Good morning, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity.
I'm also honoured to be among such a good raft of witnesses for you. Let me just say that I agree with everything that you've heard so far this morning. I think those were both excellent presentations, and I'm sure it will be the same from the other witnesses.
I'm going to be very brief and basically just outline what is covered in my 2019 book, Claws of the Panda.
Relations at the official level between Canada and the Chinese Communist Party began in China in the 1930s—over 80 years ago. What is remarkable is how little the attitudes towards the relationship and the objectives of both sides have changed over those eight decades.
In their early encounters with Chinese Communist cadres, Canadian officials showed a fundamental naïveté about the purposes of the party that continues to this today, despite all the evidence that they are delusional.
From the start, though, the Canadians saw the Communists as a reformist rather than a revolutionary party. They nursed then, and many still do, the hope and expectation that the Canadian models of politics, administration and law would be templates for reform that the Chinese Communist Party would follow.
The Huawei affair, which started just as my book, Claws of the Panda, was being published, should have dispelled that blind optimism. It should have made it clear, beyond doubt, that we have no shared values with the Chinese Communist Party, and that we cannot have a normal relationship with a regime whose first instinct when there is a problem is to take hostages.
The Chinese Communist Party's objectives in the relationship have been equally consistent.
First was, and is, to make Canada a supporter of Beijing on the international stage where possible, and to minimize Ottawa's criticism if there is no support.
Second was, and is, to gain access through Canadian universities and research institutes to Canadian and United States technology, especially technology with military uses.
Third was, and is, to get unrestricted access to Canadian agricultural and natural resources. The Chinese Communist Party does not believe in market economics.
Fourth was, and is, to have open access to Canada's market for Chinese manufactured goods.
Fifth, and critically important in my view, was, and is, to be able to control and use Canadians of Chinese heritage, especially those advocating for reform in China.
By my count, the Chinese Communist Party has achieved all its objectives in Canada, while we have hardly had a shot on goal.
I will end there, and I will be happy to try to answer any questions from committee members.
Thank you.