Charles Burton, an associate professor of Political Science at Brock, wrote a piece recently published in The Conversation about Canada’s need to rethink its approach to China in the midst of stalled trade talks.

Burton writes:

According to the Xinhua News Agency, a senior Chinese official had a favourable reception last month when he visited Ottawa to try to reframe the stalled trade talks with Canada.

China’s official state news agency said that Song Tao — who heads the Communist Party Central Committee’s International Liaison Department — briefed Canadian officials on Beijing’s plan to displace the United States as the world’s superpower.

It intends to do so by “building of a community with a shared future for mankind,” which Xinhua added is “not only important to China but bears profound interest for the rest of the world.”

If the Xinhua report is accurate, Canada is blithely considering a Chinese Communist proposal to sell out the liberal values that define global institutions like the United Nations and World Trade Organization in favour of a made-in-China model that will serve Beijing’s authoritarian nationalist aspirations.

It’s time to realize that decisions being made now are going to radically change the values of global diplomacy and justice for the next century or more.

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