China sentences Canadian man to death in drug case linked to Huawei row

Post by ardy42 » Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 3:17 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #89

3pt14159 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either China is doing this so they can have something to retreat on that seems gracious and careful (i.e., it's a complete ploy) or they're completely misreading Canadian sentiment. Canadians tend to give and give and bend and bend, but it really comes to it they snap in a way that I don't think the Chinese understand. We have way more leverage over China than they have over us. We sell them commodities. They sell us…

This almost certainly has nothing to do with changing Canadian behavior, it's about domestic politics. Canada/USA kicked one of ours, so we're going to kick 20 of theirs. They need to be seen to be doing it. The fact that it won't work and is counterproductive doesn't matter.

Post by rebuilder » Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 3:17 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #65

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #46

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That is a very uncommon opinion.

Is it really? It seems pretty widely accepted that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime, for example, which indicates that people (well, potential criminals, anyway) don’t see it as substantially worse than a lengthy prison term.

Post by learc83 » Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 3:20 PM UTC

yorwba wrote: post #93

gpm wrote: post #47

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He was a convicted drug dealer, that's little comfort when other people like the random teacher [0] and entrepreneur [1] they arrested were not. [0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-sarah-mciver-detained... [1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-officials-meet-wit...

According to your link, the teacher was employed illegally. It's common for students and other people without work permits to be offered positions as English teachers where the only requirement is being born in North America. The employers usually gloss over the illegality or claim that the laws are not enforced. That's been true in the past, but as that teacher had to learn, it can change anytime. So my generalized…

Post by mikeash » Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 3:23 PM UTC

foldr wrote: post #110

mikeash wrote: post #53

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Weird. I have never had a pleasant experience with US customs. They are usually not unpleasant either, but they’re never friendly or even more than vaguely polite. (I say “usually” because my wife was once told off quite rudely when she went through the visitors line as a permanent resident, because she wanted to help and translate for visiting family members she was with.) The worst part of the experience is knowing…

I've been through many times as white British person (both as a visitor and on various visas) and have never had a bad experience. I'm not denying that people do have bad experiences. But I find it kind of hard to believe that as a US citizen, you've never once had an experience of re-entering the country that didn't involve the customs agent asking you a couple of simple questions and then sending you on your way.

Post by chillacy » Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 3:23 PM UTC

fermienrico wrote: post #91

mdpopescu wrote: post #49

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Yeah, but it can be fought. I was never a nationalist, but I didn't realize how ingrained a lot of habits are until I started traveling through Europe. I've once read that "weirdoes start 10 miles from home" - well, it's not that bad but it's still amazing to realize that yes, people in different countries are still people.

I think it can be fought on an individualist level but difficult as it goes against the grain with political objectives and nationalist motifs. It’s so deeply engrained - see 1985 UN speech by Jiddu Krishnamurthy. It was a real eye-opener but everyone goes back to normality the next day. Tribalism is very active and impossible to get rid of in my view unless something totally disruptive happens (Alien invasion at whi…