Canada-China Relations committee  No, we have to trade with China. I'm sorry if what I said was not clear. We do, but I think that we shouldn't get too ambitious about it and we shouldn't let the thing go too far. If you look at the nature of trade now, what we are selling China is what we were selling China in 1960.

Canada-China Relations committee  Well, I think that all we can do is shame them. There are, as you say, many previous public office holders who have found, in retirement, comfortable positions and arrangements with Beijing. I think that forums such as this and others need to make it plain to everyone that the People's Republic of China is not a friend of Canada and that people who court relationships with Beijing for one reason or another are in fact working against the interests of Canada.

Canada-China Relations committee  Well, I think that there ought to be some regulations over former office holders for a period of years anyway, and not only with the PRC. I think that makes sense from any number of perspectives.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think the immediate takeaway is probably fairly commonly held, and it is that Xi Jinping now has a very firm grip on the Communist Party and on the regime in Beijing. He has surrounded himself with his supporters and cronies. One important thing to notice is that he has buried this meritocracy that has grown up in the last 20 or 30 years, and has made the regime now simply a cadre of people who are his supporters.

Canada-China Relations committee  I don't know. My links with China watchers have come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories, and I have no idea. I'm not sure in the end that it's that important. It could have been a signal that times have changed, but it equally could have been that Hu Jintao was having a senior's moment and was just helped off.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think we have to recognize, as I said at the very beginning of my notes at the start, that we are entering a very critical period in world history wherein the position of China in the world is going to be of huge importance to our foreign policy. What I didn't have room or time to say is that we really need to focus our attention on building strong relationships with like-minded countries in Asia.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much. Our security services and our police services know very well what is going on. There needs to be some political encouragement for them to deal with what they know. As we already know, CSIS has gone around to Canadian universities and colleges and warned them about the Confucius Institutes that many had installed in their universities, which were paid for by Beijing.

Canada-China Relations committee  Let me just finish off by saying that I think our most important program at the moment should be to defend Canadians of Chinese, Uighur and Tibetan heritage from the attacks on them by the United Front and the Ministry of State Security in Canada. I will leave it at that and I'll happily answer questions later.

Canada-China Relations committee  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,. Thank you for inviting me to give my thoughts and answers to your questions on what is, I think, one of the most important foreign policy issues for Canada at this moment. As you may know, my book, Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada, was published within a few days of the start of the Huawei affair.