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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Canada launches 58-nation initiative to stop arbitrary detentions

    OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Monday launched a 58-nation initiative to stop countries from detaining foreign citizens for diplomatic leverage, a practice that Ottawa and Washington say China and others are using.


    Foreign ministers signed a non-binding declaration to denounce what Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau called unacceptable behavior.


    “Taking people from their families and using them as bargaining chips is both illegal and immoral,” he said by phone, calling the effort the first of its kind.


    Other signatories include Japan, Britain, Australia and virtually all members of the 27-nation European Union.


    The declaration does not target any nation. Garneau said it was designed to increase diplomatic pressure on countries that detain foreigners as well as others who might want to do so.


    But a Canadian official said the initiative had been sparked by concern over arrests of foreigners by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.


    Even before the declaration was formally released, the Global Times, a Chinese state-backed newspaper, cited unnamed experts as saying the initiative was “an aggressive and ill-considered attack designed to provoke China”.


    Ottawa is locked in a dispute with Beijing, which detained two Canadians in 2018 after Vancouver police picked up a senior Huawei Technologies Co Ltd executive on a U.S. warrant. Canada denounces what it calls “hostage diplomacy” while China insists the two cases are not linked.


    Among the signatories is the United States. Last week the State Department called for the release of the two Canadians and rejected China’s “use of coercion as a political tool”.


    The Canadian official said the declaration could help put pressure on Beijing.


    “We want to make them feel a little uncomfortable. We want them to know that a lot of countries think this practice is unacceptable and hopefully over time it does contribute to a change in behavior,” said the official, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.


    Last December the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee called on the government to declare Iran’s “arbitrary detention of foreign nationals” as hostage-taking.


    British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to five years after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment.


    The Canadian initiative was started last year by Francois-Philippe Champagne, Garneau’s predecessor. Champagne, now innovation minister, said by working together nations could better focus attention on the detainees.


    “Their liberty may have been stolen but their voices won’t be silenced,” he said by phone.

    Canada launches 58-nation initiative to stop arbitrary detentions | Reuters

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The chinkies use this as a tool to try and get their criminals out of jail.

    The simple answer is to arbitrarily arrest a rich and influential chinky on made up charges (possession of knock off Ray Ban sunglasses or something) in response to every foreigner the chinkies arbitrarily arrest.

    They'll get the message eventually.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Ottawa is locked in a dispute with Beijing, which detained two Canadians in 2018 after Vancouver police picked up a senior Huawei Technologies Co Ltd executive on a U.S. warrant.
    Mrs Ming Wenzhou, daughter of the founder of the company. She lives in one of her multi-million dollar Vancouver homes while the two Canadians, one a former diplomat, languish in a dark prison cell in Beijing. It's a long story but basically Citizen Trump complicated the case by using it as political leverage in his trade war with China.



    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau called unacceptable behavior.
    This is the Prime Minister speaking. Mr. Garneau like all of Trudeau's cabinet are muppets and serious yes people.



    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Even before the declaration was formally released, the Global Times, a Chinese state-backed newspaper, cited unnamed experts as saying the initiative was “an aggressive and ill-considered attack designed to provoke China”.
    No doubt that Canada will seriously be in for a rough ride. A very rough ride.



    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    “We want to make them feel a little uncomfortable
    That they will be, but nothing close to "a little". They shall be seriously pissed off and in the mood for vengeance. This is a plate that the Chinese don't much enjoy cold.

    I suppose the Canadians should be applauded for the move. I'm looking for a list of the 58 countries. I note the declaration is non-binding.



    A true diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a manner that you will be asking for directions.

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    I wonder which African nations joined the group of fifty-eight?

    I can't imagine any.

    South Africa?

    South American? Maybe Chile.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by russellsimpson View Post
    I wonder which African nations joined the group of fifty-eight?

    I can't imagine any.

    South Africa?

    South American? Maybe Chile.
    I can tell you the ones which won't: The ones with corrupt leaders trousering that filthy chinky lucre to hand over their citizens' minerals, wood, fish, pangolins or whatever else the scabby chinks want to mop up and send home.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by russellsimpson View Post
    This is the Prime Minister speaking. Mr. Garneau like all of Trudeau's cabinet are muppets and serious yes people.
    They're appointed by Trudeau, but why is he a 'yes-man' simply by agreeing to what is a serious issue? Why should China be given a free ride on everything simply because of its economic power and 'in-your-face' arrogance?


    Quote Originally Posted by russellsimpson View Post
    No doubt that Canada will seriously be in for a rough ride. A very rough ride.
    Welcome to the club that doesn't just swallow Chinese bullying. Xi is out of control, knowing full-well that he can wield his economic-power-shield to get most of what he wants and like a spoiled fat toddler he gets angry when he doesn't.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    They're appointed by Trudeau, but why is he a 'yes-man' simply by agreeing to what is a serious issue? Why should China be given a free ride on everything simply because of its economic power and 'in-your-face' arrogance?
    Something may have been lost in translation here. Mr. Garneau is not a yes man "by agreeing to what is a serious issue" but rather because he an empty brained twat. He's been to space and probably never did come back. I'm getting a bit caught up in Canadian internal politics here, something I follow closely, but shouldn't expect others outside Canada to have much knowledge of. So my bad. Apologies issued.

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by russellsimpson View Post
    Why should China be given a free ride on everything simply because of its economic power and 'in-your-face' arrogance?
    I'm a hawk on China PH. I've never thought China should be left off the hook for anything. That's been my feeling for several decades. Canada's challenge of the CCP didn't start with this of course.

    I predict this may be a signifant challenge to the Marxist Leninist republic.

    The man who put this together is the former Canadian Foreign Minister Francois Phillipe Champagne.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by russellsimpson View Post
    Canada's challenge of the CCP didn't start with this of course.
    No, it didn't . . . which is why I applaud Canada in some of its decisions vis-a-vis China.

    This topic so massive and has so many facets about it that it makes it difficult to create, let alone follow, a thread.


    Initially China was a pure manufacturing hub with a massive potential market . . . billions were invested by foreign companies wanting to take advantage of both.
    Jump a few decades to now and you have a belligerent leadership that has become very powerful because of others (and others' inaction on economic theft) and that has inflated their self-worth and independence.

    I look at the New Zealand situation and can only shake my head at the willingness/excitement of putting all their eggs in one basket due to China's size . . . and to the detriment of the local consumer.
    The happy jump into the breach of replacing vilified Australian products with their own, the much crowed-about ANZAC spirit be damned.

    Anyway . . . whether it's non-binding or binding, something has to be done - not necessarily Trump's way but at least he made a start to slap the economic bully.

    As Biden recently said:

    "China will eat out lunch..."

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Rather than open a new thread...

    The sentence of a British mother detained in Iran is due to come to an end today after nearly five years.

    British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 42, has been held in Iran since 2016, when she was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.

    She was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling to show her young daughter to her parents in April 2016.


    Sunday March 7 marks the day when her sentence is scheduled to come to an end.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe sentence scheduled to end after five years | Evening Standard


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