Mélanie Joly can’t wait to make up with China’s dictators
The rest of the world is starting to admit Beijing is a threat, not Canada’s foreign minister
It’s a circle that can’t be easily squared.
On the one hand, there’s the spectacle of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly happily abasing herself at the feet of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday after being summoned to China to take instruction on how Canada should behave itself as Xi Jinping persists in flouting international trade rules, accelerates his encirclement of Taiwan and pours ever greater resources into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On the other hand, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland begins consultations with business and labour groups this week to discuss how to deal with what she calls “unfair Chinese trade practices.” The measures are expected to include some degree of conformity with stiff American and imminent European tariffs on electric vehicles and other Chinese imports.
In an interview about the consultations with Bloomberg News, Freeland offered a rare and candid admission of the calamitous error the Liberals are generally disinclined to mention out loud, namely that “China’s entry to the World Trade Organization more than two decades ago,” which former prime minister and lifelong China-trade enthusiast Jean Chrétien championed, “was a mistake.”
Jack’s Note: If there is any possible way to screw something up the Liberals will find it. Jean Chretien is Exhibit One.
