As Washington’s increasing hostility towards Canada has given way to a new anti-US nationalism, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) instead appears to be following the US to an eventual —and avoidable—war with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The CAF deployed 600 personnel, a warship, a maritime helicopter, and three warplanes to Australia on July 13 to participate in the Talisman Sabre war exercise, which will run until August 4. Talisman Sabre is a biennial, massive-scale joint military exercise seemingly designed to flex member countries’ military might against superpowers like the PRC as global tensions rise. Australia and the US have been running the Talisman Sabre exercise every other year since 2005, but this year’s is set to be the largest yet – representing a grand total of 19 countries and 35,000 personnel, running from July 13 to August 4.
Advocacy groups including the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) and Friends of the Earth Australia have condemned the exercise for flaming military tensions in the South China Sea, threatening the sovereignty of Pacific nations, and bolstering harms to human health and the environment.
“At this time of global health and climate crisis, there is no justification for ongoing investment in war
or increased military activity,” IPAN director Annette Brownlie stated in a media release regarding Talisman Sabre 2021.
Friends of the Earth Australia has noted that Talisman Sabre stopped engaging with public environmental reports as of 2021, and that existing previous reports have utilized loopholes and lack complete and accountable reporting.
A page on Australia’s official Department of Defence website notes that an environmental management group will be present onsite for the duration of the exercise, but does not mention engagement with a public report. Australian media contacts for Talisman Sabre and the Australian Defence Forces did not respond to queries on the environmental management group’s name or affiliation, nor whether Talisman Sabre 2025 will engage with a public environmental report.
Following the US to war
Major news outlets have already identified China as the chief object of the war exercises, although official spokespersons fall just short of saying so explicitly. Army Maj. Gen. Joseph A. Ryan told the US Department of Defence News in 2023 that the exercise is meant to deter aggression and bad acting from “some other nations” in the Pacific region, while those Pacific countries that have been invited to participate are allied on the basis of shared “values” and “culture” — a category that, this year, includes India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand.
What are those shared values and culture? Participating countries have, at least, been united in following the US’ military provocations of the PRC. The Australian Defence Forces, which nominally co-lead Talisman Sabre, have been historically pressured by the US to back the American military’s Freedom of Navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea, a move to dispute the PRC’s territorial claim over the maritime space, which overlaps with claims of Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Such large-scale military operations as those on display under Talisman Sabre would constitute a gross and wholly avoidable escalation of current tensions in the South China Sea, as former Australian Ambassador to the Philippines and to South Korea, Mack Williams, wrote in 2017. The US’ FONOP program in the South China Sea has been systematically proven ineffective and even counter-productive, serving only to provoke Chinese hostility, precluding diplomatic engagement.
What is Canada up to?
Meanwhile Canada, far from the anti-Americanism it has been boasting as of late, has continued to follow the US’ lead in military hostility towards the PRC.
CAF spokesperson Graeme Scott declined to confirm explicitly whether the PRC is a chief object in Canada’s participation, but instead directed the question of Canada’s involvement towards its Indo-Pacific Strategy. That policy, released in 2022, likewise condemned the PRC’s claim over the South China Sea, going on to define the Chinese state as an emerging global super power that threatens to reshape the international order in a way that does not align with the “interests and values” of Canada.
A more recent statement that Canadian and Australian Defence forces jointly released last August, reaffirmed Canada’s condemnation of the PRC’s claim over the South China Sea. Although the statement applauded the Phillipines’ diplomatic engagement and efforts to de-escalation of the issue, it went on to note that Australia invites Canada to increase its military presence throughout the Pacific, and includes Canada’s invitation to Talisman Sabre 2025. The statement cites the countries’ “shared history, values and friendship” as a basis for strengthening the countries’ military alliance.
Will Canada free itself from US pressure to be hard-on-Beijing in the wake of Washington’s hostility? Some within France’s parliament have called on the EU to do so and pursue closer trade relations with China, although the proposition is still controversial within France. Those same calls have started to come out from Canadian commentators as well.
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