Looks like China is trying to start trouble with Canada (Or, Big Canadian Trouble in Little China)

[CitizenVectron]

China accuses Canada of condoning alleged anti-China remarks - ABC News

ABCNEWS.GO.COM

---

China says it complained to Canada for allegedly condoning anti-China comments that appeared in Canadian media following controversial remarks by the Chinese ambassador

 

Quote

“If the Canadian side really cares about the stability and the prosperity in Hong Kong, and really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport-holders in Hong Kong, and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong SAR, you should support those efforts to fight violent crimes,” Cong said in a video news conference from the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.

 

Cong was asked whether his remarks amounted to a threat, to which he replied, “That is your interpretation.”

 

Background: After a Huawei exec was arrested in Canada for deportation to the US, China arrested a few Canadian nationals as retribution. One recently was allowed to talk to their family/attorney after 10 months of silence, and he didn't even know about COVID-19.

 

The Chinese ambassador, Cong, said that if Canada granted asylum for pro-democracy protestors from Hong Kong, it would amount to interference in internal Chinese politics. Now, Cong is threatening the 300,000 Canadian passport-holders in Hong Kong if Canada does not condemn and apologize for anti-Chinese remarks being made by independent far-right-wing media.

 

The weird thing is, China doesn't actually get much coverage in Canada, and I hadn't even heard about the ambassador's remarks (or Sun editorial) until this.

[Guest]

Not your best

[Chairslinger]

The last few sentences of your post present an obvious question.

 

Is China trying to empower right-wing big mouths in Canada(Putin-easque general destabilization tactic) or are they just unaware they are Streisanding themselves?

[CitizenVectron]

3 minutes ago, Chairslinger said:

The last few sentences of your post present an obvious question.

 

Is China trying to empower right-wing big mouths in Canada(Putin-easque general destabilization tactic) or are they just unaware they are Streisanding themselves?

 

Honestly it's probably both, from different wings of the Communist Party. China has proven fairly inept at manipulating Canadian governments and media, outside of pure economic pressure. They seem to legitimately not understand how news spreads and is interpreted in the west, sometimes. I attribute that to the true believers in the CCP (much like the true believers in the GOP today don't actually understand why everyone doesn't want Hunter Biden in jail). But I'm sure that some in the CCP also want to destabilize Canada to some extent. The only tricky thing is that Canada has no natural pro-China party. Recent Chinese immigrant voters tend to spread their votes fairly evenly between the Liberal and Conservative parties. And the older Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong, and they have the opposite views on China as the more recent immigrants.

[SilentWorld]

The Chinese government is trying to use a "maintaining law and order" justification for its change to the extradition laws. I don't know if it's new for China to use that rhetoric to justify more stringent laws (I doubt it) but it certainly shouldn't be a new form of rhetoric to anyone on this board. It's a huge stretch to say that he's "threatening" Canadians. What he's saying is no different than someone saying "we need to increase restrictions for sex offenders; if you care about your children's safety, you should agree with me."  It's not a threat at all, and it's completely absurd to suggest it is. 

 

And based on the discussion in this topic, I guess Chinese troll farms are going to be the next liberal boogeyman.

[Keyser_Soze]