Hard lessons for Canada, Editorial, Dec. 16

China is a fundamentally incompatible partner for Canada in trade or diplomacy. It is a lesson that few Canadians or other Westerners are ready to accept. China’s political culture places the ruler above the laws, not the laws above the ruler. The Chinese Communist Party, being the self-appointed ruler in perpetuity, is the ultimate arbiter of many, if not all, important decisions in the life of China.

Because Chinese communists cannot imagine political leadership without authoritarian control over all branches of government and the private sector, Canada is inscrutable. When Canada’s prime minister does not simply order a judge to release a prisoner from custody, the Chinese communists are confounded, and their reactions grow more irrational.

Like other kingdoms Canada has tussled with recently, violence and threats of revenge have finally emerged as the moral core of China’s persuasion, not love of justice or enlightened self-interest. Calls for boycotts of Canadian goods and the inexplicable detention of several Canadian citizens in China are but a few verses in the long anthem of Chinese totalitarianism. This crisis will pass, but in a while another will arrive on our shores with the same origins. Canada should look beyond China.

Brian Alexander, Mississauga

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