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And yet Canada insists on treating China as something very close to a friend, while ignoring what China has plainly and openly signalled: that it values only power, and seeks only that and the respect it brings. It has not been shy about this. We’ve just pretended not to notice.

Until now, at least. China’s bellicose reaction to Canada’s entirely legal and appropriate detaining of Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese telecom executive sought by the United States on serious charges, has clearly revealed the character of the regime. Diplomatic protests were lodged, which is fine. Economic consequences were floated, which is regrettable but also to be expected. But China has now detained two Canadians in China, on entirely concocted national security grounds, and is holding them prisoner (with none of the protections our legal system has provided to Meng, who is even now out on bail). The message couldn’t be clearer: you detain one of ours, we detain two of yours. It’s crude, but not hard to decipher.

China has detained Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on claims they were endangering national security, a laughable charge Beijing routinely uses as a convenient tool to lock up innocent people. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo correctly called their capture “unlawful” and “unacceptable.” They should not have been detained in the first place. They are very possibly being abused, if not outright tortured. But their arrests, though appalling, may prove useful in one way: they ought to make it impossible for our prime minister, or any future prime ministers, to keep turning a blind eye to the criminal and thuggish nature of Beijing’s rulers. Ignoring the plight of Muslims in concentration camps, and the ongoing persecution of Chinese Christians, all for daring believe in a god other than communism, has proven easy enough for Canadian leaders. Perhaps the wrath being directed at innocent Canadians will make it harder for our politicians to stop ignoring the immoral and dangerous nature of China’s rulers as easily as they’ve ignored those of us who have been warning for years that China is no friend to us.