Re Canada-China tension

Sean M. Maloney | Jan 23, 2019

I applaud X.B. Shen’s eloquently written attempt to conflate any criticism of Communist China with “anti-Chinese” behaviour and then link this to his implied concerns that he will somehow be targeted in a wave of “anti-Chinese sentiment.” He connects this to a very selective and vague list of historical grievances that “China” has against “the West” which somehow justify current PRC activities and throws Trump in there for good measure. In other words, this is a clever piece of emotionally manipulative propaganda or “agitprop.” Shen neglects to mention key facts about the nature of the bullying regime that confronts Canada, its values, and its interests.. One example, among many, is the detention and “re-education” of what the BBC and Human Rights Watch estimate to be a million Uighurs by the PRC regime. In essence, this is the functional equivalent of the Residential School system on a mass scale. Shen omits historian Frank Dikoetter’s recent and extensive archival work which estimates the PRC regime murdered 5 to 6 million ‘class enemies’ to consolidate Mao’s revolution in 1949-50, and later went to to kill an estimated 45 million Chinese people between 1958 and 1965. Historian Jung Chang has uncovered two occasions where the PRC regime sought to deliberately provoke the United States into a nuclear war. How about the massacre of pro-democracy activists in Tiananman Square in 1989? The same regime’s current behaviour towards Canada is that of a billion-person empire with a recent track record of mass murder bullying 35 million peaceful people-us.. Meanwhile, the elected, multi-ethnic Government of Canada stands up to the bullying, and is in turn called “White supremacist” by the PRC ambassador.

Why exactly is Shen playing a race card in this game? Why does he express concern over being a potential victim of “anti-Chinese” elements in South Frontenac Township? The assumption that we in South Frontenac somehow cannot distinguish between PRC regime behaviour and that of our neighbours of Chinese ethnicity is itself implied racism. We can criticize the PRC regime and deplore its historical track record and it is not “racism” to do so, nor will it lead to Shen being incarcerated or harassed. This is the major difference between us and the PRC regime. The PRC is a demonstrable threat to Canada’s interests and values. Accusations of explicit or implied racism directed against those who criticize the PRC are merely well-worn tools of repression employed by that regime. Shen should not pick them up.

Sean M. Maloney