🇺🇸/🇨🇦THE USA LECTURED CANADA ON CHINA. BUT THEY BUILT THE GIANT. The United States has criticized Canada over a modest electric vehicle deal with China. 🇨🇳Yet the U.S. itself once stabbed a loyal ally in the back and handed everything over to that very same China. And, in less than two weeks, Trump will welcome a triumphant Xi to the White House—a leader emboldened by a hegemony he owes to a betrayal and a gift from the United States decades ago. Here is the story and lesson from history. 🇹🇼The U.S. abandonment of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1979 After Mao’s revolution in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled and took refuge on the island of Taiwan. The United States offered them unwavering support, signing a mutual defense treaty in 1954 and deploying troops there. They recognized only one legitimate government in China: Taiwan. Everything changed in 1979. In the midst of the Cold War, Washington sought to drive a wedge between the two major communist blocs—the USSR and China—fearing an alliance between them. They also chose to share their technology with China, believing that giving the country a taste of capitalism and its wealth would set it on the path to democracy. But China demanded a price for distancing itself from Moscow: abandoning Taiwan and formally recognizing Beijing. Washington terminated all its treaties with Taiwan, leaving it diplomatically and militarily isolated—with only a flimsy protective measure in place: a treaty obliging the U.S. to sell Taiwan defensive weapons, but without any formal promise to defend the island. Parallel with Canada The U.S. is disregarding its signature on the USMCA free trade agreement, attempting to circumvent—or even violate—its legal terms. Its persistent attacks challenging Canada’s sovereignty—such as the push to rename Lake Ontario—and equating Canada with China by threatening to target its currency demonstrate that its word and signature hold weight only as long as it sees sufficient benefit in honoring them. Long-term outlook regarding the break with Taiwan Ultimately, the U.S. lost its gamble; China has moved closer to Russia and is financing its war in Ukraine. Furthermore, having absorbed the mechanics of capitalism, China never democratized. Leveraging its massive population and tools provided by the U.S., it has emerged as a primary political, military, and economic rival. There is now near-unanimity among diplomatic, political, and economic experts in describing this decision as a monumental error: “Our assumption that trade would bring political freedom was naive. We underestimated the Communist Party’s ability to absorb global capitalism while strengthening its totalitarian control.” — Winston Lord, ambassador and architect, alongside Henry Kissinger, of the opening to China. “Allowing the massive transfer of industrial and scientific technologies to Beijing, while pretending to believe that China would remain a peaceful, secondary player, will go down in history as the worst act of self-sabotage ever committed by a superpower.” — Edward Luttwak, historian, political scientist, and grand strategy specialist. 🇨🇦🇺🇸If Washington’s word did not hold for Taiwan, why should Canada trust it now? #China #Trump #cdnpoli #uspoli