A Trudeau-appointed senator called on Canadians to wish China well and to hope that it will succeed economically.
“We should signal clearly to the Chinese leadership that we want China to succeed in its economic aspirations,” said Senator Yuen Pau Woo.
“This appears to me to be a difficult thing for Canada to say in the current context, but in a different world in a different time this would have been what one would call a diplomatic no-brainer.”
Woo made the statement during a speech at the Canada-China Friendship Society. The group is known to have ties to Beijing through the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and in 2015, it was endorsed by the Chinese embassy in Canada.
During the event, a moderator for the group also suggested that the United States was “using Canada” and holding the country hostage for requesting the extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.
“Is Canada really being held hostage by China or are we being held hostage by the USA which is using Canada? It’s really a very tragic situation,” said the unnamed moderator.
Woo has also tweeted in support of Huawei in the past. In 2017, he thanked the company for “supporting next generation engineering and IT stars.”
In another instance, in speech to Chinese alumni in 2019, Woo stated that people should be “praying every night” for China’s success so that it doesn’t meet the same fate as the Soviet Union
“There are of course many critics who believe the People’s Republic of China will meet the same fate as the USSR. Indeed, some are counting on it to happen and trying to accelerate the process,” said Woo.
“But with a Chinese economy that is already larger than that of the US in purchasing power terms, and the Chinese market serving as the number one destination for exports from over 120 countries, we should be hoping and praying every night that China does not implode.”
