Opinion | Why Canada should adopt a realpolitik approach to China (the clues are in Xi Jinping’s Davos speech)
- Canada can best hold Beijing to account through cooperation and dialogue. Xi has clearly messaged China’s intent to be a responsible stakeholder willing to engage – as long as there are no ideological attacks
In Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent video address to the World Economic Forum, two points were particularly relevant to discussions of Canadian policy towards China, and Asia.
He urged leaders to embrace divergent political institutions as a type of multilateralism, arguing that the true measure of a system’s legitimacy is whether it accurately reflects the country’s historic, cultural and social conditions, and whether it achieves a higher standard of living for the society it represents.
Xi went on to warn against ideational arrogance: the idea that any one system of governance is inherently superior to another. Instead, he argued, states should be judged by the level of support they receive from their societies, as the state’s inherent purpose is to provide social goods, not to represent a specific ideology.
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Xi Jinping warns against ‘new Cold War’ and ‘confrontation’