3 December 2009

How to deal with China

The following is excerpted from the 1 December 2009 edition of "Ottawa Citizen". The article was written by Charles Burton, a former diplomat at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, a professor of political science at Brock University and research associate of the Canadian International Council.

There is a high degree of consensus across all federal parties that Canada's priorities with regard to China are, first, to promote our prosperity through trade and investment between our countries and, second, to encourage high-quality Chinese immigrants to move to Canada.

We also want to collaborate with China in areas of mutual concern such as fair trade, environmental sustainability, limiting the spread of disease, respect for human rights, fighting transnational crime and dozens of other issues that arise in a rapidly globalizing world. There is little room for partisan disagreement on any of this.

Moreover, Canadians of all political stripes are concerned by reports of human rights abuses in China. Canadians stand for freedom of expression, the right to religious and political freedom and the right to private property free from expropriation through corrupt deals. Even a "sensitive" political initiative such as extending honorary Canadian citizenship to the Dalai Lama was passed unanimously in the House of Commons.

Internationally, China's support for repressive and dangerous regimes in Burma, Sudan, North Korea, Zimbabwe and other places is worrying, and Canada would like to convince China of the greater benefits of becoming a more responsible citizen in the international community.

So whoever forms the next government in Ottawa will likely continue to respect Canada's fundamental interests in its relations with China....

Beijing's standard response to Canadian concerns about human rights abuses is that China hopes to eventually become democratic with an impartial independent judiciary -- however, developmental and cultural factors make this impossible for the time being. But this line of argument wears thinner as the years go by and reports continue unabated of arbitrary arrest, torture and repression, including pervasive Internet censorship.

In 2006 the Conservatives suspended this dialogue because it was seen as ineffective in furthering human rights. An important consideration is that Ottawa's approach to Canadians' concerns over human rights in China may be correlated to our economic interests in China. If Canada is vocal on human rights, does this have a negative impact on our ability to sell Canadian products in China?

It is fair to conclude that "quiet diplomacy" with China has not benefited Canada economically. Over the decade since Canada began its annual secret Bilateral Human Rights Dialogue with Beijing as the primary mode of engaging China over human rights violations, Canada saw its share of Chinese imports drop by a third.

Our trade imbalance with China is a major cause for concern. In 2008 Canada exported to China to the value $10.1 billion, but imported $42.6. billion. So we have a huge merchandise trade deficit of about 4-to-1 with China.

In sharp contrast, Australia's trade imbalance with China has gone from 1.53-to-1 in 2004 to 1-to-1 today, thanks to 45-per-cent growth in Australia's exports to China over the past year, compared to only 19.5-per-cent growth in China's exports to Australia. Moreover, media reports last month said there are presently 130,000 Chinese students studying in Australia, compared to 42,000 studying in Canada.

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepares to visit Beijing..., we need a major re-boot of the way Canada engages China. Most of the younger Chinese diplomats in Canada have near fluency in our language, and many have graduate degrees from universities in Canada, the U.S., Austra