cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11900959
cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11900079
When [Canadian] Prime Minister Mark Carney stood in Beijing in January and said Canada’s new “strategic partnership” with China set both countries up for a “new world order,” it marked a striking reversal. Less than a year earlier, on the election campaign trail, Carney had named China as Canada’s biggest security threat. And a year before the trip, the Hogue Commission’s report on foreign interference concluded that China is the most persistent and sophisticated foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and elections.
The deal cut China’s tariff on Canadian canola seed to about 15 percent from 75.8 percent and eased duties on peas, and seafood. In return, Ottawa agreed to let in 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) a year at a 6.1 percent tariff, down from 100 percent. The partnership also covers clean energy, multilateral co-operation, people-to-people ties, and public security, including an agreement between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security, the police apparatus Beijing has used to monitor and intimidate its diaspora abroad.
The pivot comes as Carney rallies middle powers to band together against U.S. tariffs while moving closer to the world’s other superpower. Taiwan, which Beijing refuses to recognize as an independent country, and actively seeks to reunify Taiwan as part of China even by military force, shows how aggressive China can be. And as Chiense coast guard incursions into Taiwan-controlled waters have spiked in 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump has called a stalled $14-billion arms package for the island “a very good negotiating chip” with Beijing, recently adding he isn’t looking to fight a war thousands of miles away.
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Few Western journalists have watched China’s security apparatus as closely as Jürgen Kremb. A former Der Spiegel bureau chief in Beijing, Singapore, and Vienna who was expelled from China in 1998, he now teaches and conducts research at Soochow University in Taipei as a visiting scholar.
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The Hub spoke with Kremb about what Canada should learn from Taiwan as it grows its ties to China.
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Question: … Ottawa has now signed a strategic partnership with Beijing that includes a confidential RCMP agreement with China’s Ministry of Public Security. From where you sit in Taiwan, which has lived with this pressure far longer, does closer engagement with Beijing typically restrain its interference activities abroad, or does it give them more cover and access and embolden them?
Jürgen Kremb: It’s police and domestic security, and they work like the FBI. There are also members of their staff who work as agents, suppressing dissidents and different opinions. This ministry has about 2 million staff in China … and they open police stations in foreign countries, including Canada. The same in Europe and Australia [and other countries]. Of course that’s against the law of other countries, just as the U.S. or Canada cannot open a police station in Beijing.
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China now is the biggest threat to the security of a lot of countries, because they steal intellectual property, they intimidate their dissidents abroad, they intimidate people who are speaking out against China, they operate a lot of media. So we really have to take the threat seriously… And of course the primary target is Taiwan.
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Taiwan is the testing ground, [but it’s also being] executed against other democratic societies, the so-called West, but the so-called West also includes South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, etc.
Xi Jinping wants to rule the world–Western politicians simply cannot comprehend this. He wants to destroy the liberal concept of Western democracies because their very existence poses a threat to his dictatorship.
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Chinese cars are basically spies on four wheels. In Israel, in Sweden or Norway, and in Japan, Chinese cars are not allowed anymore into military installations because where there are cameras, they are actively spying on the surroundings and sending this data back to China.
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What happens if you work too closely with China? First, you seem to have access to a big, big market and make a lot of money. But one day it’s over, and your whole industry base collapses. So if Canada decides to go that way with closer relations to China, look twice and be very careful, and you could lose more than you gain.
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If you’re getting very close to China, in the end you might not be in the driver’s seat of your own country or of your key industry, because the Chinese sooner or later will overtake your products and influence your domestic policy.
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“Chinese cars are basically spies on four wheels”
I’m sorry to tell you but that’s basically all modern cars now, not just China’s.
Right? Like it’s not a question of IF you are being watched, you are always, constantly being watched. The question is who, why, and who are they sharing it with. Spin the wheel, and pick your psychopathic panopticon!
The current US Press Secretary is 100% a Chinese spy, infiltration complete, sadly.
Bonus, former Transportation Secretary and Mitch McConnell’s wife ran home to China when Mitch went into hospice care.
Lastly, Wendy Deng was Putin’s ex gf, current partner of Rupert Murdock, owner of Newcorp/Sun, Fox News, NY Post, and many more, is also a Chinese spy.
All the worst people we know are all working together against us for power and control over us.
I hate to break it to you but the reason the US Empire is so terrible isn’t because of an evil Chinese communist conspiracy, it’s because the US is a decaying capitalist empire thoroughly dominated by monopoly finance capital and big tech, and began its existence as a genocidal settler-colony (that it still is today). Even if every Chinese-born person in the government and higher up places in the US were all spies, they still would not be responsible for the fact that workers have never held power in the US, it was dominated by capital from the very outset.
Thanks for your completely unbiased and factual take… Except that it’s all wrong because you chose the “America bad” argument while being biased AF.
First, she’s not Chinese born, American born, graduated from Pepperdine University, doesn’t belong to any American Bar association, moved to Beijing after graduation, took a white monkey job at a premiere Beijing law firm, very connected to the party, and then her first job back in the States is becoming the Press Secretary days after Xi visited, and also claims to belong to the Chinese Bar association, which foreigners are banned from. It’s all very fishy.
Second that’s not the point I was making at all, no country should want some other country’s intelligence asset that close to leadership, that’s the point I’m making.
Also you are either severely naive or acting on bad faith if you’re saying wealthy connected Chinese have no power in the US, especially under this particular administration.
It’s always been a three way split for world dominance and China has been playing just as hard as the rest of their opponents, they literally are constantly buying up American land and assets, as well as Canadian and others, take your blinders off or stop trying to sealion me.
I never said Katie Zacharia was Chinese-born, I said she’s almost certainly not a Chinese spy, and that even if everyone born in China that was high up in the American gov and system was a spy, it still wouldn’t mean China was responsible for the problems with the US Empire. Those are systemic, and no, that isn’t an “America bad” argument. What it is, is an argument based on the inherent processes of settler-colonialism, capitalism, and the imperialist stage of capitalism.
Second, getting a job in China as a white person is not automatically a “White Monkey” job. You seem to be under the impression that China is infiltrating the US, but espionage is high-skill labor. Katie cannot both be highly unqualified and a Chinese spy, but your claims that she took a “White Monkey” job go directly against that.
Third, I did not say that China has no influence over the US. I said the problems of the US are not caused by China, but instead are due to, again, settler-colonialism, capitalism, and the imperialist stage of capitalism. Democracy is not being “eroded,” it never existed in the first place.
Finally, I am not sealioning you. I am arguing in good faith against your tabloid-level conspiracy theory that seems to be putting the blame of systemic failures on foreign infiltration, with nearly nothing to back it. At the slightest pushback, you immediately accuse me of being bad-faith or a sealion, it’s absurd.
Bro you had zero hesitation jumping straight into colonial grievance politics when it has nothing to do with my point or the point of the post, very sealion-y, very " 'merica bad"-ish.
Taiwan is not an American colony, it’s the remnant of the former Chinese government and the Taiwanese people, and they deserve their independence from mainland China. Honoring our agreements with Taiwan is important, because that’s what credible nations do.
Trump is not credible, he voids the credibility of the US, just like his fake lawyer Press Secretary. Any foreign policy going forward will be akin to Nazi/USSR shit, like what’s going on in the Caribbean where Hegseth has them killing civilians. Any complaints you have about our former foreign policy will have to be shoved up your ass because this new America is becoming something that will make you wish for the old neo-liberal days of America.
I already see idiotic comments about wanting to see the US collapse, but wtf do you think Trump and his terrorists are going to do afterwards, just leave everyone alone? Name a fascist that’s ever been satisfied with what they have, I’ll wait.
Sealioning is a relentless badgering for evidence while maintaining a false adherance to civility. What I did was make an argument, that the problems of the US are systemic, rather than foreign-created.
Jumping to Taiwan, the KMT lost the civil war against the communists, and took over Taiwan, killing tens of thousands that resisted, and imprisoning over 140,000. The only reason the civil war did not result in total communist victory was the US blocking access to Taiwan, protecting the nationalist KMT while they slaughtered the indigenous population, and then the US began treating Taiwan as a military outpost to contain China. Critically, modern Taiwan sees what is happening in Ukraine, and is thawing relations with the mainland because they do not want to end up in the same position.
As for your absurd equation of the Nazis, who tried to bring European-style colonialism to Europe, with the USSR, who supported anti-colonial liberation movements around the globe, this is a form of Holocaust trivialization. US foreign policy has always been genocidal, from the vicious wars on indigenous populations to the brutal colonization of Hawaii and Cuba to the bestial wars on Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, to the intense bombing around the world. The US is a genocidal empire, this is not new with Trump, but a continuation of genocidal policy since the inception of the US.
I’m a communist, I don’t support Trump, I oppose the entire genocidal system that he is merely a symptom of.
I always find it funny when communists support China because the ruling party has the word “communist” in its name. Similar to someone saying they support the democratic republic of Korea because they are a democratic.
How as a communist do you reconcile the fact that China has the fastest growing billionaire class in the world while they bleed their common workers dry while suppressing their incomes. This is just one of the many obvious contradictions to the weird type of “communism” practiced by China.
I don’t support the PRC because the CPC calls itself communist, I support it because it has a socialist system. The commanding heights and critical industries in China are overwhelmingly publicly owned, and the state is dominated by the working class through the CPC. Marketization is employed in underdeveloped industries where markets still play a progressive role in accelerating socialization of production and distribution, and as these grow they are folded into the public sector. This is Marxist economics. See Professor Roland Boer’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Concise Guide for a basic, entry-level explanation that requires no background in Marxist economics. See Cheng Enfu’s handy diagram:
As for having the “fastest growing billionaire class,” China has billionaires because the marketized sector has private property. The acceleration of development speeds up the timeline for collectivizing production and distribution, and the rise of billionaires is the tradeoff. Good thing Marxism isn’t a moralist philosophy that sees private property as a sin, but instead a scientific approach to socialism based on dialectical materialism. The bit about “suppressing worker incomes” is entirely false, worker incomes have been dramatically rising year over year for decades:
I honestly have no clue why you immediately assume I only support China because they call themselves communist. It’s such a bad-faith way to terminate a conversation before it even begins. I support China because of its system, because I am a communist that studies Marxism.
So communist, highlights Taiwans colonial past, yet doesn’t want to highlight what China was doing while all that was going on, yet you say you’re against all genocide, can’t be against genocide while leaning Chinese like a tankie, genocides were every bit communist tools as they were tools of Nazis and capitalists, ask Georgia (the country) or anywhere else affected by the USSR.
I know historically none of us have been in the right, no pragmatically ran nation will ever be perfect, nor will one ran by greedy power hoarders like Trump, Putin, Xi, Netanyahu, Erdogan, etc., but that’s the difference, I don’t care what ideology we live under, just as long as our needs are met and we aren’t treated like disposable trash, and these guys listed don’t care about anyone but themselves, they’re comfort, they’re power over others, we can and must do better.
Doing better starts by leaving your biases behind, you seem to be under the assumption that I’m just a typical American nationalist, I’m not, sure I prioritize where I live and exist because you have to, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the effects that colonialism caused, my family is Irish and Russin Jew, both sides of my family are refugees, and came to these shores as refugees, and while my idiot MAGA father has forgotten that, I sure haven’t.
Overall I don’t know where you are from, but quite obviously I’m gearing up to try and get my family through either a Nazi regime or a civil war, maybe cut me some slack if I’m not thinking about history from 80 years ago in another country, considering what we are all living through now. My issue is the Trump regime and until they are removed from power it’s all I really have room for, as their removal will alleviate so much pressure globally.
You made a bunch of vague whataboutisms. Do you have an actual point here? My point is that the issues with the US regime will not be ended by removing Trump, this isn’t a matter of 80 years ago but today. Genocides are not “communist tools,” and the majority of those that lived in the USSR and its member states regret its dissolution.
I’m a Statesian, just like you, the primary difference is that I am directing my critique against the system that is actually causing the problems of today, rather than the individual that happens to be in charge of a portion of it at this present moment in time. Changing out the individual will not change the system, and thus will not actually alleviate pressure worldwide. Only changing the system can do that.
We have to seek truth from facts, not simply rely on our gut feelings. That’s why I took issue with your conspiracy theory to begin with, you are agreeing with whatever your bias leads you to believe. I’m aware that I’m biased, which is why I do my best to seek truth from facts, rather than rely on my gut.
this is just blatant racism against chinese people at this point.
People who are racist against Chinese are very unlikely not to also be racist against Taiwanese. Therefore, ironically, something both the CCP and racists agree on is that there’s no difference between the two peoples.
However, they’re both wrong. One group cares too much and the other too little, but still both wrong.
Taiwan has a right to self-determination and no infiltration, subterfuge, threats, coercion or - if you prefer - pleading from Beijing or anywhere else ought to change that.
Although if I were given a time machine, I’d prevent the whole split in the first place and protect the native Formosans… but you probably wouldn’t like the China that would exist if I were allowed to meddle like that either.
I always find it weird that Americans/Westerners don’t ever ask “why does the US have such a claim on Taiwan?”. I guess that’s “the way the world works” in their minds or whatever, when a short history wiki dive could clear things up…
The only one that has a ‘claim on Taiwan’ is China.
