After decades of bowing at the altar of Beijing, Ottawa it seems has finally found some spine to stand up to the big red dragon.

Predictably, the dragon is upset and irritated at the tough-speak of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and is reportedly contemplating some retaliation.

So what?

The Conservative government, led by Harper has produced a refreshing change from the impotent ambiguity displayed by the Liberals, who caught a cold when China sneezed.

For years, China trade was the yardstick used by the Liberals to measure any action or reaction against China. Not anymore says Harper and we congratulate him.

“I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide. . . . but I don’t think Canadians want us to sell out our  values, our beliefs in democracy, freedom and human rights. They don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar,” he said.

You could not be more right Mr Prime Minister.

China has for years used the Liberal government and its cronies to get what it wants in Canada.

Here at The Asian Pacific Post, we have been in the forefront of documenting the abuses, industrial espionage and other unsavoury activities directly orchestrated by Beijing.

The Liberals closed their eyes when it came to Chinese agents tracking Falun Gong followers in Canada and planning retaliatory actions against their families at home.

They desperately tried to hush up Project Sidewinder, which was trying to alert the Canadian government to a Chinese military intelligence apparatus that sets up businessmen, gangsters and diplomats overseas as part of an elaborate spy network – something the Conservative government has spoken publicly about since taking power.

Today intelligence agents in the US and Canada has warned lawmakers that China has more than 3,000 “front” companies, including about 500 in Canada whose real purpose is to direct espionage efforts.

The Liberals only demanded an apology and got a muted one after the media exposed two companies in Vancouver whose jobs were to help facilitate the covert entry of China’s secret police into Vancouver by hoodwinking the Canadian government into believing they were government executives.

The list goes on and on. Even today, the Liberals while languishing in the opposition benches are keeping to their wimpy policies.

Take the case of Huseyin Celil, a Chinese-born Muslim, who moved to Canada in 2001 and is now a dual citizen. He was arrested in Uzbekistan last March, extradited to China, and is now serving a 15-year prison term for terrorism-related offences. Because China does not recognize dual citizenship, it has refused Canadian consular officials any chance to meet with Celil.

Liberal foreign-affairs critic Dan McTeague has all along been saying he was “concerned that the requests for consular access to Celil  have not been made at the highest level ... I don’t think the prime minister himself has spoken to his equivalent to ensure that basic consular access is given.”

When Harper spoke directly to the issue “at the highest level”, McTeague flip-flops saying “It’s important that the two countries get together, but it requires a deal of mutual respect which clearly isn’t forthcoming from Mr. Harper ... Mr. Harper, having absolutely no background ... has simply taken those important relationships which reflect our cultural dynamics and thrown them in the waste bin.”

If anything, the so-called “waste bin” has been filled by the Liberals who threw out the values we cherish as Canadians when it came to dealing with China.

For the Liberals, trade with China and the money it brought was the most important thing and everything else fell by the wayside.

At least with Harper, it is not the only thing.