Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my views.
Just to give you a bit of background, I'm based in Tokyo. I've lived in Tokyo and I see China relations and Canada-China relations from Tokyo, but I've also spent five years in Hong Kong as well.
I'd like to start with a statement, and I think it's really important. The cardinal rule of diplomacy is never to make binary choices. I think this is really critical as we discuss Canada-China relations and how we move forward.
In 2021, according to a Statistics Canada report, all our agricultural product trade went up with China. That agricultural relationship and the export of other raw materials to China continues to deepen despite record unfavourable ratings. I think this is really important. It places us in a position of thinking about what the economic benefits are of a relationship with China and the realities of the politics.
Second, I think we have many challenges globally and regionally that we need to be thinking about in terms of our relations with China. Whether we're thinking about non-traditional security issues such as transnational diseases or whether we're thinking about environmental problems, China will be part of that solution. As a result, we need to find and build bridges.
Notwithstanding, I would like to focus on three specific areas that I think are really critical to thinking about Canada-China relations.
The first thing is China's broad intentions to weaken international institutions, redefine how we understand democracy, redefine how we understand human rights and redefine how we think about rule of law.
The second thing, I think importantly, is to look at the political influence campaigns within Canada that particularly target ethnic Chinese Canadians and how they influence our democracy and create challenges in terms of creating coherent, rational and fact-based policy to build a productive yet awkward coexistence with China.
Third, I think it is real important to clearly understand China's that intentions within the Indo-Pacific region are to reorganize the regional security architecture so that like-minded states like Japan, South Korea and Australia defer to Beijing's wishes before they consider their own priorities within the region.
With that, I think Canada has a deep interest in working with like-minded countries, whether it's the United States, Japan, Australia or South Korea, in strengthening collaboration on building a rules-based order, and that means working within the United Nations, working within the International Monetary Fund and working within the World Health Organization to ensure we have a rules-based, transparent process to protect this international system and protect middle powers, such as Canada, from a might-is-right approach to foreign policy.
On my second point, in terms of political influence campaigns within Canada—and Canada's not the only victim of this, of course; there are Australia and others as well—it's really critical that we not only protect our Chinese-Canadian citizens but also ensure that our Canadian businesses, as they interact with China, are thinking about Canadian interests. This means increasing transparency with regard to Chinese-language media, understanding who the owners are of those Chinese-language media resources and understanding and creating much more Chinese literacy in the ethnic Chinese community within Canada and in the Canadian community in general about the kinds of operations that the United Front Work Department is deploying in Canada to shape our political choices and shape our relations with China.
The third area that I think is really important is to understand the importance of a stronger, forward-leaning presence in the Indo-Pacific region that does support a rules-based order. About $5.5 trillion U.S. of trade goes through the South China Sea, the East China Sea and in and around Taiwan. Of that, about $25 billion of Canadian trade is moving in and out of the region. Any kind of friction within the region, a cross-strait contingency in which China pursues a reunification, will fundamentally affect both the regional economy and Canadian economic interests within the region.
It's critically important that we work with like-minded partners, such as Japan, the United States, South Korea and Australia, to engage in what we call “transit operations”, ensuring that maritime domain awareness is robust and identifies the challenges that the Chinese are making in terms of grey zone operations, lawfare operations, and of course the use of force.
It's critical that Canada continues to engage with China through key lines of co-operation, such as environmental co-operation, trade, thinking about non-traditional security co-operation on transnational diseases, piracy and illegal fishing, but at the same time we need to draw strong lines and encourage transparency at home and in our bilateral relations.
We need to increase the literacy of Canadians and Canadian politicians about what's happening with regard to China-Canadian relations and the broader Indo-Pacific region.