Good morning,
China’s ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, made waves last week when he suggested his government could retaliate against Canada if Chinese telecom giant Huawei were banned from Canada’s 5G mobile network. But now the Chinese government appears to be walking back those comments, suggesting the only punishment would be losing out on Huawei’s expertise.
“We all know that Huawei is an outstanding 5G provider on the global level. If you don’t co-operate with it, from whom else can you get this service?” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told The Globe.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government appears to be mistreating two Canadians who have been held for weeks on allegations of endangering national security. Canada’s ambassador to China, John McCallum, told MPs in a closed-door session last week that the jailed Canadians were facing interrogation and their cell lights were on 24 hours a day. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested by Chinese authorities last month in an apparent retaliation for Canada arresting Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is wanted in the U.S. on charges of fraud. Ms. Meng is currently at a Vancouver home, out on a $10-million bail.
The diplomatic spat between Canada and China appears to have begun causing some problems for businesses working between the two countries.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Liberal MPs are in Ottawa today preparing for the return of the House of Commons next week. Yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told his caucus to remain focused on having a positive message to take into the election this fall.
There are a couple of people who would like to join that Liberal caucus soon: Richard Lee, a longtime B.C. MLA, has been appointed the new Liberal candidate in the Burnaby South by-election, replacing Karen Wang, who had to step down last week. And Adam van Koeverden, an athlete who won four Olympic medals, has gotten the Liberal nod to try to win against the Conservatives' deputy leader, Lisa Raitt.
One of the biggest domestic decisions that Mr. Trudeau’s government made last year was to acquire the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project for $4.5-billion. Documents obtained under access-to-information law show how Canadian Development Investment Corp. with just six full-time employees, pulled together an analysis of the purchase with industry consultants. If you want a good idea of how the government saw Trans Mountain, consider the name that was used to discuss the project internally: Last Spike, a reference to the building of the trans-national railway that was completed in 1885.
And if you live in Central or Eastern Canada, you probably already know this by looking out the window, but we are in the midst of a real winter wallop with big snow falls and extreme cold alerts. New Brunswick has been getting the worst of it.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Canada and China: “There’s no doubt now that Canada-China relations are locked in a downward spiral, apparently doomed to get worse.”
Richard Fadden, a former national security adviser to the prime minister, on why Huawei should be banned from the 5G mobile network: “If China would resort to putting Canadians to death to defend its corporate national champion, what might it do if the Chinese Communist Party had unfettered access to Canada’s vital communications networks? The ambassador and the Chinese government have implicitly acknowledged the strategic importance of Huawei, and they have revealed how quickly the Chinese charm offensive in Canada can switch to aggression and bullying.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on the new impaired-driving law: “For critics, the law is an inexcusable violation of an individual’s Charter rights, and an invitation to police harassment of visible minorities. For supporters, the need to identify drunk drivers and get them off the road justifies any apparent violation. Who is right? It’s safe to assume the Supreme Court will ultimately decide.”
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Chris Hannay