Is Canada's see-no-evil policy on China going to end post-COVID-19?

01 May 2020, National Post

About the Chinese regime being a tyranny, only a little is grudgingly said, and even less done.

The Chinese communist regime has demonstrated in recent months that, at the very least, it is not a reliable partner on matters of life and death. Its lies, coverup and inaction have been, in fact, a danger to global health and well-being. That is not in dispute from any reasonable quarter in relation to the pandemic.

What then is going to be done about it?

The usual diplomatic, trade and security response has been, over 50 years and supported by all parties of different political stripes: nothing. About the Chinese regime being a tyranny, only a little is grudgingly said, and even less done. Presidents and prime ministers the world over have made sure that whatever Beijing does, it will be business — and above all, business — as usual.

The biggest challenge to the global see-no-evil policy on China was the massacre in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. The scale and brazenness of the atrocity meant that Beijing had broken its implicit promise to Western leaders, namely to keep its repression sufficiently hidden as to make the see-no-evil policy plausible. Something had to be done. Condemnations were made, arms sales and World Bank loans to China were suspended, as were high-level ministerial meetings between G7 countries and the Chinese regime.

President George H. W. Bush, a former American ambassador in China, was keen to signal that while the massacre of innocents in Beijing was mildly troubling, it would not get in the way of business as usual. Bush thus renewed China’s “most favoured nation” trading status.

As for Canada, it is instructive to look at the comprehensive 1,100-page memoirs of Brian Mulroney on China. While there are pages and pages about South Africa, for example, China, including the Tiananmen massacre, is dealt with cursorily. Mulroney includes a note about getting things back to normal.

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