Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[Good2Golf]

I heard on the Mother Corp just now that the PET Foundation gave back the 200k. Will the interest go with that cheque?

 

[Good2Golf]

Well our National Security and Intelligence Advisor finally surfaced…but stuck with generalities and platitudes, and a dig at those in the Intelligence Service who were so concerned with the apparent collaboration with China from some of the highest levels, that they accepted the risk of action against them to bring to light the truth of information known and passed to senior government officials that was otherwise patently denied.

Trudeau was regularly briefed on foreign interference in elections, national security adviser says

Jody Thomas testified to a Commons committee that the problem is growing, with adversaries finding innovative ways to meddle.

nationalpost.com

 

[childs56]

Create an unstable more effective virus and

Real L4 labs are, the Chinese labs aren’t, which is why they are cheap and a lot of US and Canadian government projects work there - which I find morally abhorrent.

Yup

You have to wonder if that Scientist, her husband and students that were expelled from Canada around that time and then allowed back in has something deeper to do with this.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

机器人调皮到古拉格

China’s Censors Are Afraid of What Chatbots Might Say

Artificial intelligence development may get held up for political reasons.

foreignpolicy.com

 

[Edward Campbell]

Interesting:

China sets modest growth target of about 5 per cent as parliament opens

China’s state planner aims to increase incomes of low earners and bring more people into the middle income group

www.theglobeandmail.com

Some years ago - maybe 20, I guess, Hu Jintao was in power - a then middle ranked Chinese official told me that the "long term plan" required (his word) 8% annual growth, year-after-year and, indeed, decade-after-decade until about 2050 to grow the middle class and avoid social turmoil.

 

[dimsum]

Interesting:

China sets modest growth target of about 5 per cent as parliament opens

China’s state planner aims to increase incomes of low earners and bring more people into the middle income group

www.theglobeandmail.com

Some years ago - maybe 20, I guess, Hu Jintao was in power - a then middle ranked Chinese official told me that the "long term plan" required (his word) 8% annual growth, year-after-year and, indeed, decade-after-decade until about 2050 to grow the middle class and avoid social turmoil.

In that article, it says they're looking at a 7.2% increase in military spending.

 

[RangerRay]

Terry Glavin posits that the Liberals may go for an extremely broad public enquiry as proposed by the NDP. Focus attention on the Russians and foreign MAGA types sending disinformation bots over social media rather than on sophisticated United Front operations victimizing Chinese-Canadian communities.

Changing The Subject, Burying The Story.

Sunday Special: Pulling Beijing's election interference operation off the front pages is an all-hands-on-deck damage control strategy that's taking Team Trudeau's full attention.

therealstory.substack.com

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Might see more of this as Russian and Chinese trade ramps up

Chinese Bulk Carrier Damaged by Ice Sinks Off Russia

A Chinese bulker has sunk in Strait of Tartary near the Russian port of Vanino after being damaged in a collision with heavy ice flows. The vessel, Yong Xing 56,...

gcaptain.com

 

[Brad Sallows]

Terry Glavin posits that the Liberals may go for an extremely broad public enquiry as proposed by the NDP. Focus attention on the Russians and foreign MAGA types sending disinformation bots over social media rather than on sophisticated United Front operations victimizing Chinese-Canadian communities.

Changing The Subject, Burying The Story.

Sunday Special: Pulling Beijing's election interference operation off the front pages is an all-hands-on-deck damage control strategy that's taking Team Trudeau's full attention.

therealstory.substack.com

Cute, a variation of "whataboutism". Perfect for them.

 

[OldSolduer]

Terry Glavin posits that the Liberals may go for an extremely broad public enquiry as proposed by the NDP. Focus attention on the Russians and foreign MAGA types sending disinformation bots over social media rather than on sophisticated United Front operations victimizing Chinese-Canadian communities.

Changing The Subject, Burying The Story.

Sunday Special: Pulling Beijing's election interference operation off the front pages is an all-hands-on-deck damage control strategy that's taking Team Trudeau's full attention.

therealstory.substack.com

Warren Kinsella had an article in the Sun and he uttered the "T" word - Traitor. He is not a happy camper with Justin and the gang of however many cronies he has any given day.

 

[RangerRay]

Warren Kinsella had an article in the Sun and he uttered the "T" word - Traitor. He is not a happy camper with Justin and the gang of however many cronies he has any given day.

He has been referring to himself as a “former Liberal” for quite a few years now. He’s not happy with the Tories either, but I think he fairly calls balls and strikes for the most part.

 

[Kirkhill]

He has been referring to himself as a “former Liberal” for quite a few years now. He’s not happy with the Tories either, but I think he fairly calls balls and strikes for the most part.

One thing I would like to hear from Kinsella about, given his very tight association with Chretien, is how he sees Chretien's role in getting to this state. Jean was no stranger to China.

The Chretien era[edit]​

Early in their tenures under Jean Chretien, Ministers Allan Rock and André Ouellet felt it beneficial to sign a treaty with China that gave the Chinese access to the powers of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act (Canada), and in fact it was signed in Beijing by the latter in July 1994.[19]

Chretien accompanied to China about 300 business leaders on a trade mission in November 1994 who returned with an order book of $9 billion. Senior figures in government like International Trade Minister Roy MacLaren were convinced that Canada needed to diversify away from the United States and so adopted a "Four Pillars Policy." Canada believed that to engage the Chinese in more open trade and to support China's accession to World Trade Organization accession would help Canada's goals.[16] In fact, Chrétien strongly endorsed Chinese accession: "With China's accession to the WTO, tariffs will drop and access by Chinese consumers and business to our products and services will increase.... WTO accession is part of China's broad agenda of developing the rule of law, to ensure fair and equal treatment before the courts for both people and companies.... Human rights are good for business." Always a mug, Chrétien told the "Chinese they would have to clean up their image if they expected to do business on the world stage."[20]

In November 1997, the Chretien government signed with the government of Jiang Zemin: the Consular Agreement between the Chinese and Canadian Governments, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Chinese National Tourism Administration and the Canadian Tourism Commission on the Cooperation on Tourism, three Memorandums of Understanding on development assistance, and an exchange of letters between China and Canada on the mutual establishment of more consulates-general.[13]

In April 1999, the two countries signed: a plan of action on environmental cooperation between the Chinese and Canadian Governments, the memorandum of understanding between the Chinese and Canadian Governments on cooperation in the crackdown on crimes and three protocols on China's import of animal products from Canada.[13]

The Chinese finally acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the Canadians sent another trade mission to celebrate and to ink more deals. As MacLaren said in 2019:[16]

To get China into the WTO was fundamental to our trade policy. For China to be a partner, accepting the disciplines of a rules-based trade organization was immensely important as a first step. We [believed that] deepening trade and investment relations with China, not only through the Team Canada mission but the far more important question of getting China into the WTO, would lead - in my view and in Jean Chretien's view - to human-rights advances. As the Chinese economy expanded and liberalized, China would be drawn into the liberal international order. I have no doubt that the China strategy was the right one. In my view, it worked.

 

[RangerRay]

He hasn’t said boo about it.

 

[dimsum]

He hasn’t said boo about it.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Noooooooot to worry, it's all in hand being looked into (if one is to believe bought-and-paid-for media, anyway) ...

Man picked to write report on Chinese election interference ran Trudeau Foundation when big donations came in from China

Morris Rosenberg headed up the Trudeau Foundation at a time when lots of foreign donations, including from China, were pouring in.

torontosun.com

From the bought-and-paid-for media: you KNOW things are bad for Team Red when the guy who said, "looks fine to me" now says, "but let's not rule out a public inquiry" (archived link here if link below doesn't work for you) ....

Ottawa needs to do more to address foreign interference, government adviser says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resisted calls for a public inquiry in the wake of reports from The Globe and Mail that China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 election campaign

www.theglobeandmail.com

More from the interview to different bought-and-paid-for media here (archived link here)

Rosenberg says foreign interference inquiry should be 'on the table': Read the full interview

Morris Rosenberg — a former public servant who authored the report released this week on attempts to interfere in the 2021 federal election — says the option of a public inquiry should be 'on the table.'

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[OldSolduer]

There are lots of skeletons in a lot of closets and I would daresay it cuts along the political spectrum. Politics does make strange bedfellows.

 

[Kirkhill]

ob·fus·ca·tion
/ˌäbfəˈskāSH(ə)n/
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...2ahUKEwiH0ZaoxMj9AhXHBzQIHdJ3DKoQ3eEDegQIDRAK

noun
noun: obfuscation; plural noun: obfuscations

1. the action of making something obscure, unclear, or unintelligible.
   "when confronted with sharp questions they resort to obfuscation
   
   late Middle English: from late Latin obfuscatio(n-), from obfuscare ‘to darken or obscure’ (see obfuscate).

 

[QV]

There is nowhere near the amount of attention on this if it were about team blue or Trump. Much of the media will initially act outraged and then soft sell it later in time to save Trudeau for the election. And perhaps with a little help from his friends, he’ll get re-elected.

Has the CSIS director made a public statement yet, or is he busy with the witch hunt for the leakers? Imagine the call he got from Trudeau when this first hit the news?

 

[Kirkhill]

Opinion: Doubt has been sown in Canada’s democracy. This cannot stand

Reports of the Chinese government’s interference in Canadian elections demand a public inquiry to safeguard our electoral process

www.theglobeandmail.com

​

Doubt has been sown in Canada’s democracy. This cannot stand​

JEAN-PIERRE KINGSLEY
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED 6 HOURS AGOUPDATED 5 HOURS AGO

Jean-Pierre Kingsley served as Canada’s chief electoral officer from 1990 to 2007.

When I was initially contacted by the media last month concerning the Chinese government’s reported interference in our 2019 and 2021 general elections, I stated that a public inquiry was required to pursue the matter as fully as possible by an independent authority. It was important, I believed, for the full restoration of the trust and the confidence in our electoral system.

Nothing that has been publicly divulged since has caused me to reconsider my call for a public inquiry. To the contrary, I have only been further convinced that it is the only course of action that will satisfy Canadians in coming to terms with what CSIS documents described as a brazen invasion of our electoral system by Beijing. My reaction would be the same no matter which foreign entity was sowing doubt in our democracy: Our elections belong to us and to no one else, and the mere threat that this is not 100-per-cent the case demands significant action.

I take small comfort in the conclusion by the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol panel – the group of senior public servants overseeing our surveillance of foreign election interference – that the Chinese government’s reported campaign did not affect which federal party was elected to government, nor compromise any individual riding results. Ultimately, the extent of this attack remains unknown to the public, as do the criteria that were applied to reach these conclusions. Last week, an Angus Reid poll found that nearly a quarter of Canadians surveyed now believe the 2021 election was “stolen”; that doubt can only be dispelled by such an inquiry.

In the absence of a transparent investigation, one is left to ask: Why were we not alerted of this interference during the 2019 general election, or at least after the event? Why didn’t we hear about it before the 2021 general election, either? Would this knowledge have better served Canadians?

The sanctity of Canada’s elections is the most crucial thing to defend. The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, the first independent and apolitical electoral management body in the world when it was established in 1920, has given generations of Canadians confidence in their electoral process, to the envy of countries the world over. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Canada 12th in its recent annual survey of the state of democracy in 167 countries across the globe, giving our electoral process and pluralism a perfect 10 out of 10 score.

While we should know how the matter was handled at the government and prime ministerial level, it is essential to our democracy that we delve specifically into the details of this foreign-interference campaign if we are effectively to guard against similar attempts in the future. We need to know what messaging was considered an intrusion in our elections, and what it actually looks like. We need to know which social media platforms were utilized, how often, who paid for the messages, and exactly who and which countries were involved in these efforts. Our country’s best experts should be available to such an inquiry.

We also need to know how money was handled at every step of the way in the process, how party memberships and donations were processed, and how voting proceeded from the initial nomination of the candidates to their actual candidacy. In a way that very few countries around the world have, Canada has succeeded in cracking the toughest nut in elections, and politics in general: money. We regulate election fundraising very effectively, in part thanks to Elections Canada’s diligent publication of candidates’ expense reports and the names of people who contributed to their campaigns on its website. But if these provisions were breached, we must know by whom and how it happened.


We may also need to consider adding an independent observer to the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol panel whose role would be to directly represent and inform Canadians whenever any such intrusion manifests itself.

When I served as chief electoral officer, I was reminded time and time again that our electoral system belongs to Canadians alone – not to any political party, and not to any individual and certainly not to any foreign entity. The strength of our system lies in the trust that Canadians have in it, and in their acceptance of election results, which in turn grants governments the legitimacy that’s essential to their work of preserving our democratic values and way of life. A public inquiry to demystify to Canadians what happened and what protections are in place should be our first priority – and hopefully, if we act urgently, Canadians’ confidence will be significantly restored before the next general election.

 

[JLB50]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nsicop-recommendations-foreign-interference-1.6769938

Once again Justin‘s foul-ups are coming home to roost with his admission that he often doesn’t follow the recommendations of his intelligence people. I wonder how much pressure he’s under by his party to either resign or not run in the next election.