A Canadian official told Canada's parliamentarians that authoritarian nations China and Russia think they are at war with the West, and that Canada should be prepared for it.
Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre recently testified during a House of Commons standing committee on national security about the threat posed by the said authoritarian nations, The Epoch Times reported.
Eyre noted how the said nations think they are at war with Canada and western democracies, adding that these are willing to initiate large-scale conflicts with them for their desired ends.
"We once again find ourselves in a chaotic and dangerous world where those with power, namely Russia and China, are determined to remake the world order to suit their own ends," Eyre said.
The Defense Staff said the authoritarian nations are not just looking for the survival of their regimes. Rather, they are looking to expand their regimes and are not unwilling to do what it takes to make that happen.
Per Eyre, China and Russia "do not differentiate between peace and war," and thus will "use all elements of national power" to achieve their national objectives. The official added that while the authoritarian nations' actions are often "just below the threshold of large-scale violent conflict,"they are very much "willing to cross that threshold."
Proof of this, per Eyre, is Russia's aggression against neighboring Ukraine.
Authoritarian Rulers Are Against Democratic Freedom
The Chief of Defence Staff official said the governments in these authoritarian nations believe that the biggest threat against their rule comes from the people they are ruling over, rather than external forces.
Thus, in order to maintain the image and idea that their authoritarian kind of leadership is the best there is, these authoritarian nations would instead attempt to attack democracies to smear them and make them look bad.
In Eyre's own words, these authoritarian governments "strive to destroy the social cohesion of liberal democracies and the credibility of our own institutions to ensure our model of government is seen as a failure."
The defence official then made a call, saying the international rule of law, which has served as a foundation of world stability and has allowed different nations to prosper, "needs to be defended."
Overreaching
Recent reports indicate that China kept policing Chinese citizens and dissidents in other countries using "overseas police stations."
To date, more than 50 such overseas police stations have been found operating in 30 different countries across five continents, including America. Chinese authorities use these stations to monitor and pressure Chinese citizens to return to China to face criminal proceedings.
Canadian officials are currently looking into the details revealed by the report to determine whether China has actually established and operated such a station in Canada.
