Tuesday, May 20, 2025
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada on top of the world
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
        • Provincial COVID Misery Index
        • Beyond Lockdown
        • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
        • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada on top of the world
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
        • Provincial COVID Misery Index
        • Beyond Lockdown
        • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
        • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Can We Do Better By Chinese Students in Canada?: Charles Burton for Inside Policy

October 9, 2019
in Foreign Affairs, China: The dragon at the door, Inside Policy, Foreign Policy, Latest News, Columns, Indo-Pacific, Charles Burton
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A

We need to put much more effort and resources into making the relationship with Chinese students work better, writes Charles Burton.

By Charles Burton, October 9, 2019

The Student Union at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario recently voted to de-ratify the student club status of its Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA). The ruling cited a regulation against club conduct that “endangers the safety or security of any person or property.” It was prompted by the McMaster CSSA coordinating the disruption of a public seminar by Canadian Uyghur activist Rukiye Turdush on the Chinese government’s cultural genocide program against its Turkic Muslim population.

Turdush’s son, a student at McMaster, was threatened over social media allegedly at the direction of a PRC diplomat stationed in Toronto. Compelling anonymous testimony, given by a Chinese student studying at McMaster and confirmed by multiple sources, revealed that the local Chinese consulate tasks the CSSA to gather intelligence on Chinese students and others at the university and community. And that the consulate funds and coordinates political demonstrations in Canada to support China’s Communist regime.

The question of the PRC’s role in these student associations and other diaspora groups in Canada need to be addressed. Yet equally important is the extent to which Chinese students choose to support the PRC and its activities abroad on their own volition and what universities can do to try to try to help foreign students, from all countries, to gain a better understanding of Canada’s society, values, and democratic institutions.

Without a doubt, the presence of students from other nations enriches Canadian campuses. As someone who had a highly positive experience as a foreign student in China that I cherish decades later, I firmly believe that student exchanges promote friendship, mutual understanding and productive relations between nations. Chinese students are also enormously profitable for Canadian colleges and universities with budgets squeezed by government cutbacks because they pay foreign student fees often four, five or even six times those of domestic students depending on the program.

But international student offices at Canadian universities report low rates of participation by PRC students in activities designed to encourage foreign students to understand and integrate into Canadian society and the life of the campus. As one PRC student at the University of Toronto told me in Chinese “I am not going to be living and working in Canada in the future. Why the hell would I want to get to know these foreigners? What’s the point of going to take part in their activities? They don’t help me get good marks in my courses.” That being said, several Chinese students expressed their appreciation to their Canadian teachers for their patience and kindness in helping them overcome language and cultural barriers to success in their coursework.

But for most of the PRC students in Canada who I interviewed, the motivation for coming to Canada is not a positive one, but a second choice after their high school grades fall short of the very high standard demanded by the PRC’s unified university entrance exam to get into the top schools in China. So their commitment and orientation is to their native land.

There is nothing wrong with having a primarily economic motivation behind foreign students undertaking studies abroad, in order to find gainful employment back in their country of origin rather than staying as new immigrants. Still, we need to do a better job in ensuring students understand and integrate in Canadian society – for the value that it brings to the student once they travel back to their native land and for the benefit of Canadian society during the students’ period of study in the country.

The first point goes to the idea that a better understanding of Canada – its society, values, and democratic institutions – is something worthwhile for foreign students. In the case of students from the People’s Republic, we can hope that they will become agents for progressive change when they return to China as adults.

On the second point, it’s useful to turn once again to the situation in McMaster and to ask whether some Chinese students might have willingly cooperated with Chinese authorities. As one Chinese student explained to me on their relationship with Chinese diplomats, they do not necessarily need to be coerced by threats to their futures or families in China to comply with what the Chinese regime covertly requests of them.

Simply put, many Chinese students feel it is their patriotic duty to serve the motherland China – and that can prove problematic for Canadian society, especially when students become witting agents of influence for the authoritarian PRC regime.

Of course, many Chinese students do feel coerced by threats to their future and families as well, and this fact needs to be taken into account. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms demands that those Chinese students who wish to remain politically neutral should be protected from harassment by agents of a foreign state. But many complain they are not getting this protection in Canada.

None of the students interviewed indicated that they faced explicit racism in Canada. But they do feel like outsiders in the Canadian student communities. Part of this is due to language and cultural differences (most Chinese do not enjoy activities like noisy pub night mixers). Part of it is due to Canadians not trying hard enough. All too often, university administrations simply see Chinese students as a cash cow to be milked to the maximum extent possible.

This is just not good enough. We need to put much more effort and resources into making the relationship with Chinese students work better.

The Toronto Star/St Catharines Standard three part series “Price of Admission” on the explosive growth of international students at Ontario colleges makes several worthwhile recommendations, including providing more counselling support for foreign students, cultural sensitivity and awareness training for teaching and administrative staff so that there can be better understanding of the unique challenges and circumstances that international students face, and a buddy system matching international students with their domestic peers to better integrate them into the school community.

Canada-China relations as a whole urgently require a major Canadian rethink and meaningfully funded re-commitment. How we look after and better serve Chinese students in Canada is a good place to start.

Charles Burton is associate professor of political science at Brock University at St. Catharines, Ont., senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad, and former counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.

Tags: ChinaCharles Burton

Related Posts

Indigenous partnerships are key to kickstarting Canada’s economy: JP Gladu and Caroline Cox in The Hub
Indigenous Affairs

Indigenous partnerships are key to kickstarting Canada’s economy: JP Gladu and Caroline Cox in The Hub

May 20, 2025
It’s not just the economy — Canada must find its place in new world order: Christopher Coates in the Windsor Star
Foreign Affairs

It’s not just the economy — Canada must find its place in new world order: Christopher Coates in the Windsor Star

May 20, 2025
Anand’s one-sided comments on Israel a strategic blunder: Alan Kessel in the National Post
Foreign Affairs

Anand’s one-sided comments on Israel a strategic blunder: Alan Kessel in the National Post

May 20, 2025
Next Post
Unprecedented stimulus after 2008 recession failed to boost long-term growth: Philip Cross in the Financial Post

Unprecedented stimulus after 2008 recession failed to boost long-term growth: Philip Cross in the Financial Post

Newsletter Signup

  Thank you for Signing Up
  Please correct the marked field(s) below.
Email Address  *
1,true,6,Contact Email,2
First Name *
1,true,1,First Name,2
Last Name *
1,true,1,Last Name,2
*
*Required Fields

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2023 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada on top of the world
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video

© 2023 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

Lightbox image placeholder

Previous Slide

Next Slide

Share

Facebook ShareTwitter ShareLinkedin SharePinterest ShareEmail Share

TwitterTwitter
Hide Tweet (admin)

Add this ID to the plugin's Hide Specific Tweets setting: