bout de papier, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1992) — Summer 1992 // Été 1992, pp. 43–44
Reluctant Adversaries by Paul M. Evans
and B. Michael Frolic, University of Toronto,
1991, 268 pp. $19.95.
Canada is now at one of the lowest points in our long relationship with China. Canada’s offer of permanent residence to PRC citizens unwilling to return to China after June 1989 and her strong stand on human rights issues have irked the present masters of Beijing, who find criticism of their behaviour impertinent. On the track-record revealed by this book, Canadian failure to take a more expedient line towards the present government in Beijing may not be the wrong policy. Over the course of almost a century of Canada-China relations, Canada has a record of taking idiosyncratic stands on China, which later turn out to be the right ones — in the long run if not the short. In 1949, Canada came very close to transferring diplomatic recognition from the Guomindang to the Communist Party, and only heavy pressure from the USA prevented this. In 1961, Canada started to sell wheat to China when China was still in the deep freeze of international isolation. In 1970, Canada reopened relations with China, well ahead of most Western countries.
The essays in this book, originally presented as papers at a conference at Montebello in 1985, record these and other aspects of the relations between Canada and China. The first deals with the missionary effort in China, the start of Canada’s fascination with China. Canadian missionaries went to China before there was an independent Canadian foreign policy, and no formal Canadian presence abroad. They developed a special Canadian role in China, their faith as deep as anyone’s but their unassuming means of spreading it were unlike the haughtiness of the British or the fervency of the American missionaries. Canadians were practical; they stressed medicine and education over proselytisation. One uniquely helpful undertaking was the founding of the first dental school in China, which won Canadians a reputation for low-key but truly valuable activity.
The book then moves to policy issues, with the ’mish kids’, the children of missionaries who entered the public service in Canada as the bridge between the early period and the later one. Three China-born men – Ralph Collins, John Small and Arthur Menzies — served as ambassadors to China. The key episodes are the three listed above; recognition in 1949, wheat sales, and the Trudeau initiative in 1970. Canadian policy is contrasted with American, a ’merry go round rather than a roller coaster’, a sense of continuity and consistency, without over-emotional fluctuations between wild enthusiasm and bitter denunciation.
Canada’s China story has been dominated by expansive personalities, none in any doubt about the importance of his contribution to Canada-China relations. Chester Ronning, the last chargé d’affaires to the Guomindang government, was born in China, and was the great interpreter of China to Canada; Alvin Hamilton, under whose term as minister of Agriculture wheat sales started, was the Prairie visionary who saw that wheat would tie Canada and China together; and Pierre Trudeau was the prime minister and statesman who saw that China had to be brought in from the cold in terms of international relations if the world was to live at peace. Two other grandiose figures could have been included: Norman Bethune, the communist doctor who died in China during the Anti-Japanese War, and James Endicott, the pro-communist missionary and advisor to Chiang Kai-shek. To find an area of Canadian politics dominated by such huge personalities is quite exciting.
This is a balanced book, its carefully chosen topics making a comprehensive whole. The editors have managed to put together a collection of papers which are all strong, an unusual achievement. They are measured in their analysis and fair-minded, keeping away from many of the exaggerated views that people have held about China — and still do. They steer away from any glib assumptions that the missionaries and Bethune or our early recognition have given Canada a special advantage with China. This is not the case. As several of the essays reveal, China may pay homage to previous good deeds, but political and economic relations are still hardheaded. Generations of Canadian diplomats have sat through glowing tributes to Bethune, but there is no proof that his name has ever helped to sell aeroplanes or satellite dishes. His memory has, however, been generously supported by the Canadian taxpayer, through the financing of the movie on his life.
The book focuses on external relations between Canada and China. Greater detail on internal events in China might have made certain episodes a little clearer. For those who are not aware of the tumultuous upheavals of China’s recent history, some of the twists and turns of relations, which have nothing to do with Canada, might be hard to understand. There might also have been more on the role of Chinese communities in Canada, which are becoming larger and more sophisticated, and much more vocal over their concerns on our China policy.
The list of contributors points up a special China connection between External Affairs and the academic worlds: three of the contributors (Brian Evans, Frolic and Mitchell) have served as the resident sinologist in the Beijing embassy, while one (Andrew) is a retired diplomat. These close connections have been ongoing since the opening of the mission in 1970, when it was first decided to have an academic in Beiling.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1992) — Summer 1992 // Été 1992, pp. 43–44. Read the rest of this issue →
