Canada has good reason to be wary of becoming too dependent on China – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – March 5, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Canada is being pushed around by China these days to prevent extradition to the U.S. of a Chinese billionaire’s daughter and executive of telco giant Huawei. Two Canadian diplomats have been unjustly imprisoned by China in retaliation.

This is unacceptable behaviour, but there will be more to come if the woman is eventually extradited to the United States for what the Chinese call “bogus” charges. But Canada must extradite her. To do otherwise would be to interfere in the American-Canadian legal system.

Canada is getting bullied by China, but it’s nothing compared to what China is doing to other trading partners. It’s waving a big stick in more devastating ways, which is why Canada and others — caught between China and the United States — should avoid too much trade liberalization or dependency on the ruthless giant.

Behind this is that America’s president, Donald Trump, has rightly called out the Chinese for trade cheating, cyberattacks, industrial espionage, theft of technology and an attempt by Huawei to penetrate key infrastructure systems through 5G projects.

The United States has also asked allies to ban Huawei’s 5G initiatives. Australia and New Zealand have done so. Canada has not. China is upset with Australia, not only for its Huawei ban, but also for denying residency and citizenship to a Chinese billionaire who has been accused of political interference.

For the rest of this article: https://business.financialpost.com/diane-francis/canada-has-good-reason-to-be-wary-of-becoming-too-dependent-on-china