China not our ally
It’s not Question Period in China. Too bad no one told John Baird. Our new foreign minister, promoted for political adeptness in difficult portfolios, just turned in a staggeringly inept performance on his first major foreign trip. It wasn’t a problem that on Monday in Beijing he called his conversations with the Chinese government “warm, cordial and productive”. That’s the sort of bumph bureaucrats draft before and politicians sign off on after meetings even if they erupt into yelling or are so dull someone important falls asleep.