Speaking of major #NATO allies with federal elections this month, last Thursday's 🇨🇦Canadian🇨🇦 Leaders Debate featured a robust several minute long rebuttal by opposition party leaders of PM @JustinTrudeau's handling of Sino-Canadian Relations.
Sino-Canadian Relations seemed unimaginable to be a sticking point in Canadian politics just a few years ago, but have been hastened the status of:
☑️The Two Michaels
☑️Uyghur Genocide
☑️Huawei Telecoms Kit
☑️PRC-backed Political Interference
@CPC_HQ Leader/Leader of the Opposition @erinotoole's criticisms even garnered pushback from the CCP tabloid, the Global Times:
@politico's @AndyBlatchford wrote a stellar overview last month of what the political stakes for all Canadian political parties are as they relate to broader structural shifts in Sino-Canadian Relations:
@noahbarkin, here's the full segment of the Leaders Debate discussing Sino-Canadian Relations. It's roughly seven minutes long. Leaders of smaller parties were just as critical of Trudeau's policies as O'Toole was.
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These tactics, within the context of #CCP-backed influence operations, aren't new. However, the intent to dive deeper into the American culture wars and conversations around race and discrimination in a more nuanced manner is a break from the past.
In Taiwan, Australia, Canada, and even allegedly here in the US, CCP has backed protests and demonstrations against issues perceived as national strategic priorities by leaders in Beijing. The best-alleged example is the 2008 Olympic Torch protests in SF.
Then SF Mayor, @GavinNewsom, was alleged told by a PRC envoy to clamp down on anti-China protests against the Olympic Torch relay thru to the city. Mayor Newsom refused.
So Chinese authorities allegedly orchestrated counter-protests which were duplicated worldwide: