I'm John Batchel with my good colleagues, Charles Burton, the author of The Beaver and the Dragon,

and my co-host and friend Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang. We gather together to comment on a headline

at ABC News that is remarkably provocative, almost as if it has a smile on its face. The headline reads,

China urges Canada to break from U.S. influence as P.M. Carney visits Beijing.

A subtext.

China is hoping President Trump's economic and military actions against other countries

will weaken the U.S.-Canada relationship.

Charles, a very good day to you.

This is aspirational weakening.

However, there is reason to believe that Canada has projected an image of extreme

unhappiness with the U.S.

How should we read this headline? It looks both

witty and provocative. Is it something that weighs on Canada, or is everybody going to snort at

this? Good evening to you, Charles. Good evening. Well, I mean, it comes from an editorial in

the China Daily newspaper, which is the English language subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party's official organ, the People's Daily.

And it came out the day before Mr. Carney was to get on the airplane to China.

He's just arrived there.

The gist of it is that Justin Trudeau was in lockstep with the United States in

containing China and urging that Canada adopts strategic autonomy in its relations with China. And

if Canada does not adopt a strategic autonomy, then the relationship will not go forward.

And this is appealing, I guess, to the Canadian population because the Canadian government

is suggesting that the salvation to the Canadian economy from the Trump tariff policies and Mr. Trump's recent suggestion that

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