As China’s president Xi Jinping is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week, a retired Canadian Vice Admiral is warning that China is attempting to create a new global order.
Vice Admiral Mark Norman said on The Roy Green Show Saturday that there is a “rapid and disturbing” growth in attempts by China to “undermine the global system that Canada has enjoyed operating in for the last 80-plus years.”
He said there are clear efforts to “reset the global order in terms of economics, global supply chain, financing systems, our rules-based system that we refer to frequently, our understanding of physical sovereignty as it relates to … the South China Sea and Taiwan.”
“It’s just an ongoing list and they’re being very strategic in their actions,” he said. “They’re playing a long game.”
What Canada is currently reacting to are just “symptoms” of a “much deeper and disturbing set of strategies that China has had in place for decades, and is implementing in order to reset the system in their preferred order of things.”
His comments come as Xi is set to meet Putin from Monday to Wednesday in an apparent show of support. China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and declared last year that it has a “no-limits” friendship with Russia.
Canada left out of AUKUS is ‘of concern’
With the geopolitical forces of the world shifting, Norman also pointed to Canada’s exclusion from the AUKUS deal between the U.S., Australia and the U.K., which he said it is “of concern” for our national security.
“There are other countries that are not as physically or geographically close to the United States that are now much more closely aligned,” he said.
Norman is disappointed in the dismissive nature of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toward Canada’s exclusion from the pact, which will see the U.S. selling atomic submarines to Australia. He said the deal is not just about submarines but is “much deeper than that.”
“What’s really at play is co-operation in highly classified discussions around very important technologies like quantum, biometrics, acoustics,” he said.
“There’s a whole variety of technologies that are being discussed and shared and co-operated on through this agreement. This is a key development in international security and defence, and we are absent. I think it should be of concern why we are absent. I think it will further degrade our reputation and our ability to influence others as we go forward.”
Norman says our exclusion is a direct result of Canada “not being perceived as credible in the way we’re acting and behaving.”
