Why China matters

Why China matters

Speaking at Carleton University, David Mulroney, author of Middle Power, Middle Kingdom: What Canadians Need to Know About China in the 21st Century, listed three reasons why he thinks Canada should be taking China seriously, and why he hoped China would be discussed in the foreign policy debate later that evening.

“What we’re seeing in China now is an effort by Xi Jinping to make the bumpy road from nine per cent annual growth to six or five per cent — to bring China from a situation where the economy is driven by the state, thanks to massive investments in infrastructure, to one where consumer demand and Chinese households play a bigger role,” Mulroney said. “But doing that will be difficult and we’ve just seen evidence of that on the Shanghai stock exchange.”

Second, it’s important to look at China’s assertiveness in its region.

“Will China’s assertiveness undermine security in the Western Pacific, encouraging an arms race even larger than we’ve seen of late, a militarized Japan and an inevitable U.S. response that only hastens this downward spiral?” he asked. “If that’s happening, what role can Canada play? We’re focused on Syria and Ukraine. This occupies front-page news in Australia.”

He says there’s a role for Canada to play in lessening tension. “We have role to play but I’m not sure we’re going to play it.”

Finally, he said, Canada is losing ground with like-minded countries in discussing this topic.

“There’s a weakening of our ability to have a larger conversation with China about what we might expect,” he said. “We should be willing to embrace a new form of multilateralism that includes China and is about China, informed by our values and shaped by a pragmatic reading of our long-term interests. We should use the G7 or a G10 to talk about similar messages and approaches to China. We need to engage the Europeans who could, and should, be our closest allies but recently haven’t been.”