The public pronouncements of Chinese diplomats on Canada-China relations have become quite interesting of late. In marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of formal relations between China and Canada (which incidentally was instrumental in getting China recognized by other countries and ultimately helped get China where it is today) Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau remarked on the current strains on relations between the two countries – namely the Meng Wanzhou and Kovrig/Spavor affairs.
This came on the heels of Bob Rae’s remarks at the United Nations in response to China’s claims that Canada was “bullying” Beijing by refusing to release Meng Wanzhou. Rae’s response was not the usual polite and timid mutterings of diplomatic nothings that the Chinese government has come to expect from Canada and its politicians and diplomats. Rae essentially said: “When you say that a country of 35 million people that we are somehow bullying a nation of over one billion, one of the great superpowers of the world and they have chosen to treat these two Canadian citizens in this way, this is something that we shall never forget.”
Well, good for Bob Rae. Since the Meng Wanzhou affair began, China’s ambassadors in Ottawa have used ominous threatening language and the Chinese government has used trade as a punishment by reducing its canola imports and halting pork and beef imports for a while. However, apparently, we are the bullying nation. One wonders what the point of such language is on the part of China’s government representatives in Ottawa and New York? Is it an attempt at mockery or humour? Does President Xi Xiping really believe that Canada is bullying China?
Or is there something more here? I recall an old story my father used to tell me about a man who went to his doctor because he had a phobia about chickens. The man believed the chicken might eat him. The doctor explained the absurdity of this in calm measured terms and convinced the man that he was indeed not a mere grain of corn that the chicken might eat but many times larger and indeed a threat to the chicken. The man appeared to accept this, calmed down and prepared to leave but as he was leaving turned and said: “I am still worried. You are right, I am many times larger and not a grain of corn, but does the chicken know this?”
China’s behaviour on the world stage seems driven by extreme insecurity. While it is now the second largest economy in the world and has become a major world player, it still smarts from past injustices and when backed against a wall reverts to old diplomatic language and behaviour. It still sees itself as a developing economy with a past marked by western colonialism despite the progress it has made and does not understand why it is not always getting its way. Canada not doing exactly what it says is somehow being seen as a loss of face and not a problem to be solved given Canada’s position between China and the United States. That is the most charitable explanation of its behaviour.
Aside from the uncharitable explanation that China really is a mean self-centered bully is the off the wall possibility that the Chinese government truly believes it is in a parallel universe where Canada is a huge imperial power. Canada has foisted a Pax Canadensis on the world backed by the force of its arms. In this mirror universe straight out of a Star Trek episode, the evil Canadian empire that arose on the ashes of the British and American regimes now encircles the globe with colonial possessions right up against China’s borders and is trying to keep China from asserting its rightful place in the world. Its flag of crossed swords is the ultimate symbol of bullying diplomacy and its arrival on your shores heralds the onslaught of red coated Mounties directing your traffic and polite bilingual bureaucrats overseeing the construction of hockey arenas and Tim Horton’s franchises. A Pax Canadensis indeed. The world should be so blessed.
Whether China is psychologically insecure or simply misguided does not matter. Neither bode well for a peaceful and stable world future.
