Our ‘values war’ with China
Canada and like- minded Western-style democracies are engaged in a “values war” with China, “whether we like it or not,” according to report released on Monday by an association of U. K. Conservative MPS known as the China Research Group.
The report, written by veteran British diplomat Charles Parton, makes clear that the U. K. needs a new structure to deal with China – something that is patently true of Canada too.
When François- Philippe Champagne was appointed global affairs minister last year, he was briefed by his department that Beijing has “demonstrated readiness and ability to use aggressive political and economic measures to punish Canada … and to propagate norms of international relations inimical to Canada’s interests.”
A review of the existing “comprehensive engagement” policy was set in motion, with the minister promising a new prism through which to view the relationship by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, our man in Beijing, Dominic Barton, appears to have a quite different mandate from the prime minister. The former managing director of Mckinsey & Co. was charged with restoring relations with China and deepen person- to- person relationships. “We need to do more in China,” he told an economic policy forum in September — a sentiment that sounds hopelessly out of sync with Canada’s foreign policy professionals.
Let’s hope the new Canadian framework that emerges is more coordinated than the policy potpourri that prevails at the moment.
Parton’s paper says that, in Xi Jinping’s view, Western-style democracies undermine the Communist Party leadership, prompting a struggle to ensure that socialism with Chinese characteristics assumes a dominant position over capitalism.
Yet instead of “decoupling,” the buzzword for disentangling economies into two separate blocs, Parton advocates a “divergence” that maximizes cooperation where interests overlap but severs links where they do not.
He makes specific recommendations that should be looked at closely by Canadian policy- makers, including creating a watchdog office similar to one that already exists in Australia, with the goal of countering foreign influence and interference across business, politics and academia.
Canada is certainly not immune from China’s interference. This country’s National Security and Intelligence Committee said in its March report that China and Russia “target ethnocultural communities, seek to corrupt the political process, manipulate the media and pose a significant threat to the rights and freedoms of Canadians.”
David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador in Beijing, said new machinery aimed at countering foreign interference could prove useful, if there was sufficient political buy-in.
Another of Parton’s recommendations is aimed at foiling “elite capture,” the practice of offering ex- ministers and former senior public servants “life- changing amounts of money” to work for companies or entities that benefit foreign powers.
Anecdotal evidence suggests similar practices are perpetrated here. Mulroney said Canada should require people leaving government to be transparent about whose interests they represent — for life, if they were senior enough.
“We need to take it seriously and we haven’t been,” he said.
Parton was also concerned about technology co- operation between universities and companies in the West with their Chinese counterparts. “Greater authority is needed to prevent the risk of developing dual use technology that might potentially strengthen a hostile state,” he said.
Mulroney said the Canadian government also needs to work more closely with its universities. “The Chinese strategy is to gather information in bite- sized portions. Each small contract might seem anodyne on its own but when you connect the dots, you can see that a lot of information is being hoovered up,” he said.
Mulroney said he agreed with Parton about the need for a more thoughtful relationship than the “diplomacy on autopilot” that has characterized the comprehensive engagement strategy.
But he was less convinced about Parton’s recommendation that the U. K. and like- minded countries should tell the Chinese that they will break off diplomatic and trade relations, if China invades Taiwan.
“The Chinese would risk everything to secure Taiwan,” said Mulroney. “They realize they will be outcasts but I don’t think that would be enough to stop them.
“The most important thing we can do is show solidarity and step up our engagement with Taiwan,” such as recent efforts by the Royal Canadian Navy to ensure the freedom of navigation by sending the frigate HMCS Ottawa through the sensitive Taiwan Strait in September, he said.
Parton concluded his report by quoting former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, who said the Communist Party “despises and takes advantage of weakness, while it respects strength.”
Canada’s China policy under the Trudeau government has been characterized by weakness and the Chinese have capitalized.
Whatever specific policies are adopted in Canada’s new framework, it is past time for a new tougher Canadian strategy that dumps the Mckinsey sales pitch about opportunities in a fast- recovering China and explicitly recognizes the values war that we have been pitched into by the Chinese.