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Governments should stop the fawning trade missions and corporate largesse

Next, Canada should quit its membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the China-controlled facility designed to enhance Chinese diplomatic clout at the West’s expense by financing projects in Asian countries that neither the private sector nor traditional funders like the World Bank will touch. Canada’s initial $256-million contribution over five years — proffered to give us brownie points with the Chinese — has to date yielded none of the expected contracts for Canadian firms. China’s AIIB got Canada’s endorsement and a boatload of Canadian cash; Canada got a load of Chinese promises. Good luck to Canada now in obtaining China’s blessing in landing AIIB contracts.

Cutting our losses by backing away from China will benefit Canadian taxpayers and the Canadian economy. Because our exports to China are still relatively small — less than five per cent of our total exports — and subsidized at that, our economy will suffer few disruptions. In any event, better to develop trading relationships with tomorrow’s winners than to tie our fortunes to an economy that can pull us down.

China fears that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to take it down economically to remove its threat to America’s economic and military dominance, much as president Reagan did in breaking the Soviet Union. With good reason. The U.S., its “Five Eyes” intelligence allies (the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada), Israel, Japan, France and others have or will be banning suspect technologies manufactured by ZTE and Huawei, China’s telecommunications giants. And through trade treaties such as the USMCA, the U.S. is controlling its trading partners’ ability to negotiate trade deals with China. The U.S. aims to manage an orderly Chinese decline that won’t overly rattle international markets. Canada would be prudent to avoid tying its fortunes to China.

Lawrence Solomon is a policy analyst with Toronto-based Probe International.

LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com