This book has several roots, the first planted more than forty years by a Canadian mentor who encouraged me as a newly minted PhD graduate from Princeton University to visit China to study the four modernizations and China’s future. A visit a decade later focused on the early stages of the transformation of Shenzhen and Pudong from rice paddies to the expanding global industrial and technology centres we know today. A series of academic and policy links in Beijing, Shanghai, and other centres were other roots planted in the past century.
Throughout these years, China was an object of friendly curiosity to most Canadians and proved to be an attractive market with complementary trade. China sought secure supplies of food and natural resources Canada produces in abundance, while Canada sought security of demand from Chinese customers. Canada’s relationships with China and the United States, as its overwhelmingly important trading partner and guarantor of its security, were managed separately. All of this began to change, however, as China grew to become the world’s second-largest economy, as the United States objected to unfair Chinese trade and investment practices, and as the US-China relationship deteriorated towards a mutually damaging cold war with a US strategy of containment and Chinese determination to fight back.
The challenge is to learn to live with China. At present Canada lacks a China strategy, and so is vulnerable to pressures generated by the US-China relationship that might not best serve Canada’s long-term interests. An example of such pressures is the current US administration’s push to ban Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei’s 5G technology from national mobile networks. The resulting political crisis has plunged our China relationship into a deep freeze and shone a spotlight on Canada’s strategic priority, which is to shed our collective ignorance about China and learn to live with it as it really is.
Many people and organizations have been helpful in writing this book. Ongoing and timely exchange and collaboration with University of British Columbia colleague Paul Evans have been particularly valuable. Former ambassador David Mulroney has also contributed a thoughtful and realistic approach to learning about and living with China. At the University of Toronto Press, Jennifer DiDomenico has been consistently encouraging. A number of colleagues at the Rotman School of Management have been partners in various capacities. Vice Dean Ken Corts and Hai Lu, Professor of Accounting, have been significant partners in developing the China Initiative at the Rotman School. Critical inputs and perspectives have come from colleagues Bernardo Blum, Loren Brandt, Daniel Trefler, and participants from around the university and beyond in the quarterly China Research Workshops. Walid Hejazi played diverse roles as a colleague and in executing two Canada-China Business Surveys that provided insightful information on the business dimension of the bilateral relationship. Special thanks go to Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada China Business Council.
Colleagues in my international networks have also been valuable collaborators and critics. They include Peter Petri at Brandeis University, Shiro Armstrong at Australian National University, David Atnip at Gold Sands in Shanghai, Mary Boyd in Shanghai, and members of the sixteen-country Pacific Trade and Development network, whose International Steering Committee I chaired between 2013 and 2018. Participation in the International Finance Forum in Beijing and in Harvard University’s Asia Vision 21 conferences, the Asia Global Institute in Hong Kong, and Ditchley Park seminars in England have also been useful sources of information and collaboration. Colleagues at Peking University’s National School of Development and at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC, also engaged with me on intellectual and political questions. Participants in the Ottawa-based Public Policy Forum’s 2018 project focused on a China strategy for Canada in 2018 offered timely Canadian perspectives. Thanks also go to three anonymous reviewers who provided critical and insightful comments.
Finally, very special thanks to Barry Norris, the talented editor of this and previous volumes. Despite an unfortunate arm fracture on my part just as final editing began, support from Barry and from Danica Chin and Audrey Lake made it possible to keep the book on schedule for timely publication.