Lessons of Trudeau's timidity should be heeded

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he would resign as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and prime minister. He will continue to serve as prime minister for a period of time before the Liberal Party elects a new leader.

Trudeau admitted that he was unable to perform the duties of prime minister while dealing with the internal struggles in the party. After 10 years in power, Canada, under the government of the once-rising star of Western politics, is now facing internal and external troubles.

There is no doubt that Trudeau's weakness in facing the tariff threats of the US president-elect against Canada is the direct cause of his resignation, although migrant issues, inflation and some controversial domestic policies have also fueled doubts about his leadership at home.

Last month, Chrystia Freeland, who served as Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister for more than four years, suddenly announced her resignation because she believed that Trudeau's weakness toward the United States would ruin Canada's future.

Polls show that the Liberal Party is 20 percentage points behind the opposition Conservative Party. Trudeau's position as prime minister has long been shaky, and his voluntary resignation can at least save some face. He would never have thought that the US, which he has tried hard to please for a decade, would be his undoing.

During the first term of the Donald Trump administration, the Trudeau government did a lot of dirty jobs for it, including the political kidnapping of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou.

Although the next prime minister of the Liberal Party might not see enough immediate reasons to overhaul the country's China policy that has largely been formed during the Trudeau government's tenure, he or she should realize if Canada resolutely defends its interest in the face of the next US administration's tariff threats, Trudeau's China policy will naturally expire as it was originally made to curry favor with the US, although it ultimately failed to achieve that end.

And if he or she still chooses to be submissive to the US side, even facing Washington's open slight on Canada's sovereignty as an independent country, it will only be for a short while, as in so doing the Liberal Party will surrender its ruling party status to the Conservatives.

So no matter who of which party becomes prime minister, he or she will have to make a choice, not between China and the US, but between upholding Canada's strategic autonomy or not. Trudeau's failure proves which is the correct choice to best meet Canada's interest.

The US never regards its allies as reliable partners. A lesson Japan has just learned as well after Nippon Steel's bid to purchase US Steel was blocked by the Joe Biden administration on the spurious grounds of national security.

Being an enemy of the US is potentially dangerous, but being its ally is harmful in actuality.

- Li Yang, China Daily