Topic:

What Remains of the Middle Power: Canada and China in the Era of America First

Speakers:

Professor Paul Evans, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia

Date & Time:

Friday, 17 January 2025
3.30PM – 5.00PM (Singapore Time)

Video recording:

Please click on https://youtu.be/RLRIXYu-6NU?si=XvcIkBlHfYXRY-Kc or visit https://www.youtube.com/EastAsianInstituteNUS.

Abstract:

Over the past six years, Canada’s approach to China has shifted dramatically as seen in public and elite attitudes, the framing of its Indo-Pacific strategy, decline in two-way investment, increase in concerns pertaining to foreign interference, stronger support for Taiwan and worries about China’s presence in the Arctic.

Alignment with the Biden administration’s China policy, including on research and technology restrictions, became steadily closer.The incoming administration poses a challenge of a different magnitude, especially with respect to trade, tariffs and multilateral organisations.

The lecture will attempt to answer these questions: What are Canada’s options? What is left of Middle Power aspirations in an era of deepening geopolitical competition and a palpable fear of a rising China and Trump’s America?

About the Speaker:

Paul Evans is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia (UBC).  He was the former HSBC Chair in Asian Research at UBC and co-CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.  His recent writings have focused on the challenges facing Canadian universities in regulating research collaborations with Chinese partners, and the history of Canadian support for track-two dialogues on cooperative security in the Asia Pacific era.[