Kathleen Wynne in China: Cohn
Like world explorers before her, Premier Kathleen Wynne has discovered the two faces of China — yin and yang — by which opposing forces coexist.
Chinese interpreter chats with Premier Kathleen Wynne as she tours the Great Wall of China on Saturday.
Like world explorers and exporters before her, Premier Kathleen Wynne has discovered the two faces of China — yin and yang — by which opposing forces coexist.
On her first official trip as premier, Wynne merited an upbeat article in the officialChina Daily hailing the blossoming relationship between the world’s most populous nation and Canada’s biggest province.
The very next day, China Daily turned downcast, lamenting how relations between China and Canada’s biggest city were wilting on the vine.
How did the sweetness and light sour overnight? Relations with China, like yin and yang, can be as complex as they are complicated.
While Wynne was warming bilateral ties, Ontario’s biggest school network was cooling things off. The Toronto District School Board voted last week to cancel a deal with China’s government-funded Confucius Institute to teach mandarin in Toronto’s schools (amid concerns over self-censorship).
Hence the hurt in China Daily:
“The Chinese side said it deeply regretted the unfounded suspicions and opposition,” the newspaper noted. “Bashers indulged in wild fantasy … (and) have a deep bias against China.”
Unfortunately for the premier, hostilities between the TDSB and China culminated just as she was cultivating friendly relations. Tensions over Hong Kong also surfaced on the eve of her trip, requiring Wynne to reiterate her public support for free speech and human rights.
Happily for the premier, Beijing kept its powder relatively dry over Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. The simmering conflict never boiled over during her week-long travels across the mainland.
It’s hardly unusual for Western governments to cosy up to China on trade matters while distancing themselves on political issues. For better or for worse, yin and yang is par for the course — and part of the public discourse.
China is always a balancing act for Western politicians. That’s the business of politics and the politics of business in an interconnected world where China is now an economic and political superpower.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was no less conflicted over China when he won power in 2006. But he soon acquiesced to pressure from Canadian business to stop squandering trade opportunities deftly exploited by the rest of the West.
Despite the occasional awkwardness of breaking bread with a regime that is cracking heads, the trade must go on. The balancing act isn’t just economic versus political, but rebalancing imports and exports if we are to reduce our whopping trade deficit.
After years of neglect, Harper is making up for lost time, following in Wynne’s wake with his third trip next week. Trade officials speak passionately about the importance of personal relationships and networking (what the Chinese call guanxi) in fostering deals.
But that’s a 1970s view of what drives China’s present-day economic growth and dynamic trading patterns. For all the trade missions by prime ministers and premiersof the past, Canada and Ontario are still lagging badly.
Compare our trade to the unrivalled links between Taiwan and the mainland — achieved without the help of official trade missions or political guanxi. No amount of government handholding can make up for any excess of timidity, lack of quality, or absence of competitiveness among Canadian exporters. The enduring success stories are companies with financial muscle and political moxy such as Manulife and Sun Life, who seek out local business partners rather than relying on government handholding.
China is now in the economic big leagues. It’s an outdated conceit that Communist Party officials will redirect business our way because they have a soft spot for Canadian politicians — or fond memories of wartime doctor Norman Bethune dating from the 1930s.
In the grand tradition of trade missions, Wynne proclaimed that her visit had sealed deals worth nearly $1 billion, creating 1,800 jobs across Ontario. In truth, the spade work was done long before the premier’s visit, and the followup work will continue for years to come.
Foreign trips do no harm, it’s just unclear how much they help. The only certainty about such foreign export-promotion trips is that they promote politicians’ domestic standing with voters of foreign descent — notably the 700,000 Ontarians with Chinese roots here at home.
Like yin and yang, the benefits accrue both at home and abroad.
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