Decoupling our economy from China before we become too dependent is the path our nation must take.
The increasingly brutal crackdown on Hong Kong protesters by Communist China, combined with China’s increasing aggression and provocation – not to mention their continued arbitrary detention of two Canadian Citizens – is raising difficult questions for Canada.
We now face a clear choice, and that choice is increasingly unavoidable:
Live up to our values, or increase our trade with Communist China.
Because, at this point, we can’t do both.
Even powerful American companies and brands (like the NBA) are discovering that the more you do business with China, the more you are forced to sacrifice your own values to the whims of the Communist Party.
The result is that China is exporting their authoritarian Communist system to the rest of the world, using trade as the cudgel to put other countries into a state of dependence.
And beyond that, we’ve already seen the hollowing out of Canada’s manufacturing sector, in large part because of China’s deceptive trade practices, currency devaluation, and dumping of product in markets across the globe.
Additionally, the majority of fentanyl coming into Canada and causing so much devastation arrives here from Communist China.
So, for all of these reasons, it is essential that we begin to decouple our economy from China.
Some will say that there is too much money to be made in China for us to decouple, and that trade is worth any cost to our values. But if that’s the direction Canada ends up taking, what is even the point of being a country?
If we have no values, no standards, and no willingness to defend what we claim to believe in as Canadians, then how can we hold our heads up high as a nation?
China doesn’t want trading partners, they want vassal states.
Now, some trade with China is certainly acceptable, in areas where China is desperate and thus can’t enforce demands in return. For food and natural resources which China can’t supply on it’s own, Canada loses nothing from trading with China, but when it comes to technology and manufacturing, trade with China puts our own economic and national security at risk.
And even in terms of food and natural resources, we must limit the expansion of trade with China, because relying too much on their market brings it’s own risk.
Thus, the solution is for Canada to impose large tariffs on imports from China in areas such as metals, military technology, and telecommunications (ban Huawei 5G), while putting limits on the exports of Canadian products to China. At the same time, producers should be compensated for losses from decoupling and we should seek out other markets (like India), where we can trade without throwing our values or national security in the trash.
We live in a dangerous world, and being dependent on trade with a nation like China represents far too big a risk to Canada. We must get rid of that risk before it’s too late, and that means we must begin the process of decoupling as soon as possible.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube