According to the mainstream media, intelligence agencies and politicians China is threatening Canada. But it is Canada’s military that is engaged in a highly provocative exercise targeting that country.
In response to a CSIS report claiming China is spying/interfering in Canada and rightist forces pressuring the Liberals, there have been a slew of stories hyping the China threat over the past week. These include:
- “Former spy reveals how China hunts down targets in Canada and abroad” (CBC)
- “Canada Flags Beijing Interference as Most Serious Threat Since the Cold War: Report” (Vision Times)
- “China – our ‘strategic partner’and greatest security threat” (Toronto Sun)
- “India, China among main perpetrators of foreign interference, new CSIS report says” (National Post)
- “China espionage threat persists as CSIS flags political interference concerns” (Weekly Standard)
Perhaps coincidently, as CSIS, politicians and the media scaremonger, Canadian forces have been participating in a provocative US-led-military exercise targeting China. As I detailed previously, over the past three weeks Canadian forces have been part of Exercise BALIKATAN in the Philippines. This is the first time Canada has participated directly in the annual exercise, which includes 10,000 US troops. Several hundred Canadian soldiers are part of the seven-country — including France, Australia, Japan, New Zealand — live-fire exercise across the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
Their efforts are designed to rally a coalition against China explained the Wall Street Journal article “In the Philippines, Pacific Allies Train For China Threat”. The US paper reported, “For Washington, that show of force is the culmination of a years long effort to get its allies in Asia and the Pacific to work more closely together in the face of China’s military and territorial ambitions.”
But China isn’t sending war ships and personnel thousands of kilometres away to the US, France or Canada. And it’s not China testing highly threatening weaponry.
As part of the Balikatan Exercise the US fired a Tomahawk missile 600 kilometres on Tuesday from its new Typhon launcher for the first time. Capable of hitting targets deep inside mainland China from locations in the Philippines, the move is highly provocative. According to Dave Camp at antiwar.com, “The Typhon, also known as the Strategic MidRange Fire System, was developed by the US after it withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. The INF prohibited the US and Russia from possessing ground-based missile systems that had ranges between 310 and 3,400 miles, limits that China was not bound by.”
Alongside the US’ belligerent missile test, Japan launched an “offensive” weapon abroad for the first time since World War II. In a drill with the US viewed by the Filipino president and defence minister, Japanese forces fired type 88 surface-to-ship missiles on Wednesday.
According to the South China Morning Post, “China condemned what it called Japan’s first ‘offensive missile’ test overseas in eight decades, saying Tokyo’s ‘neo-militarism’ and intensified arms race had gained momentum and threatened regional stability.”
The spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Lin Jian, bemoaned that “Japan’s right-wing forces are pushing for an accelerated ‘remilitarisation’ process.” He complained that Tokyo was overstepping its “exclusively defence-oriented” policy, which was established at the end of World War II after Japan killed millions occupying China and other nations in Southeast Asia.
Last week China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, told the Globe and Mail he was optimistic about improving ties between the two countries. But Beijing’s envoy criticized Ottawa for sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, which Ottawa has done 11 times since 2018, and Canada weakening its “One China” policy by growing ties with Taiwan.
Right wing commentators and Conservative party officials condemned the statement saying Canada should double down on its provocative moves and send more warships through the Strait and officials to Taiwan. But, why stoke conflict with China on behalf of a US hegemon threatening to annex Canada?
The public doesn’t support it. Disapproval of the US is at unprecedented levels with the Globe and Mail recently reporting, “more Canadians view the United States unfavourably than ever.” A recent POLITICO poll also found that Canadians prefer to depend on China over Donald Trump’s US by a margin of 57% to 23%.
As I concluded in my previous article on the belligerent exercise two weeks ago, “Will any politician condemn Canadian participation in Exercise BALIKATAN?”
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