You have to be able to explain the decisions being made in this area.
Given the available proof, we are able to establish that there is industrial espionage, that there are threats to the private sector when we do business with China, and that there are links between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese state corporations. This allows us to better understand the reasons for Canada's reluctance in dealing with China, especially in highly strategic sectors.
I am not referring to clothing factories here. Rather, I'm talking about high-risk sectors, such as high tech and mining. That is where we have to reduce our vulnerability, and not only Canada. This is what China is trying to do, attack the smaller players. That is precisely what it did to Australia to make it pay, knowing that Australia could not inflict the same damage as the United States.
The way to get out of this situation is to have common positions, and that is what Canada has to work on. Canada has to reduce its vulnerability, but do so by establishing ties with other countries who have a similar vision with regards to the situation, in order to reduce the burden and limit possible costs for the Canadian economy. I use the term “limit” because there will definitely be costs. However, the inverse would certainly be worse. It would be dangerous to continue to deal with China and to make our businesses, our citizens and our academic researchers vulnerable to espionage and intellectual property theft, for example.