To the editor,
The Justin Trudeau Liberal government is very likely being heavily pressured by Canada’s powerful telecom giants to say “Yes” to Beijing, because they have already largely built Huawei 5G tech into their systems. Anyone doubting the potent persuasion of such huge business interests here should consider how high-level elected officials can become crippled by implicit/explicit threats to transfer or eliminate jobs and capital investment, thus economic stability, if corporate “requests” are not accommodated.
It’s a crippling that’s made even worse by a blaring news-media that’s permitted to be naturally critical of incumbent governments, especially in regards to job and capital transfers and economic weakening. Regarding foreign policy with China, however, before Canada might successfully compel China to do anything it doesn’t really want to, we must at least possess a consumer base thus trade import/export bargaining chip compatible with China’s nearly 1.5 billion consumers.
Even then, China’s restrictive control over its own business sector, thus market, may give it an edge over Canada. Canada, with less than 38 million consumers, cannot do it alone. (Military threats from abroad likely wouldn’t intimidate Chinese officials; if anything, foreign sabre rattling would just make China more obstinate. The only other thing that might have an effect on them involves their economy, via the international marketplace.)
Maybe some securely-allied nations, including Canada, combining their resources could go without the usual bully-Beijing trade/investment tether they’d prefer to sever, instead trading necessary goods and services between themselves and other interested non-allied, non-China-bound nation economies.
Then, again, maybe such an alliance has already been covertly discussed but rejected due to Chinese government strategists knowing how to “divide and conquer” potential alliance nations by using door-wedge economic/political leverage custom-made for each nation.
Perhaps every country typically placing its own economic and big business bottom-line interests foremost may always be its, and therefore collectively our, Achilles’ Heel to be exploited by huge-market nations like China?
Frank Sterle Jr.,
White Rock, B.C.
newsroom@clearwatertimes.com
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