MILLENNIALS AREN’T ALL OBSESSED WITH ‘WANTS’
There are many among us who have social conscience, writes Melody Ma.
Millennials get a lot of flak from media and critics. As a millennial, I am constantly bombarded with news articles telling me that my peers and I are entitled, narcissistic, and lazy snowflakes. At the same time, we are said to be non-materialistic experience-seekers, and socially conscious purpose workers.
Millennials grew up mostly in American hegemonic peacetime, with the exceptions being 9/11 and the 2008 financial fallout. Now with the world order unravelling, Western powers becoming more isolationist, and the rise of China as a new superpower, how do Canadian millennials want their politicians to represent them on the world stage, especially when it comes to foreign affairs with Asia? Are we narcissists who only care about our economic prosperity when our governments deal with the East on our behalf? Or do our socially conscious virtues dominate because we, as the cliche goes, “want to make the world a better place?”
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walked away from trade negotiations with China emptyhanded. Critics point out that the Canadian government wanted to include topics that “annoyed” China, specifically on the environment, human rights, labour and gender issues.
On Dec. 8, The Vancouver Sun published an op-ed written by Justin Kwan, a post-doctoral fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation, a non-profit think-tank. His thesis is that in this so-called “Asian Century,” Canadian millennials want the “older generation” politicians and bureaucrats who are speaking for them “(to take) a step back from the values-driven foreign policy of previous eras and toward a recognition of the practical economic necessity of trading with countries such as China.”
Kwan’s hypothesis stems from a poll and a series of anecdotal interviews of Vancouver millennials by the Asia Pacific Foundation that concluded that millennials take “a very pragmatic approach to engaging Asia.” He interprets the sentiment to mean that millennials want economic prosperity to be prioritized over other values, which I presume also includes human rights, when dealing with Asia. Indirectly, Kwan is essentially suggesting that Trudeau should just drop the “value-based” topics Canada wanted in favour of successful trade talks with China.
It is true that, economically, Canada needs the trade agreement with China more than vice versa, simply due to the sheer size of the market that China’s large population can offer to Canadian companies. But does the pursuit of economic growth justify turning a blind eye to what is just?
Kwan says millennials are more connected to Asia than ever before, but that in this “globalized and digitally connected world, Canadian youth need more dialogue with our counterparts in Asia.”
If we engaged in an open, honest dialogue with our peers in Asia, what would they say to us? They would probably tell us about the nuclear threat and human rights violations of the North Korean regime, the Rohingya persecution in Myanmar, and the Philippines’ “war on drugs” without due process, among many more atrocities. Perhaps our peers in China will tell us about the state’s suppression of their free speech and assembly, state censorship of the press and internet, Hong Kong democracy conflict, repression of Tibetans and Uighurs, repression of certain religions, discrimination against homosexuals, forceful displacement of rural migrants, questionable labour practices, poor environmental conditions, and other human rights violations. The pro-democracy Umbrella Protest of Hong Kong is a prime example of millennials rising up, speaking to the world, appealing for solidarity with those who are sympathetic, including their peers from democratic Western nations. Such events remind us in Canada that we have the luxury to enjoy basic rights that many of our peers struggle for in their nations.
We don’t have the details of what values Trudeau was negotiating for with China, but one could guess that they would address any of the aforementioned issues likely with a focus on those that affect labour and commerce. Trudeau has largely shied away from controversial foreign issues so far by choosing to stay silent rather than take action or make any public proclamations. At a time when world leadership is weak, if Trudeau wants to live up his reputation abroad as a champion of anti-Trump values, he will need to act on it.
This means that “valuesdriven foreign policy” may have to trump “practical economic necessity” in trade negotiation situations with countries like China. In fact, insisting on “values-driven foreign policy” may lead to bilateral economic prosperity, so that competition between companies is equitable and labour standards are raised for people in all nations involved. How is it fair that in a globalized world, privileged millennials like Kwan and I who live in Canada, get to have our wants for economic prosperity outweigh the needs of millennials in some parts of Asia who are unjustly repressed and even prosecuted simply for who they are or what they believe? Striving for both economic prosperity and human rights should not be a zero-sum game.
Although Kwan unshyly professes that he is a “proud millennial,” he fails to recognize that millennials are not an age cohort with a singular set of views. When he rhetorically chastises the “older generation” on whether they are “ready to listen” to the younger generation’s views on relations with Asia, and argues that millennials want their economic outlook prioritized over human values, his statements only backfire and reinforce the dire stereotype that millennials are entitled narcissists. Or perhaps Kwan is merely parroting China’s position that “a free trade deal would be purely economic, and should not include talk of human rights.”
I have greater faith in millennials that our socially conscious values will prevail, which means working across generations to look out for the human needs of all of our peers on the other side of the Pacific, before our economic wants.
The pro-democracy Umbrella Protest of Hong Kong is a prime example of millennials rising up, speaking to the world, appealing for solidarity with those who are sympathetic, including their peers from democratic Western nations.