Read & Download Ó PDF, eBook or Kindle ePUB Ü Jonathan Manthorpe
Absolutely brilliant! Perhaps being a Canadian, my perception is a bit focused on the clear malignancy of the CCP's activities in Canada, but Manthorpe builds a convincing case for the clear threat the CCP poses to the people, institutions and freedoms of this country. He also indicts our current political cast for its blinkered (corrupt?) policies towards the CCP thugocracy. Highly recommended reading for people concerned about Xi Jinping and his mob. 336 An interesting but disquieting look at China-Canada relations and how China (through the Chinese Communist Party) is infiltrating many aspects of Canadian life - academic, business & politics. They are doing the same in other countries. A book we as Canadians should all read - as should our politicians at all levels! 336 A timely read considering the frost that has recently enveloped bilateral relations between the two countries. For me, the takeaway is that effective engagement with China requires clear boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. As Manthrope demonstrates with numerous examples from the public record, we are missing articulated ground rules. It is high time for our public officials, academics, and businessmen to stand up for Canada's interests and confront CCP effort to intimidate and influence on our soil. 336 The book is an interesting account of China - Canada relationship over the past century with much focus on the recent past. How the Communist Party in China has shaped the relationship and used it in means to an end.
The author tells an elaborate story end to end with a closing message of how this relationship should be in the future. He tries to highlight in promoting the relationship Canadian politicians have not only introduced Chinese corruption and red tape in their country but brought influence of triads and crimes in China. China has used every possible means - whether media outlets (Xinhua) or the Confucius Institutes, Chinese students, weak immigration laws on the 1980s as means to further access Canada, its technology and information (being a key NATO ally).
The use of story lines around key actors who have given first hand experience of how this slow strategy worked is interesting. Author has also referred to tons of literature including the Sidewinder Report on the Chinese criminal webs in Canada.
However the end of the story is raw. To some extent it is true as well. Canada of the 1970s was important for China. Today Canadian importance to China would be illusion concept. For that perspective keeping a hawkish approach on Chinese human rights record would probably help the government gain much ground with its relationship with China. China on their part would continue their espionage, Technology theft and distorted trade regime which would not benefit Canada in any foreseeable future. 336 Important insights into CCP influence campaigns within Canada and targeting of diaspora communities. Also a nice reference to Mark Bourrie's experience as a journalist with Xinhua. Project Sidewinder also seems prescient, despite flaws.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in Sino-Canadian relations. 336
Outstanding read on Canada-China relations.
Extremely eye opening political science book.
I found this very interesting and informative, also very pertinent.
This book would be an excellent companion read to Wilful Blindness: How a Criminal Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West and Stealth War: How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept.
Highly recommended read. 336 An excellent review of the evolution of Canada's relationship with China and more specifically the Chinese government's goals for that relationship and the means by which they are pursuing their goals. As the author says, everything in the book is on the public record. Mr. Manthorpe does a good job at telling the story in an impartial manner and leaving the reader to draw their own conclusion - while some information presented is alarming, this is not an extremist perspective. This book should be mandatory reading for all public officials as a reminder that the other players on the world stage are looking after their own best interests and are not going to be won over by naive well-wishing and idealistic sentiments. 336 A warning to Canadians on the type of government we deal with in China. It is uncompromising, focused, and cunning in its mission to create a world leading economy and political force. It uses Canada for laundering money, squelching honesty among Chinese immigrants to Canada about the true nature of China's government, and influencing our politicians in an underhanded manner. They attempt to infiltrate academia, industry, and research. Frightening.
Manthorpe (I remember him from the 1970s writing so well in the Globe&Mail about Ontario politics) brings a reporter's skill to this news story. He pours cold water on the idea that constructive engagement will bring their government into the liberal world that we take for granted in our democracies. No doubt, he argues, we have to engage with China. But we need to be more clear-headed and less naive about what we're dealing with. 336 This is a timely exploration of the relationship between Canada and China. Canadians should be worried about this lopsided relationship and we should be stronger in our dealings with China. Canada is being used by China to launder dirty money through gambling and real estate purchases, and they're trying to get their claws into some of our vital industries; this needs to stop and we need governments at all levels to stand up to them. 336 This book is about the encroachment of China into Canada’s internal affairs. Canada recognized China in 1970. The development of China and its impact on the world since then have been on a phenomenal level which many in Canada have failed to realize.
The author gives us a history of Canadian-Chinese relations, and it started in the 19th century when Canadian missionaries went to China to proselytize. In some ways Canadians still cling to this vision and have modernized it to now believing that China will adopt liberal democratic values. Many federal, provincial and municipal leaders have failed to realize that China is not interested in democratic reform. China wants as much as possible to influence the Chinese diaspora in Canada (and elsewhere in the world) to be remain loyal to China and namely the values of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).
The CCP controls and manages all facets of life in China; for example, they have members on the executive boards of all major Chinese companies. This translates that if a Chinese company buys into a foreign company – in Canada, the U.S., Australia… part of its representation and business interests will be beholden to the CCP. There is little or no interest in workers rights, unions, environmental impact…
The CCP will influence anyone they do business with in the following key areas:
1) Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan are integral parts of China. Xinjiang has a large Muslim population which the CCP has put under a state of siege.
2) Falun Gong is, according to the CCP, a dangerous religious cult and is being violently suppressed in China.
3) Promoting democracy in China or supporting Chinese dissidents is unacceptable. Included in this would be the current pro-democracy struggle in Hong King.
There are many groups being funded in Canada (and around the world) by the CCP which actively promote these values. There is a very large Chinese diaspora in Vancouver and Toronto and many are opposed to the CCP – and some are physically scared of the repercussions of their opposition. “Confucius Institutes” sponsored by the CCP have been set up across Canada (and the world) at universities and Chinese cultural centres. When it became obvious that free dialogue was not permitted on certain issues (as in the ones stipulated above) some of the “Confucius Institutes” were banned from universities. The CCP has set-up media in Canada to promote their causes, as in mandarin language television.
Canada now has over 70,000 Chinese students attending schools, colleges, and universities across Canada (page 204, my book). Because they are foreign students their fees are substantially higher than that for Canadian students and they are increasingly being seen as an excellent revenue source for universities and possibly as impacting core values in university courses; the “Confucius Institutes” being but one example. Chinese students can be influenced and cajoled to take part in pro-China demonstrations, as the recent examples of pro-China demonstrators to counter the pro-democracy Hong Kong demonstrators have shown in Vancouver and Toronto.
What is also disconcerting is the large financial gap that now exists between this new emerging super-power and Canada. China has bought – or is attempting to buy Canadian technological companies to gain access to new developmental knowledge.
There are many valid issues raised by the author, but there are some that are unsubstantiated. For example, he mentions how the growing rise of wealthy Chinese immigrants has made housing costs astronomical in both Toronto and Vancouver. But how does this play into the hands of the CCP? In many cases these people come to Canada for the economic and social security that is not found under the CCP in China. The author mentions Mark Rowswell who became a media star in Chinese television, but what is the connection to the CCP – and how is this bad for Canada? The book lacked cohesion and an overall flow and would move from topic to topic with little continuity. When Canada first recognized China in the 1970’s it was a poor underdeveloped country and much less powerful country than it is now – I would have liked more on how Canada did not adjust to the immense changes in China.
Nevertheless, we come away with a view that Canada is being swayed by the gigantic economic power of the new emerging China – which has no interest in liberalism and human rights. We have to realize sooner than later who exactly we are dealing with.
Page 187 Richard Fadden, director of Canadian Security Intelligence Services,2010
There funding Confucius Institutes in most of the campuses across Canada. They’re managed by people who are operating out of the [Chinese] embassy or consulates. Nobody knows that the Chinese authorities are involved. They have organized demonstrations against the Canadian government in respect to some of our policies concerning China.
Page 207 Tong Xiaoling, Chinese Consul General in Vancouver
We are not going to change our principles or soften our position for the completion of a free trade deal, and we reject the use of political conditions as bargaining chips in a negotiation for an economic agreement. 336
Claws of the Panda tells the story of Canada’s failure to construct a workable policy towards the People’s Republic of China. In particular the book tells of Ottawa’s failure to recognize and confront the efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate and influence Canadian politics, academia, and media, and to exert control over Canadians of Chinese heritage.
Claws of the Panda gives a detailed description of the CCP’s campaign to embed agents of influence in Canadian business, politics, media and academia. The party’s aims are to be able to turn Canadian public policy to China’s advantage, to acquire useful technology and intellectual property, to influence Canada’s international diplomacy, and, most important, to be able to monitor and intimidate Chinese Canadians and others it considers dissidents.
The book traces the evolution of the Canada-China relationship over nearly 150 years. It shows how Canadian leaders have constantly misjudged the reality and potential of the relationship while the CCP and its agents have benefited from Canadian naivete. Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada