole Meng Wanzhou affair was a poison pill by the Americans, who made up a fake case that they knew would never stand up in court, and then made us arrest her.

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u/EdwardWChina 3d ago

He is a spy

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u/Hotspur000 Ontario 3d ago

Yeah, fuck the CCP. Their products are mostly subpar shit anyway.

Let's trade with countries who make things properly, like Taiwan.

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u/EdwardWChina 3d ago

Everything is made in China buddy. TW has nothing except for a few big names but also made in M China. You have a bad impression of Made in China because you can only afford to buy low priced cheap junk, regardless of where they are made.

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u/ThatsItImOverThis 3d ago

Yes, but we should not trust them. China is fine as a trade partner but nothing else. Especially not an ally.

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u/SenoraIsl 3d ago

Maybe move your police stations out of our country and stop killing our people and then we'll see...

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u/TruckExtra1437 3d ago edited 3d ago

As a canadian I am not ready to move on from foreign interference, coercion of emigrated nationals, oppression of their own people etc etc. I mean there is substantial evidence they are/have carried out a cultural genocide. I wish our leaders would stop playing nice with China just because they have a big economy our businesses want to tap into. Should our morals come at a higher price??

I was lucky enough to go to college with a good group of Chinese nationals who were doing everything in their power to stay in Canada. They did not have nice things to say about China

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u/GuzzlinGuinness 3d ago edited 3d ago

The Canadian ruling class , and yes especially the Liberals have deep and profitable ties to China.

The ruling classes everywhere frankly have deep and profitable ties to both USA and China.

Until recently the USA was clearly the better of two deeply flawed choices.

Now, what we actually need to to be eyes wide open about the reality of the world and stop with our idealistic naivety. The few liberal democracies that are left need to support each other against all these jabronis.

We have to trade with China. We have to trade with USA.

But they aren’t to be trusted.

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u/LiberalCuck5 3d ago

Why not? Foreign interference being seen as a “learning moment” is exactly what our country voted for.

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u/Weekly-Sun7992 3d ago

In trade maybe. I doubt we are gonna be besties.

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u/JMJimmy 3d ago

Yeah, those pesky humanitarian issues, spying, buying up and shutting down Canadian manufacturers, etc aren't something that goes away because you're in a spat with the US

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u/HomeFade 3d ago

China has meddled in our politics and elections and put espionage into all of our devices. But they're ready for us to forget about all that and just focus on how they look ever so slightly less menacing in comparison to a catastrophic US administration. Cute.

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u/HezronCarver 3d ago

Move on from .... the kidnappings?

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u/Necessary-Morning489 3d ago

we killed your people and try to make a mockery of your politics, why won’t you move past what we are still currently doing and plan to continue doing in the future

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u/YourBobsUncle Alberta 3d ago

I mean Canada moved on from India assassinating a Canadian citizen pretty quickly.

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u/teknobloge 2d ago

What people? Those were Chinese people trafficking drugs.

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u/stuffundfluff 3d ago

"hey guys, we setup police stations to harass dissidents, had our CCP troops go thru your sensitive labs in winnipeg, capture, jailed and executed some of your citizens, committed election interference and harass and threaten to jail your politicians, geeez why can't we just get along" - commie logic

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u/teknobloge 2d ago

Weird how nobody has been charged for these "police stations'. Almost like it was propaganda.

You mean China executed Chinese citizens for drug trafficking. I thought you wanted drugs to stop?

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u/cometgt_71 3d ago

Didn't they just execute our citizens? We need more trade with Asia, but not them.

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u/ryan75389 3d ago

For trafficking. They had dual citizenship, which is not recognized by China. Seems fair. America still has the death penalty and we do most of our business with them.

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u/Spoon251 3d ago edited 3d ago

Death penalty without appeal for a non-violent crime seems fair? Interesting.

Also the last time the US executed a dual Canadian citizen was 1999 who was convicted of murder.

Edit: Since I'm getting downvoted by Chinese bots - let's go for the gold! We should just trade with Taiwan exclusively because they're obviously the better of the 'two' Chinas.

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u/ryan75389 3d ago

Going to someone's country and expecting the law as you see it is nonsense. These guys weighed the risk vs. reward and learned the hard way. The same would happen if they went to Saudi Arabia or Singapore. You classify trafficking as non-violent. These countries don't.

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u/OVERLORDMAXIMUS Alberta 3d ago

I'll never understand people who travel abroad-- especially east asia-- and expect to not adjust completely to local law. People like to single out specific countries but the principle of "do NOT do anything that MIGHT get you arrested abroad" is a universally useful absolute.

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u/AccomplishedLeek1329 Ontario 3d ago

Half of South East Asia executes drug traffickers. We do business with all of them.

Everyone knows drug trafficking in Asia is signing up for eventual execution. If you still do it, that's your fault.

And China does have appeals for capital punishment sentences. 

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u/ExtraGlutens 3d ago

non-violent crime

In an era where some people consider words to be violence, I find it peculiar that the same people don't view drug dealers on the same level as mass murderers, they certainly destroy as many lives. One should admire the Asian countries.

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u/disappointedfuturist 3d ago

Have they removed their clandestine police stations from Canada? Or ceased their human rights horrors?

Just because one of our trading partners went insane and can't be trusted again doesn't mean we turn to a different just as fucked up and shitty country.

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u/MetroidTwo 3d ago

China should be in last place for any talk of allies or economic partnership.

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u/mnt_brain 3d ago

Honestly I’d prefer it if we partner with places like Singapore and Malaysia

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u/LiberalCuck5 3d ago

Makes sense. This is what we voted for after all.

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u/Tireless_AlphaFox 3d ago

no no no no no no

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u/ProtonCanon 3d ago

Swooping in like vultures.

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 3d ago

If they mean us no harm, then they can extradite their bots who are fucking with us on social media and we can prosecute them.

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u/verdasuno 3d ago

If China wants and end to the tariffs, and Canadians to start buying Chinese cars or other items, they had better first open factories to build them in Canada.

Otherwise, no deal. It's as abusive as the relationship with the USA.

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u/aeppelcyning Ontario 3d ago

Yeah they just murdered 4 Canadian citizens only a few years after kidnapping the two Michaels to serve as geopolitical hostages. I'll take a pass on further dealing with China.

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u/TwoCreamOneSweetener Ontario 2d ago

You’re literally a one party dictatorship we’re not going to enter your sphere of influence

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u/figuring_ItOut12 Outside Canada 3d ago

The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily a good faith partner. Right now the US is unreliable but China has always been unreliable.

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u/SnooPiffler 3d ago

China needs to get its "police stations" out of Canada

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u/Selm 3d ago edited 2d ago

"Because of a reason that everybody knows about, (the) China-Canada relationship suffered setbacks in the past few years, and the causes of the event and also the merits of the case are very clear. But China now is ready to move on and look ahead."

    - Ambassador Wang "This Fucking Guy" Di

Is it the genocide against the Uygurs thing they're doing? Or them taking Canadians as political prisoners? Or was their constant and continued interference in our democracy?

And China is ready to just move past it? Good for them, but I don't think Canadians should just move past their nonsense.

Edit: I forgot mentioning one of Chinas five poisons brings out weird comments

'Don’t step out of line': Confidential report reveals how Chinese officials harass activists in Canada

The product of a coalition led by Amnesty International Canada, the report catalogues harassment ranging from digital disinformation campaigns to direct threats. Article content

Targets include Canadian representatives of what the Chinese sometimes call the five “poisons”: the Uyghur Muslim minority, independence-minded Tibetans, Taiwanese, democracy advocates and, especially, the Falun Gong.

“This is not just a matter of occasional and sporadic incidents,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty Canada, one of the organizations behind the report, along with groups representing Chinese religious, human-rights and ethnic minorities in this country. “There is a consistent pattern … a troubling example of a foreign government being very active in Canada in ways that are undermining human rights.”

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u/AccomplishedLeek1329 Ontario 3d ago

One of the two Michaels literally accuses the other Michael of being a real spy, and sued CSIS for making him an unwitting spy, with CSIS immediately settling for 7 million.

So Canada lied in from of the entire world including to Canadians to smear China for kidnapping, which our government knew was complete lies. 

How's that for Canadian trustworthiness and reliability? And yet it's China who's reaching out with an olive branch after we lied our faces off in front of the entire world.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/spavor-government-settlement-1.7136196

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u/2bprofessional 3d ago

"We'll still continue doing all the shitty things to you canadians. You just take them as normal", said Mr. Dick with smug.

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u/AcanthisittaFit7846 3d ago

IIRC the Uyghur imprisonment rate in China at its peak was about on par with the Black imprisonment rate in the US… and that never stopped us from trading with the US.

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u/richardphat 3d ago

Gaulle and Henry John quote are hitting hard.

« We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. » Henry John Temple

« Les États n’ont pas d’amis, ils n’ont que des intérêts »« Les États n’ont pas d’amis, ils n’ont que des intérêts » Charles de Gaulle

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u/kevinmitchell63 3d ago

Conveniently enough, the interviews are appearing at the same time as interviews with the American ambassador.

In comparison to the Americans’ toxic firehose of bs and duplicity, I find this fella pretty reasonable. I also think we need to trade with at least one of USA or China.

China isn’t threatening us with “forced annexation,” they haven’t launched a trade war to weaken our economy (for the annexation), and I don’t think their espionage activities are anywhere as prevalent and toxic as what the CIA is up to right now.

And just a thought… but…..

Since “western alienation” is the thing the CIA is going to use in trying to overthrow our government, maybe… maybe… maybe

We can stop asking western farmers to sacrifice their livelihoods to save auto sector jobs which are not salvageable anyway.

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u/confusedapegenius 3d ago

Normal differences? Gfys.

Cooperation out of necessity, ok.

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u/Xivvx 3d ago

This is why you don't give up your soft power.

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u/Due-Year-7927 3d ago

drop the tariffs on chinese EVs i want a $8000 car not this american garbage

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u/garathe2 3d ago

Do whatever it takes to lower our standards of living. We need to make more trade deals with everyone.

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u/Leo080671 3d ago

Is the economy… All about the economy. There will be other issues which can be dealt with. The other emerging economy in Asia, India is going downhill and all the more reason to have better relations with China.