Reaction to Trudeau-Xi exchange shows partisanship trumps all, even our national interest

OTTAWA—The responses to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s high-handed outburst toward Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit say it all about politics in 2022. Rather than see it for what it really was—a bullying complaint from Xi about letting the world know what the two men discussed in a brief meeting earlier at the summit—right-wing media, politicians, and commentators couldn’t resist the opportunity to portray Canada’s leader as weak and chastened. Britain’s Daily Mail bleated “President Xi humiliates” Trudeau, whom the paper described as “increasingly awkward-looking” as he withstood the rant caught on video. According to the Washington Times, Canada’s prime minister was “dressed down” by his Chinese counterpart. Canadian media couldn’t seem to cope with the unusual pyrotechnics. CTV News, for instance, quoted a former Canadian ambassador to China saying it shows Xi views Canada and Trudeau as small-time and unimportant. Then it had a think-tank executive saying it all demonstrated the Chinese leader’s disrespect for the prime minister. Conservatives echoed Xi’s meaningless allegation that Trudeau had “leaked” details about the two men’s discussion, and former Conservative MP Bob Saroya tweeted, “Politics aside it is tough to see the PM run backstage after getting publicly humiliated by President Xi.” The readiness to take the side of a dictator in a dispute with Canada’s prime minister is an indication of how partisan dislike for Trudeau, the Liberals, and anything progressive has reached the point where it tops everything—even our national interest—in today’s vicious, divisive political climate. These Trudeau critics seem to have forgotten that the Chinese government is seen by many security experts as the most serious threat to the democratic, rules-based global order. Xi is the leader of the autocratic forces working to chip away at western democratic ideas, and probably bears a great deal of responsibility for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It seems unlikely that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have launched the unprovoked attack that is a proxy for conflict with NATO and the West without the quiet backing of his ally, Xi, who has yet to come out against the invasion. In addition, Beijing’s short-term decision to build more coal plants is making a joke of the latest international efforts to fight climate change on an urgent basis. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November 2014. Photograph courtesy of the Kremlin And that’s not to mention China’s hostage-taking of two Canadians after Ottawa, following international law, detained a Chinese Huawei executive. Xi’s videotaped harangue of Trudeau was in any case disingenuous. “Everything we discuss has been leaked to the paper; that's not appropriate," Xi told Trudeau through an interpreter. "That's not ... the way the conversation was conducted. If there is sincerity on your part—" Xi said. The Chinese leader is of course well aware that in international settings countries routinely provide briefings and readouts to the media to relay what they want highlighted from one-on-one private talks among leaders. When Xi met U.S. President Joe Biden, for instance, the Chinese foreign ministry released a readout on the private discussion that went on for hundreds of words. What seemed to bother Xi with regard to Trudeau was that the information that came out of their talk was not just some anodyne remarks about discussing climate change, or Ukraine, or that nuclear war would be bad, but something Beijing doesn’t want to see broadcast on the world stage. Namely, that Trudeau raised concerns about China’s interference in Canadian political affairs, an accusation that emerged from a media report that Beijing apparently provided covert funding for 11 candidates in the 2019 Canadian election. For anyone who appreciates the importance of openness and bottom-up buy-in politics, Trudeau came off as the better of the two during the now-famous exchange. Breaking into Xi’s harangue, Trudeau said, "We believe in free and open and frank dialogue, and that is what we will continue to have. We will continue to look to work constructively together, but there will be things we will disagree on.” He was then interrupted in turn. Interestingly, the globally watched exchange has rated no coverage in China and the foreign ministry excluded references to it in its published transcript of a later briefing where it came up numerous times, according to Reuters. The day after the incident, a Chinese spokesperson said allegations that Beijing interfered in the internal affairs of other nations was “complete nonsense.” And, in an apparent attempt to take the rough edges off of the display of anger from Xi—whose public appearances are usually carefully orchestrated—the spokesperson said the conversation with Trudeau was “quite normal and should not be interpreted as President Xi criticizing or blaming anyone.” Canada’s ties to China have a hit low point and are not likely to improve any time soon. If anything, Trudeau should be criticized for not being tougher on the Communist regime in Beijing. Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times. The Hill Times