It’s been on the front pages and at the top of the nightly newscasts for months. Diplomatic relations between China and Canada have collapsed. Beijing has arbitrarily imprisoned Canadian diplomat-on-leave Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, embargoed Canadian canola and pork exports, and threatened more pain to come. And China and the United States are at the brink of an all-out trade war.
There’s the shadowy role the Chinese telecom giant Huawei is playing in everything, and all the exotica about digital espionage, mass surveillance and the coming “internet of things” we’re supposed to sort out, and what it all might mean for Canada’s national security. It’s a lot to digest. It doesn’t help, either, that every day the saga seems to take another dramatic twist.
