John Chuckman

COMMENT ON MIKE POMPEO’S VISIT TO CANADA IN AN OSTENSIBLE EFFORT TO HELP THE TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT OVER ITS PROBLEMS WITH CHINA

 

North Korea’s Foreign Minister recently described Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as “the toxin of American diplomacy,” calling for him to be replaced in denuclearization talks “with someone who can communicate more cautiously.”

Even though people in North America tend to discredit all things North Korean, I do think this high official’s words, concerning negotiations of interest to the entire world, must be credited.

The Foreign Minister said that “all things into which Pompeo thrusts himself go wrong and end up in failure though they had showed signs of promise.” That is exactly what has happened with the denuclearization talks Pompeo took charge of and aggressively upended like a table full of chess pieces. The talks are essentially over.

Yet here’s Canada’s sad team on international affairs, Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Minister Freeland, inviting Pompeo to Ottawa, inviting him to speak about China, and giving him a platform for his extreme and prejudiced views.

Trudeau did his usual “smile and shake hands and look benign and well-dressed” routine. Chrystia Freeland, who scowls far more than she smiles, sometimes even her efforts at smiling being mistaken for scowls, joined right in with Pompeo, the local selected back-up singer for his bravura guest performance.

She is, after all, we know from released confidential State Department documents, this awful Washington government’s friendly contact person in Ottawa.

Pompeo’s empty words about detained Canadians in China were public relations crumbs tossed for the benefit of the Trudeau government.

That unpleasant, dishonest man, Pompeo, knows perfectly well that he and Donald Trump have about as much credibility and influence in China as a pair of escaped convicts.

He can help Canada not at all (other than by withdrawing an arrest warrant which should never have been issued, something these harsh ideologues are certainly not about to do). One might expect Trudeau to understand those obvious facts, but he does not seem to do so.

Trudeau plays a game of “our American friends are trying to help us” while ignoring the key to the entire set of problems between China and Canada, Canada’s unwarranted arrest, at America’s request, of a senior executive of a Chinese world-scale technological company.

Trudeau is too timid and weak to take any decisive action – oh, can you just imagine his ferocious father Pierre’s approach in such a matter? – and he has assumed the passive role of victim patiently waiting for rescue by the forces of justice. It’s extremely off-putting, but it seems to be the best he can summon to help get him through an upcoming October election.

Of course, Washington can only support the charade, so Pompeo’s visit, which had other purposes, was stretched to include words of sympathy for Trudeau. A Secretary of State flying in specially to help poor little Canada against big mean old China. A scene with clouds parting for a descending warrior angel. Good stage show, and it fits right in with all Washington’s many attacks on China, even if it is just a trifle obvious.

That arrest by Canada of a senior Chinese executive, Ms. Meng Wanzhou, of course should have been avoided at all cost, as any competent leader would know and would have managed, by one means or another, if nothing else beyond quietly warning her not to come or not to land.

But not Canada’s Trudeau and Freeland. They stand by their dull and destructive decision to enforce a warrant from Washington which also could easily have been shot full of holes as an illegitimate use of criminal justice procedures in Trump’s trade war with the world’s second largest economy. Extradition warrants are not diktats. They must comply with a number of requirements, the fulfillment of any of which is subject to judgment.

Their decision to exercise no imagination and no real effort has caused colossal problems for Canada and undoubtedly damaged future prospects with China, a nation with whom we’ve long had excellent relations.

Just pure incompetence, although that’s a charge likely more applicable to Trudeau than to Freeland, a Canadian Neocon-Lite who could be expected to go out of her way to stress the utmost importance of any request coming from Washington. In that sense, Trudeau really may be something of a victim, but it’s self-inflicted state for a head of government with ultimate authority in such matters.

Can you just imagine what the extremely belligerent Pompeo would be saying had, at some point, unrelated to these matters, China arrested the Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft or Apple on trumped-up charges? Not just saying, but doing?

Undoubtedly, the real reasons for Pompeo’s visit – the task of tossing a few public relations crumbs for Trudeau, who does look to lose the upcoming election, being a gracious add-on – included telling Freeland what he expected from her on her forthcoming visit to Cuba concerning Venezuela. Also, undoubtedly, what was expected from Canada at the upcoming G7 in Biarritz, France.

Such is the reality of foreign policy in Canada today.