Officials at Global Affairs Canada fought to keep Canada's interactions with the Chinese People's Liberation Army in fears of upsetting China.
According to reporting by Robert Fife, Global Affairs (GA) thought that the decision to cut back on interactions—a decision made the General Jonathan Vance—out of fear that the Chinese would see it as a reprimand for arbitrarily arresting Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor (Canada's two Michaels.)
Documents show that the United States was concerned about Canada's involvement with the PLA, which prompted Gen. Vance to cancel the interactions, though Canada did participate in the 2019 Wuhan Military World Games.
“Should Canada make any significant reductions in its military engagement with China, China will likely read this as a retaliatory move related to the Meng Wanzhou case,” a 2019 memo reads.
“We understand that [this cancellation] was driven principally by concerns voiced by the U.S. that the training could result in unintended and undesired knowledge transfer to the PLA,” the continues, according to The Globe.
“Unilateral decisions to postpone and/or cancel previously agreed DND/CAF co-operation with the PLA risk being interpreted by China or others in an unintended (and unhelpful) way. [This] could also damage Canada’s long-term defence and security relationship with China,” it continues.
The cold weather training's cancellation by the Canadian Armed Forces sparked an angry response from Trudeau, who "demanded that Canada's military not cancel any more engagements with the PLA without explicit permission first, and that the news of the cancellation had to be told to the PLA gently," according to Rebel News.
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