Canada's in a bad way with China. Has the media prepared us to deal with the growing superpower?
On December 1st, Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wangzhou at the behest of the United States. Ten days later, China detained Canadian former diplomat Michael Kovrig, and a few days after that, we learned of another Canadian detained named Michael Spavor. Then, China dragged Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg out of a Chinese prison and re-tried him for drug smuggling charges for which he’d already been convicted. Fifteen years in prison was changed to a death sentence in a one-day trial with no jury.
With tensions rising, it may be more important than ever for Canadians to understand China. The Star Vancouver’s deputy bureau chief Joanna Chiu takes us through various forces standing in the way — a lack of understanding of Chinese media among English Canada, the misogynistic culture of the foreign press in Asia and government control over Chinese social media, even in Canada.
Plus, she talks about her team’s recent scoop that Karen Wang, the Liberal candidate for the Burnaby South byelection, attacked Jagmeet Singh for being of “Indian descent” on WeChat. Wang resigned after that story.
Correction: This post said Schellenberg was originally sentenced to fourteen years in prison. It was fifteen.
This episode is sponsored by FreshBooks, HelloFresh and Blinkist.
