BCBusiness

40 BCBusiness SEptEmBER 2018 For British Columbians, these events have only created more anxiety about China, which faces widespread mistrust, even from countries eager to share in its vast wealth. B.C. seems to want it both ways: while courting Asian migration and invest- ment to strengthen its trade-dependent economy, the province is fanning fears of a latent Chinese menace to Canadian society. Anbang isn't the only Chinese com- pany that has been shopping in B.C. Last year, over complaints that Ottawa skipped a full national security review, Shenzhen- listed Hytera Communications Co. bought Richmond-headquartered satellite manu- facturer Norsat International. Meanwhile, China Minsheng Investment Group, a Shanghai-based private †irm launched by the Chinese government, acquired a 40-percent stake in the Grouse Mountain ski operation near Vancouver. More recently, U.S. lawmakers warned that Chinese smartphone maker Huawei poses a security risk to Canada and its allies. Their comments follow a Globe and Mail investigation showing that Huawei has been developing its superfast 5G wireless technoloŽy with help from UBC and other Canadian universities. Then there's B.C. winemaker John Chang, who has been imprisoned in China since 2016. Besides those news stories, the media churns out alarmist tales that put Chinese migrants and their o•shore money at the heart of Metro Vancouver's growing list of problems: una•ordable housing, money laundering, organized crime and the opi- oid crisis. One outlandish report even links Chinese gamblers with –nancing for alleged Iranian terrorism. China hasn't taken all of this criticism sitting down. In a 2015 interview with the Globe, Liu Fei, the nation's consul general in Vancouver, blamed Canadian regulators, not o•shore buyers, for the city's out-of- control real estate prices. Charges of Chinese malfeasance are far more serious now than during the –rst half of the 20th century, when B.C. was a hotbed of anti-Asian sentiment. Back then, rather than highlight the role of Chinese immigrants in Canada's creation, the prov- ince's politicians and press accused them of taking jobs from white workers and importing an alien culture to undermine the young country's European character. Today, in™uential voices openly state that Chinese Canadians could be working for Beijing to in–ltrate Canada's political ošces, corporations and universities to further the cause of the motherland. THE CHINA QUESTION Where does all of this leave British Colum- bians on China? Divided and fearful, observers say. Bill Tieleman, 61, has never been to China, nor does he want to visit. The Vancouver-based political consultant is impressed but not moved by what is argu- ably one of the greatest transformations of a major country within a generation. Over the course of Tieleman's life, China has risen from the ashes of Chinese Com- munist Party founder Mao Zedong's disas- trous policies of the 1950s to lift a third of its 1.3 billion people out of poverty and assume its current role as global superpower. Tieleman sees it di•erently, especially after receiving death threats in 2008 for calling for a boycott of Chinese products. Communist China has evolved from a backward totalitarian state into a modern "bizarre bastardization of Western culture, capitalism, authoritarianism and environ- mental degradation," he maintains. "The Chinese people deserve much better than this," the NDP supporter says over co•ee. Worse, he asks, what if other developing countries adopt the China model, which combines political repres- sion and environmental destruction with the pursuit of economic growth at all costs? That assessment has growing support across the political spectrum. The conser- vative government of U.S. President Donald Trump calls China a major threat in its lat- est National Security StrateŽy and World Trade Organization compliance reports. Even Trump's bitterest opponents on the left agree. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren describes America's decades-long policy on China as "misdirected" for hav- ing failed on human rights while allowing the out™ow of U.S. technoloŽy and knowl- edge to aid the rise of its new Asian strate- gic rival. For the European Union, China's appetite for tech and infrastructure compa- nies adds to the trading bloc's growing list of complaints about unfair Chinese trade practices and dišcult business conditions for foreign –rms. Asian countries, including those friendly to China, suspect the geopolitical ambitions of President Xi, who recently abolished the two-term limit that would have seen him leave ošce in 2022. Com- bined with his ousting and sidelining of potential rivals, this move paves the way for Xi to become ruler for life, ostensibly so he can make China the world's most power- ful country. THE LIMITS OF PRAGMATISM B.C.'s political, business and academic elites have long pushed for closer ties with China. Arguing that Canada has little choice but to engage the newest great power, they also sought a piece of the fast-growing Chi- nese market to reduce overreliance on the U.S. But Canadians remain wary of, even hostile to, the idea that China might exert more in™uence on their society through a Faustian exchange for economic growth. Most surveys show that the public prefers the slow and cautious road to engagement. Canadians deeply distrust the Chinese political system, according to a poll released last October by UBC's School of Public Policy and Global A•airs. Only 36 percent of respon- dents held a favourable view of the country. The 57 percent with an unfavourable view saw China through the lens of recent threats: rising housing unaffordability, industrial espionage, cyberattacks, job insecurity and challenges to Canadian values. The remain- ing 7 percent were undecided. "China will remain a source of appre- hension and anxiety," says Paul Evans, an international relations expert at UBC, who designed the survey with political "At this stage, Canada does not have a China or Asia policy. Ottawa doesn't even have a foreign policy. Our bandwidth is taken up by our relationship with the U.S. The NAFTA negotiations have trumped everything" –Paul Evans, Institute of Asian Research, UBC

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