2014-15 Canada-China Business Forum Magazine | Page 14

POLICY

POLICY
CCBC Ad 2014 (modified).pdf 1 09/10/2014 2:33:55 PM

Foreign Minister John Baird just completed yet
another ministerial visit to China and Prime Minister
Stephen Harper is planning to make his third trip to
Beijing in November 2014 for the APEC Summit.
Although individual Canadians may be doing well in
China, Canada is not. Economic relations between
the two countries have plateaued. Chinese foreign
investment in Canada is slowing for several reasons,
some of them political.

WANT TO KNOW
HOW MUCH
CHINA HAS
INVESTED IN
CANADA?

The political relationship has moved a considerable
distance from the “cool politics, warm economics” of
the first three years of the Harper government. On
the surface, relations are cordial; underneath they are
conflicted. Eight years in, the Harper government has
still not adopted a Cabinet-approved China strategy.
The most recent effort failed earlier this summer
revealing open fissures in Cabinet and caucus.
The Conservatives’ China Policy combines elements
of major commercial aspirations especially in the
energy sector, a preference for facilitating transactions
rather than building relationships, a belief in a smaller
governmental role, ideological anti-communism,
antipathy for the Chinese Communist Party and
ambivalence about China’s emerging role in the
world.

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CMY

Business leaders, Canada-watchers and officials in
Beijing remain puzzled about the approach of the
Harper government. They are asking what is its longterm strategy, why is it half-hearted in pursuing China
and why is it not addressing the growing anxiety in
parts of Canada ab