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How Canada can stand up to bullies, from Trump to China


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01/18/2019

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Globe editorial: How Canada can stand up to bullies, from Trump to China

A guard tries to block photos being taken as he patrols outside the Canadian embassy in Beijing on Jan. 14, 2019.

GREG BAKER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


Nobody likes a bully. They’re mean, unpredictable and self-centred, they’re quick to take offence, and they make for lousy friends. Just ask Canada.

Ever since the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, our little middle power of a country has had to deal with more than its fair share of big, nasty kids on the block.

The latest browbeating is being delivered by China in its calculated overreaction to the arrest in Vancouver of a member of its business elite. The display of dominance follows the earlier strong-arm tactics behind Mr. Trump’s threats to tear up the North American free-trade agreement, impose steep tariffs and damage Canada’s economy.

Through all of this, Ottawa has adopted the only position available to a smaller country being pushed around by the biggest kid in the schoolyard: It has avoided an all-out brawl and has instead fought back with strategic retaliation, back-channel diplomacy, appeals for support from like-minded allies and a stubborn insistence on respect for internationally established rules and norms.

People can disagree on the outcomes, such as whether Ottawa got the best possible terms in the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but it is impossible to argue that there is another credible tactic for a middle power facing down two very different international bullies.

With Mr. Trump and his threat to tear up NAFTA, the Trudeau government didn’t get angry. It got to work, meeting with its many allies in the United States – in the business community, in Congress and in state legislatures and cities where millions of voters depend on trade with Canada for their livelihoods. It sent emissaries such as former prime minister Brian Mulroney to work the backrooms of power. It tried to work with Mexico on establishing shared goals. It calmly stuck to its position about the value of free trade in the face of the President’s many lies and exaggerations, and his personal attacks on the Prime Minister.

The strategy was helped by the fact the United States is not only our closest ally, but also a democracy. Mr. Trump is not the president-for-life of a totalitarian regime. He is subject to public pressure and has to work with the other branches of the U.S. government.


    
   
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Which brings us to Canada’s latest and larger bullying challenge – namely, China’s all-powerful Communist dictatorship and its anger over the arrest, on an extradition request from the United States, of Meng Wanzhou.

Beijing has responded by detaining two Canadians on spying charges, and by hauling out a Canadian man who had been imprisoned in China for drug smuggling, retrying him with no new evidence and sentencing him to death.

Ottawa’s counterpunch has been to protest Beijing’s violation of international diplomatic and legal norms, and its arbitrary use of capital punishment to settle a dispute. Officials have reached out through back channels to try to calm the issue, and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has appealed for clemency for Robert Schellenberg, the man facing a death sentence.

As well, Ottawa has called on allies to condemn the detentions. The United States and a number of other Western allies have responded, much to the consternation of the Chinese government.

Some critics are saying Ottawa could have saved itself a lot of trouble by somehow interfering with the extradition request, perhaps by quietly warning Ms. Meng to avoid flying through Vancouver, where she was arrested at the airport.

But bending our extradition treaty with the United States, in an bid to avoid becoming a target of Beijing, would have violated the principles that are the best and only resort of the schoolyard’s smaller kids. Canada’s strength as a middle power will always lie in its respect for international treaties and laws, and in its ability to rally allies to its side. Instead of placating bullies, build coalitions and rules against them.

These days, the world appears to be heading in two directions at once: one in which China and the United States compete for economic dominance, and another in which populism is on the rise and old alliances are shifting.

Canada’s defence of traditional forms of diplomacy, as well as of the rule of law, will be especially critical. It’s not just Canada that will have to rely on international co-operation to get by; every other small- to medium-sized country will suffer if the superpowers can push others around, with no one willing to stand united against them.





01/18/2019


加拿大彻底急了:川普和中国都是恶霸欺负人



早前加拿大应美国要求,拘捕华为副董事长孟晚舟,引起中国强烈反弹,其后爆出多宗在华加拿大人被捕事件。当地时间1月16日,加拿大《环球邮报》(The  Globe and Mail)就此发表社评,题为〈从特朗普到中国,加拿大如何能够对抗恶霸〉(How Canada can stand up  to bullies, from Trump to China),以校园恶霸比喻中美两国,而加拿大则是受害学童。

社评称:"没有人喜欢恶霸。他们刻薄、难以预测和自我中心,他们很易觉得被冒犯,而他们会是很糟糕的朋友。"对此加国一向采取较小国家的唯一可行立场:避免全面冲突,并以有策略的报复、非公开外交、呼吁盟友支持和坚决强调尊重国际规则,以作应对。

《环邮》认为,就对美重新谈判《北美自由贸易协定》,加拿大的上述策略奏效,源于美国不只是其最亲近盟友,而且是个民主政体。特朗普不是极权政权的终身总统,他受制于公众压力,并需与其他政府分枝机关协调行事。


指中国的欺凌挑战更为巨大

社评指中国的性质截然不同,所带来欺凌挑战更为巨大,北京就华为副董事长孟晚舟在加被捕一事,以间谍罪名扣留两名加拿大人,更重审一宗毒品走私案,将案中加藉疑犯改判死刑。






《环邮》指渥太华反击在于,抗议北京违反国际外交和法律常规,以及其随意使用死刑以处理纷争。加国既通过非公开渠道以缓和事态,外交部长方慧兰(Chrystia  Freeland)亦呼吁中国宽大处理该宗死刑案。与此同时,渥太华号召美国及其他西方盟友,谴责中方的扣留举措。

不同意"提醒"孟晚舟以避免麻烦

有论者表示,加国如果介入引渡申请,私下警告孟晚舟不要途经温哥华,那么渥太华就能避免许多麻烦,而孟晚舟也不会在机场被捕。

《环邮》反驳指,加拿大作为中等国家,其力量有赖于尊重国际条约和法律,以及其号召盟友的能力:"与其安抚恶霸,(不如)建立联盟和规则以抗衡他们。"社评认为,不只是加拿大需要国际合作,事缘如果超级强权能对他国颐指气使,又无人愿意团结对抗,那么所有中小国家都会受害。















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