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It is easy to mock the concept of a Canadian Parliamentary committee striking fear into the stony hearts of the Chinese politburo. As this newspaper indeed did in an editorial cartoon on Thursday. But if the Butchers of Beijing are not worried, they should be. And Canadians should be pleased.

To be sure, Canadian parliamentary committees have few trophies on their walls. And most of what they do have is participants or observers who died of such desiccating boredom as not to require taxidermy. But this situation is different.

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It is different first, of course, because in a minority parliament the cabinet cannot simply order committees around. Trudeau and his ministers tried to prevent the committee from being struck, which is yet more proof of how badly it is needed. And brings me to the second difference: The real problem with China isn’t out there. It’s in here.

OK, it’s out there too. Despite the feeble denials of our defence minister and the powerful China lobby of ex-politicians and ex-bureaucrats already aboard the Gravy Belt and Road and current officials hoping one day to jump on, China is a brutal and increasingly aggressive tyranny with nuclear weapons, a communist ideology, a sense of destiny and growing concerns about long-term economic and demographic issues.