RCMP investigate “Chinese police stations”
The RCMP are investigating two alleged Chinese police stations disguised as benevolent organizations, one in Brossard and one in Montreal’s Chinatown. Both are run by a Brossard councillor who says they have no connection with the government of China.
This follows reports of alleged surveillance by China in Toronto and elsewhere in the world.
Ephraim 10:53 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
Maybe more people should read Robert Spalding’s books. Jordan Harbinger has a good podcast on the Chinese Social Credit system, if someone’s interested (as well as interviews with Spalding.)
We also should stop saying “China” when it’s the government and specify that it’s the CPC (Communist Party of China) and not the people of the country.
Kate 11:25 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
And here I was being careful to write “China” rather than “Chinese” because there are a lot of people and cultural things that are Chinese without being tied to the government of China.
But unfortunately, China (as a country) and the Party are pretty much synonymous, geopolitically, in this era.
Not my usual handle because I don't want to get arrested when I go back 13:10 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
Imperial China considered all Chinese people to be perpetual subjects, no matter where they were in the world. That’s why most 19th century Chinese migrants in North America still wore queues, which were legally mandated by the Qing dynasty as a symbol of submission to the foreign Manchu rulers (aka the Qing dynasty). After the revolution in 1911 people were free to cut them off because they were no longer subjected to extra-territorial policing by imperial forces.
For all its Marx-Leninist pretence, China under Xi Jinping is just a new dynastic order. It’s the empire reborn.
Ephraim 13:54 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
Specifying that it is the CPC makes it clear for others that it’s not the opinion of the people, but rather those who control them. Especially important in the news when they talk about Taiwan. They make it sound like they have consensus when in fact everyone is scared to say otherwise, or like in Russia, not given enough information to make an informed opinion.
Kate 13:57 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
Tangentially, I find it so odd that Manchu culture has simply fizzled out. Nobody speaks or writes the language any more. And yet they managed to dominate one of the biggest populations on the planet for a couple of centuries, not so long ago.
Not my usual handle: how does China (now, or how did it in the past) feel about people of Chinese heritage born elsewhere?
Meezly 16:11 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
The Manchurians had always been an ethnic minority to begin with the Han Chinese making up the majority of China’s population. I think everyone has seen or at least heard of The Last Emperor, Pu Yi and what happened with the Cultural Revolution.
For me, it’d be like saying I find it odd that there isn’t a French royal family. Or why aren’t there any French monarchists anymore?
jeather 16:20 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
There very much are French monarchists nowadays.
DeWolf 16:25 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
As Meezly said the Manchus were a very small group and when they formed the Qing dynasty, they gradually sinicized and assimilated into the Han Chinese population.
That said there are lots of ethnically Manchu people in their traditional homeland and some people still speak Manchu (though I think the last native speakers have probably all died at this point).
Meezly 17:32 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
Indeed, Kate did bring up an interesting point, did the Manchu culture die out? And in China, are Manchu people still discriminated against? This article sheds some interesting light: https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-jan-30-la-fg-china-manchu-20130131-story.html
“Courses in the Manchu language are now offered at Ethnic Minorities University in Beijing and at other schools around China. Because the Manchus have no separatist aspirations, they are considered a model minority by the Communist Party, and the government has encouraged some elementary schools in northeastern China, the heartland of old Manchuria, to offer the language so it doesn’t die out.
Nowadays, fewer than 100 people are believed to be native speakers of Manchu, the largest cluster of them in a single isolated village, Sanjiazi, in northeastern China.”
Meezly 17:44 on 2023-03-09 Permalink
I believe many staunch pro-China advocates consider the RCMP investigations part of a global Sinophobic smear campaign.
They regard also Chinese people who grew up in Western societies to be brainwashed by our Euro-centric education, so if we ever have any nuanced opinions on China’s policies, it’s almost always dismissed as our colonized way of thinking.
I assume the CCP feels the same way.
Chris 11:36 on 2023-03-10 Permalink
>Specifying that it is the CPC makes it clear for others that it’s not the opinion of the people, but rather those who control them.
It’s already clear. It’s the case even for democracies. If one sees a headline “Canada does such and such” no one thinks it’s the opinion of all or even most Canadians.