Yet another reminder that China is not our friend
National Post, 09 June 2024
Beijing's shocking interference in our elections is yet more proof that befriending China was a massive Canadian miscalculation
The twin anniversaries this past week of D-Day and the Tiananmen Square massacre were a reminder of the power of speaking clearly to both friends and enemies, and to know the difference between them.
Ronald Reagan, now considered a relatively young man when he served as president, celebrated his 70th and 75th birthdays while in office. His standard quip was that he was celebrating “anniversaries of his 39th birthday” to hide his age. This past week marked the 40th anniversary of one of the rhetorical high points of the Reagan presidency, his address at Pointe du Hoc, on the beaches of Normandy, for the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984.
(The fortieth of the fortieth was commemorated in grand style at the Reagan Library in California, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of his death on June 5, 2004. The drafter of the Normandy speech, Peggy Noonan, was on hand, but drew the curious assignment of interviewing Ben Mulroney and Carol Thatcher about their parents.)
“The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next,” said Reagan. “It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.”
After praising the “boys of Pointe du Hoc,” Reagan turned to the Soviet empire, and the need for stalwart resistance to that tyranny, speaking of the “profound moral difference” between the two sides in the Cold War.
“Soviet troops that came to the centre of this continent did not leave when peace came,” Reagan said. “They’re still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose — to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.”
Almost exactly five years after Reagan spoke at Normandy, the Chinese communist regime massacred its own citizens in Tiananmen Square. A different president was in office by then, a good man who had fought courageously in the Pacific during World War II. His approach was different.
President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state, James A. Baker III, summoned the Chinese ambassador to frankly tell him of the administration’s “distress” at “what is happening in your country.”
“And I must remind you that while this President is a friend of China,” Baker recounted in his memoirs, “the actions of your government cast a serious pall over our relations.”
With the bloodstains still fresh in Tiananmen Square, it was an odd time to stress Bush’s friendship. But that was the great consensus — shared in Washington, European capitals, and most intensely in Ottawa. Beijing was to be engaged and befriended, integrated into the global economy. A massacre was to be lamented, even condemned, but not be permitted to get in the way of deeper Chinese engagement.
Canada would play an enthusiastic role. In one of his last acts before leaving office in June 1993, Brian Mulroney hosted Chinese vice-premier Zhu Rongji for dinner at 24 Sussex. Canada was eager to get back to business. The next year, Jean Chrétien would lead the massive Team Canada mission to China, symbolically declaring that Tiananmen had been forgiven. Chinese contrition was not necessary; absolution was eagerly granted.
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