Project

Consultative Forum on China

This two-year initiative by the Public Policy Forum and its partners, started in 2017, provides fresh ideas to shape the future of Canada’s relationship with China, one that is acceptable to Canadians seeking to understand the potentials and pitfalls of greater engagement.

A report was released on Oct. 10, 2018.

Event Past

PPF Fall Dinner 2019 | Stuck in the Corner: The U.S.-China strategic rivalry and how Canada plays it

Canada already knows what it’s like to be caught between the wills of these two Great Powers. How do we manage their fraught relations? How do we cause the minimum damage to our economy and sovereignty, while standing up for what we believe is right? These are questions we will address with Dr. Graham Allison, one-time Assistant Secretary of Defense and founding dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, at our annual Fall Dinner — Nov. 19 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
November 19 The Shaw Centre
Report
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Diversification not Dependence: A Made-in-Canada China Strategy

Released: Thursday October 11, 2018

Canada can truly diversify its trade and break its dependence on a single partner by pursuing a strategy built on sectoral trade agreements with China. 
Read the report
Article

China and Canada in an Era of Global Disruption

Tuesday December 19, 2017
Observation 1: Disruptive global trends are reshaping our world. One consequence: the status quo is not a strategy for future success, anywhere. Information technology — — digitization — — has enabled globalization 3.0 and helped drive a broader technology revolution. A second consequence: a large gap has emerged between a world of “tech 4.0” and “gov/pol...
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Article

Canada-China meeting: National Security and Human Rights

Tuesday December 19, 2017
Government officials, public policy experts, academics and private sector representatives met on September 14, 2017 in Ottawa to discuss further engagement with China. The Public Policy Forum facilitated and summarized the conversation into the speaking notes below. Meeting Minutes, September 14, 2017, Ottawa Note: // indicates a new speaker Topic...
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Article

A Mouse Sleeping Next to a Dragon: New Twitches and Grunts

Tuesday December 19, 2017
Stephanie Carvin from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs presented her paper, A Mouse Sleeping Next to a Dragon: New Twitches, at the Public Policy Forum’s second roundtable with the Consultation Forum on China in 2017. Her paper highlights three national security considerations Canada must take before establishing a free...
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Article

Canada-China Session 2: a discussion of national security, human rights and geoeconomics

Tuesday December 19, 2017
In its second roundtable, the participants of The Consultative Forum on China focused on issues of national security, human rights and geoeconomics. In PPF’s package of second session materials of the Canada-China talks, you will find: Meeting Minutes Consultative Forum on China 2nd Session, September 14, 2017 Update: Polling Dr....
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Article

The Canada-China Relationship

Saturday December 9, 2017
On September 14, 2017 at the second session of the Canada-China Forum, Bruce Anderson, Chairman of Abacus Data, presented his report called The Canada-China relationship. The company conducted a nation-wide online survey with 1,500 Canadian residents aged 18 years and older to find out what Canadians think about our relationship...
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Article

Canada-China Session 1: Setting the stage, public opinion trends, approaches to trade

Tuesday July 25, 2017
Recap of the first meeting of PPF's Canada-China Forum includes presentations on public opinion by Bruce Anderson of Abacus Data and sectoral trade by Wendy Dobson of University of Toronto
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Article

AUDIO | Edward Greenspon talks China with Danielle Smith

Thursday July 6, 2017
How can Canada trade with the world’s second-biggest economy without getting burned or selling out its values? The first step is to have a serious national conversation about it, PPF President and CEO Edward Greenspon tells Newstalk770 in Calgary. Listen to the interview   Is China a friend or a...
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Article

Canada’s China puzzle: We need a national discussion

Thursday June 29, 2017
How should we relate to an economic, political and increasingly technological powerhouse of 1.3 billion people with different political and legal values? By Edward Greenspon and Kevin Lynch Edward Greenspon is president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum. Kevin Lynch is vice-chair, Bank of Montreal, and former clerk of the privy...
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Article

Toward ‘eyes-open’ engagement with China

Tuesday June 20, 2017
Members of the Public Policy Forum’s Canada-China forum seek a balanced approach to engagement with China that is economically beneficial and politically acceptable to Canadians
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News

CBC Analysis: NAFTA talks forced Canada to pick a side in U.S.-China trade war

"In signing on for NAFTA 2.0, Canada also joined the Trump administration's China agenda," writes CBC's Janyce McGregor in a CBC Analysis article. "When the Trudeau government agreed to a revised North American free trade deal, the Americans said Canada also agreed to something else: joining Donald Trump's trade war on China."
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News

Tom Walkon at the Toronto Star: How Canada can break its dependence on the United States

In this opinion piece, Thomas Walkom tries to answer the question - How can Canada break its dependence on the United States? A question that has bedeviled both the left and the right since 1945. He writes that PPF's Report “Diversification not Dependence,” makes a compelling case for Canada to escape the “honey trap” of its reliance on the U.S. by moving quickly to boost both economic and political relations with China.
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News

Business in Vancouver: Canada should turn to sector-specific deals with China in light of USMCA, report says

Business in Vancouver's Chuck Chiang writes about PPF latest report "Diversification Not Dependence: A Made-in-Canada China Strategy." The report says Canada should turn to sectoral agreements - that is, deals focusing on specific industries like agriculture and energy - in growing business links with China in light of the perceived “U.S. veto” clause in the new USMCA North American free-trade agreement.
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News

Maclean’s Op-ed: How Canada can work on trade with China—without angering America

PPF's Edward Greenspon and the Vice-Chair of the BMO Financial Group Kevin Lynch share their opinion on Canada-China trade in this Maclean's op-ed. They discuss how the Canadian government must diversify its economy, and China is the obvious target. But that there are risks with such a partnership.
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News

CBC: Canada can avoid offending U.S. by pursuing sectoral trade with China: report

Andy Blatchford writes that the authors of the PPF report "Diversification Not Dependence: A Made-in-Canada Strategy" argue that Canada can do more business with China 'in such a way that should not offend' the U.S. through a a surgical, sector-by-sector approach.
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News
mix of chinese and canadian flags

We need a China strategy, so let’s get it right

In this Globe and Mail op-ed, our Forum on China co-chairs argue that with rules-based trade down South on the fritz, it really is time to look elsewhere and that includes China.
Read their op-ed
Tags: Canada Economy Employment Trade
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