Hampson: What’s the ultimate objective of Harper’s softer stance on China?

By:
Fen Osler Hampson
/
25 July, 2011
By: Fen Osler Hampson
Director of the Global Security program and Distinguished Fellow at CIGI and Chancellor's Professor at Carleton University

Baird’s visit to China, the first official visit of a cabinet minister overseas in Harper’s new majority government, symbolizes that China is now front and square in our national interest. The Prime Minister has said that “properity” is his number one priority and that is driving the new strategic partnership with the world’s second biggest and fastest growing economy. China is now our third most important trading partner after the US and Europe. As the US economy goes south, Harper understands that Canada must diversify its trade and investment linkages to secure Canada’s economic future. The Asia Pacific will loom large in this government’s attentions.

Before you click away, we’d like to ask you for a favour … 

 

Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

At Open Canada, we believe this must change. If anything, the pandemic has taught us we can’t afford to ignore the changing world. What’s more, we believe, most Canadians don’t want to. Many of us, after all, come from somewhere else and have connections that reach around the world.

Our mission is to build a conversation that involves everyone — not just politicians, academics and policy makers. We need your help to do so. Your support helps us find stories and pay writers to tell them. It helps us grow that conversation. It helps us encourage more Canadians to play an active role in shaping our country’s place in the world.

Become a Supporter