Claws of the Panda
Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada is a book by John Manthorpe about Canada's foreign relations with the People's Republic of China and the influence of the Communist Party of China in Canada. Manthorpe argues that Canada and the PRC have a clash of values and that Canada has been a victim of multiple abuses by the PRC including spying, abductions, human rights abuses, intellectual property theft, and intimidating Chinese Canadians to influence Canadian policy. His thesis is that the PRC has been able to implement such policies for a number of years due to naivete by Canadian policy makers. In the book Manthorpe advocates for a change in Canadian foreign policy towards the PRC.
It was published around the same time as a period of strained relations between the two countries following the arrest of Huawei's deputy chair and CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada in December 2018 and two subsequent arrests of Canadian citizens in the PRC. Canada accused the PRC of arresting Kovrig and Spavor in retaliation for the Meng arrest.
The book is similar to the 2018 book Silent Invasion by Clive Hamilton about the influence of the PRC in Australia.
