{"id":984,"date":"2020-12-04T05:20:57","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T05:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=132045"},"modified":"2020-12-04T05:20:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T05:20:57","slug":"sinophobia-sweeps-canadian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/04\/sinophobia-sweeps-canadian-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinophobia Sweeps Canadian Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Paranoia, disregard for evidence and over-the-top rhetoric to encourage hate. And I\u2019m not talking about Donald Trump\u2019s Republicans.<\/p>\n

Progressive Canadian should counter a wave of McCarthyite Sinophobia sweeping this country\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n

The over-the-top reaction to a recent \u201cZoom<\/a> to Free Meng Wanzhou\u201d highlights the issue. The event was labelled<\/a> \u201cChinese Communist Party propaganda\u201d in the House of Commons and criticized by numerous media. When interviewing Paul Manly about his participation in the event, journalist Evan Solomon repeatedly accused the Green MP of being \u201cused<\/a> by Chinese authorities\u201d and for \u201cChinese propaganda\u201d.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on? As China became more prosperous, the US military began a \u201cpivot<\/a>\u201d towards Asia a decade ago. More recently, some important US capitalists have become increasingly unhappy with the terms imposed by the Chinese government on their operations there. Simultaneously, labour costs in China have risen sharply in recent years, taking some of the shine off the country as a low-wage assembly hub.<\/p>\n

Alongside these broader economic and geopolitical trends, Donald Trump has been railing against the \u201cChina disease\u201d for months. This xenophobia is shaping Canadian politics as well. Most of the front-page<\/a> of a February Vancouver Province<\/em> read: \u201cSecond China Virus Case in BC\u201d while in April Conservative leadership candidate, Derek Sloan, said<\/a> Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam was working for China and advancing \u201cChinese Communist propaganda\u201d. Polls show a sharp rise<\/a> in insults, threats and assaults targeting Canadians of Chinese descent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

China bashing is central to new Conservative leader Erin O\u2019Toole\u2019s political messaging. He harps on about standing up for \u201cCanadian values\u201d against the Communist Party of China. In April O\u2019Toole called for<\/a> a \u201cnew Cold War\u201d with China and recently said there\u2019s \u201cno greater threat to Canada\u2019s interests than the rise of China\u201d. (Greater than the climate crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, species collapse, opioid crisis, nuclear holocaust, economic inequality?)<\/p>\n

To counter the Chinese \u201cthreat,\u201d the Conservatives openly appeal to British empire settler solidarity. In criticizing the \u201cFree Meng Wanzhou\u201d event in the House of Commons, Conservative Shadow Minister for Diversity<\/em>, Inclusion and Youth Raquel Dancho said, \u201call Canadian<\/a> MPs need to stand with our Five Eyes partners and other like-minded allies to push back on Beijing\u2019s intimidation tactics.\u201d For his part, O\u2019Toole recently declared, \u201cCanada<\/a> should work very closely with our Five Eyes allies\u201d on countering the world\u2019s most populous nation.<\/p>\n

Settler colonialism and empire unite the Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and US Five Eyes alliance that excludes wealthier non-white nations (Japan and South Korea) or those with more English speakers (India and Nigeria). It\u2019s not a coincidence that the only four countries that originally voted against<\/a> the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007 are part of the Five Eyes.<\/p>\n

There is a long history of stirring up Sinophobia in Canada as part of US\/British conflict with that country. During the US-led Korean War in the early 1950s Canadian troops denigrated<\/a> the \u201cyellow horde\u201d of North Korean and Chinese \u201cchinks\u201d they fought. At a time when a small number of Canadians helped the British suppress the boxer rebellion in 1900 newspapers labeled China the \u201csick man of Asia,\u201d which threatened European social mores. In opposing voting rights for \u201cChinamen\u201d in 1885, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald said he feared their enfranchisement would lead to officials who \u201crepresent<\/a> Chinese eccentricities, Chinese immorality, Asiatic principles altogether opposite to our wishes.\u201d He concluded, \u201cthe Chinese has no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressives should resist the current \u2018Yellow peril\u2019 rooted in geopolitical competition and racism. To do so we should be clear eyed about Chinese power, which is significant and often authoritarian though somewhat exaggerated. That country\u2019s global influence has yet to reflect its share of the world\u2019s population. In 2019 the country\u2019s GDP per person was $10,000 \u2013 equal to Mexico \u2013 while US GDP was $60,000. The US has over 800 military<\/a> bases in 80 countries around the world while the UK has 145 military facilities in 42 countries<\/a>. China has one international<\/a> base in Djibouti. The US and UK have bases in numerous countries bordering China. (In June 2012 the Canadian Press reported, \u201cCanada<\/a> is seeking a deal with Singapore to establish a military staging post there as part of its effort to support the United States\u2019 \u2018pivot\u2019 toward Asia to counter a rising China.\u201d) How many bases does China have in Canada or Mexico?<\/p>\n

Additionally, China rarely deploys troops internationally. The US, Canada and UK, on the other hand, have been involved in recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, etc.<\/p>\n

As the oldest and most populous nation, a prosperous and united China unquestionably threatens the US Empire\u2019s dominance. Decision-makers in Washington have been concerned about that since at least 1949, which is part of the reason they invaded Korea after Mao\u2019s nationalist\/communist victory.<\/p>\n

The military and large sections of the ruling classes in those countries integrated into the US Empire want to prevent China from taking its rightful place in world affairs. They are pushing economic, political and military means to \u201ccontain\u201d China.<\/p>\n

But those of us who believe in equality for all people, who fight racism and xenophobia, must say no. Progressives need to resist the logic of empire and oppose the wave of Sinophobia sweeping Canadian politics.<\/p>\n

This article was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2020 at 9:20pm and is filed under Canada<\/a>, China<\/a>, Prejudice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paranoia, disregard for evidence and over-the-top rhetoric to encourage hate. And I\u2019m not talking about Donald Trump\u2019s Republicans. Progressive Canadian should counter a wave of McCarthyite Sinophobia sweeping\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,190,4,414],"tags":[95,379,415],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":985,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}