Evan Dyer, writing for the CBC, noted that there were just over 140,000 Chinese nationals studying in Canada before the pandemic hit. Waterloo's vice-president of research Charmaine Dean said her university's focus on science and engineering makes it naturally attractive to Chinese researchers, citing artificial intelligence and robotics as two areas of particularly strong cooperation.
CBC https://i.cbc.ca/1.5723951.1600121660!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/trudeau-20160114.jpg
In Atlantic Canada, Chinese nationals are undergraduate students at many universities. The revenue generated by these students for the universities has been very welcome. Recent political demonstrations on Canadian campuses beg the question of the role of these students in learning about the liberal democratic society in which they study and how they participate in democratic discussion and debate. A recent segment broadcast on CBC The National, in January 2022, showed that China is accused of harassing its critics in Canada and abroad.
China’s human rights record has come under increased scrutiny ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, but critics of the regime in Canada and elsewhere are accusing China of harassment and intimidation.1
Richard Fadden, who headed CSIS from 2009 to 2013 and was the first director to go public with concerns about influence campaigns by the Chinese Communist Party, said that if universities won't act on their own, the government should block off whole areas of research rather than trying to vet thousands of individuals.
Fadden said he disputes the claim that the agency he once headed hasn't provided guidance and advice to universities. He also said that if universities won't act on their own, the government should block off whole areas of research rather than trying to vet thousands of individuals. "I think we're a bit bonkers in that we don't really restrict the areas in which Chinese students can study," he said. While Fadden said that "we mustn't go down the rabbit hole" of suspecting every Chinese student coming to Canada of working for Chinese state security — and that it would be a mistake to consider China the only problem nation — he does view Beijing as the most active and aggressive state player in the acquisition of other countries' intellectual property and technical secrets.2
Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and is vice president and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, writing for CBC News Opinion, argues that democracies must demonstrate that their system best protects health and liberty.
We were engineers to the American architects during the post-war reconstruction, and then godfather to the G20. In helping to create the rules-based order, we introduced the principle of functionalism. This is the abiding legacy of Louis St. Laurent, Lester Pearson and others — internationalists by conviction, they were realists by experience. Canada was not a great world power, but in certain sectors — food and energy — we had vital interests and capacity. This merited a place at the table. With competence, investment and artful diplomacy we earned our seat in the UN's functional agencies and, albeit temporarily, joined the great powers on the Security Council. To play helpful fixer will require the traditional skills of quiet diplomacy, rather than the preachiness of late. It means finding the niches in which we do well, including running elections, policing and administering justice, and managing diversity. It means reinvesting in the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that do these things, and staying the course. Canada's effectiveness also depends on a United States prepared to lead and champion the order it created. As we have seen these past four years, without U.S. leadership the system fails. The allies need to share the burden. COVID-19 has put the spotlight on democracies and our multilateral institutions. We must demonstrate that our rules-based system best protects health and liberty.3
Wendy Mesley reported in March of 2019 about comments from Canadian authorities that say the Chinese Communist Party is running a massive influence campaign among Chinese nationals in Canada, spreading its message and censoring dissidents.
Authorities say the Chinese Communist Party is running a massive influence campaign among Chinese nationals in Canada, spreading its message and censoring dissidents. The Weekly investigates growing allegations of intimidation and harassment -- through cyberattacks, spying, and even death threats. 4
The motives for encouraging Chinese nationals to study in Canada hopefully go beyond economic gain to a sharing of the practices of liberal democracy that is an important counterpoint to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
References
