Anti-China sentiment is becoming anti-Chinese prejudice in Canada
Paul Evans is HSBC Chair in Asian Research at the University of British Columbia. Yuen Pau Woo is a senator for British Columbia.
Emotions about China are raw in Canada, with no sign that the diplomatic crisis stemming from the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and detention in China of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor will end anytime soon.
Ottawa is wrestling with how to respond to a more assertive and repressive China as it reformulates the engagement policy that has been Canada’s approach for 50 years. It is doing so in an environment when the public discussion is becoming toxic.
Two facts stand out: Anti-China sentiment is rising across the country, and so is anti-Asian hate. How are the two connected?
Canada’s China Class at work. (Go incognito)
