PelhamToday received the following letter to the editor regarding James Culic's column Please, oh please, let me buy an electric vehicle from China
Comparing Canadian battery subsidies to Xi Jinping Thought is either sinister or naive. I assume Mr. Culic does not understand the true scale of CCP economic warfare.
For over 40 years, the Chinese Communist Party has gradually incorporated capitalist principles within their command economy. Under Xi Jinping, they have returned to much more government influence and control over major industries, from entertainment and construction, to critical minerals and manufacturing. If Canada applied the same rules and principles, we would need to nationalize our mining, metallurgy, energy and banking sectors. This would severely impact our future growth potential, all in order to build a $20k EV.
Remember: China lies about everything. They’ve overcounted their population by 100M people, the equivalent of Canada, California and Texas. They have enslaved an entire ethnicity in Xinjiang. They claim sovereignty over the South China Sea and Taiwan, at the expense of hundreds of millions of Filipinos, Vietnamese, Malaysians and Indonesians.
China has always believed itself the master of the planet, the Middle Kingdom between heaven and earth, and invulnerable to criticism. After a humiliating century, they have attempted to regain their status as global hegemon, and seizing control of the EV and renewable energy markets is part of that plan. The only way to maintain 5% annualized growth indefinitely is to monopolize critical industries and jack up the price once the competition is out of business.
Our 100% tariff is necessary, for if we become reliant on Chinese EVs, we will be powerless when the CCP inevitably flexes it might against its neighbours and seizes control of the Asian-Pacific economies. We must stand with our allies, and we must not fall for the alluringly low price of a BYD hatchback.
The fate of western liberal democracy depends upon it.
Sam Whittleton
Red Deer, Alberta
