Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the key domestic conundrums which led to the possibility of rapprochement between Canada and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Adopting a “low politics” approach which emphasizes on individual actors and domestic issues that led to Sino–Canadian rapprochement, this paper draws from both primary and secondary sources which include archives and various historical documents to examine domestic socio-political and economic factors that led to the improved relations between the two states.

Sino–Canadian rapprochement was, on the one hand, the result of an increase in liberal activism and intensive socio-political change during the Quiet Revolution in Quebec (where public opinions mattered for federal party leaders) as a consequence of the collapse of ultra-conservative and anti-communist policies under the Duplessis era. Meanwhile, the PRC’s worsening economic situation as a result of the Cultural Revolution and Sino-Soviet tensions of 1968 placed China in a desperate situation to seek foreign aid. With the emergence of Pierre Trudeau’s era and Zhou Enlai’s diplomatic expertise, a further dialogue emerged which subsequently led to the normalization of relations in 1970.

Usually Canadian scholars studying China regarded 1970 as the watershed in Sino–Canadian relations, but this paper is going to illustrate that even two years before the diplomatic rapprochement, a turning point had already occurred which is 1968.

This writing examines the remarkable career of the founding East Asian scholar at Montreal's Concordia University. He was the individual who did more than merely a college professor after 37 years there. He had helped to shape a new course in Sino-Canadian relations.

This paper will look at an element of soft power engagement between Canada and China before Deng Xiaoping's Open Door Policy. It also examines Concordia's achievement in establishing a China foothold in the early-1980s.

Canada has always been a pioneer in engaging Red China. Despite not having formal diplomatic ties until October 1970, Ottawa never abandoned its wish to seek a friendship with Beijing. Amidst the thawing China–Canada relations since 1970, Concordia University recruited a 25-year-old graduate student named Martin Singer to inaugurate its East Asian courses. Singer's auspicious academic career not only gave him to organize Canada's first and the largest student delegation to China but also enabled him to pioneer the first joint-postgraduate studies program between a Chinese and a Western postsecondary institution. He was also a key player in establishing a novel and unique relationship between the PRC and the Western world.

This paper provides a glimpse into China's early experience in engaging the world as it left behind decades of communist isolation. It also highlights how serendipities allowed people and institutions to advance in the wake of this exciting period in modern Chinese history.

This paper gives a comparative analysis of the foundation of sinology in two Canadian universities. Despite not having diplomatic exchanges, Canada's new relationship with the People's Republic of China (PRC) ignited a China interest in the Canadian academe. Through York University and the University of Guelph (U of G)'s experiences, readers will learn the rewards and challenges that sinology brings to Canadian higher education.

This paper offers an overview of the historical foundation of sinology in the Canadian academe. Who pushes through this process? What geopolitical developments triggered young and educated Canadians to learn about China? This paper assesses York and Guelph's process in introducing sinology by relying on university archival resources and personal interviews. Why was York University successful in its mission, which, in turn, made into a comprehensive East Asian Studies degree option in 1971? What obstacles did the U of G face that prohibited it from implementing China Studies successfully?

After 1949, Canada took a friendlier relationship with the PRC than its neighbor in the south. As China–Canada relations unfolded, Canadian witnessed a dramatic state investment in higher education. The 1960s was a decade of unprecedented university expansion. In the process, sinology enjoyed its significant growth, and both York University and the U of G made their full use of this right timing. However, China Studies at the U of G did not take off. Besides its geolocation disadvantage, Guelph's top-down managerial style in the 1960s, which resulted in collegial disillusionment, was also a significant barrier to this program's success.

Before the Internet age, universities were the first venues for most Canadians to acquire their initial academic knowledge of China. After the Second World War, sinology became popular among students as China became one of the world's “Big Fives”. More Canadians became romanticized with Maoism while opposing America's containment policy. York and Guelph exemplified this trend in Canadian history. Contrary to popular belief, historian Jerome Chen did not establish York's China Studies. Likewise, an ex-US diplomat John Melby did not bring China into Guelph, sinology arrived due to individual scholastic initiatives. Visionaries saw envisioned China's importance in the future world community.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the development of Chinese studies in selective Canadian universities through examining the remarkable careers of three middle-aged ethnic Chinese intellectuals.

This paper analyses the origin and growth of East Asian Studies programs in Canada by first describing the backgrounds of the three scholars. Why did Canadian universities accept them despite their Chinese origin?

Canadian universities are indeed the incubators of racial tolerance. Racism existed in the 1950s but was only confined to the collegial level. Universities generally welcomed a diversified representation of their payroll. While none of three academics founded East Asian Studies programs in their institutions, they had forcibly become their mascots and had lured more students into lifelong studies of the Far East. Despite the early fanfare of their recruitments, all three had become disillusioned with their employers as years passed. They felt their contributions were taken for granted and had shifted their career focuses elsewhere. The Asia-Pacific is still marginally focussed in the Canadian academe.

The three men and many others in the field have sowed the seed for the study of China and the East Asian region in Canada. It is up to future “East Asianists” to carry on this tradition that they had built in the twentieth century.

The USA and China have had a complex relationship since the 1949 establishment of the People’s Republic of China. This relationship has gone from hostility to guarded friendliness to increased tension at the beginning of the new millennium. Recent years have seen the emergence of literature stressing China’s potential emergence as a national security threat to the USA. This article will look at books, government documents, and Internet resources examining the current and possible future national security relationship between these two countries from 1995/1996 to the present. This literature presents US and international perspectives representing a variety of viewpoints on a subject that may have a major impact on international relations during the twenty‐first century.

This article examines education diplomacy as a specific application of public diplomacy in stabilizing Canada–China relations, which have worsened over the last few years. It conducts a case study analysing post-crisis responses of Chinese stakeholders in Canadian university international programs. The survey results provide policymaking insight for restoring post-crisis global learning activities.

It applies conceptual analysis, comparative methods and historical reflection to design a community-based survey. It treated Chinese university students and scholars as stakeholders of education diplomacy. Utilizing an established network of Chinese intuitional partners by the host institute, this case study analyses questionnaires on the online survey platform Qualtrics.

The survey indicates concerns about diplomatic tension by Chinese stakeholders in Canadian university international programs. However, their responses are still favourable for resuming global learning activities with more flexibility, mobility and personal safety facilitation.

The paper assesses the post-crisis response of Chinese stakeholders concerning the Canada–China education collaboration while interpreting Education Diplomacy as a specific form of Public Diplomacy for normalizing China–Canada relations still subject to growing bilateral tension.

Since China’s “opening-up” in the late 1970s, Singapore has played a major role in enhancing China’s engagement with the world, especially in economic terms. This traditional relationship is well manifested in the third government-to-government (G–G) project under the BRI, which is known as the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (CCI). The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: despite Singapore’s initial reluctance to agree on a third G–G project with China, why did Singapore eventually decide to join the CCI?

This paper draws on archives of over 700 Chinese language media reports and over 400 English language media reports, as well as private interactions with scholars interested in Sino-Singapore relations and with both sides’ officials in charge of the CCI project.

The paper finds that it is the goal of connecting the region, along with the need to maintain Singapore’s relevance to China and the regional economy that led to Singapore’s participation in the third G–G project. This paper also uses this case to analyse the changes that are taking place in the bilateral economic relations.

Despite wide media coverage, op-ed commentaries and respective government statements, there are a limited number of academic studies on the rationale of the third G–G project and contemporary Sino-Singapore relations in the literature. The scholarship has not addressed the rationale for Singapore’s changing attitude towards CCI and the manner in which the CCI has improved cooperation (or upgraded cooperation to a broader and regional level).

Behavioural consequences of emphasis on budget‐related performance evaluation measures have been extensively researched in single countries, but not in cross‐cultural organizational settings. Contingency theory is invoked in this study to model the “fit” for international joint venture companies (IJVs) between two contingency factors — environmental uncertainty (EU) and organizational objectives conflict (OOC)—and the organizational control sub‐system variable of budgetary emphasis (BE). The impact of this “fit” on the effectiveness of managers from Chinese and Western sides of an IJV partnership is tested in respect of the effectiveness outcomes of self‐rated managerial performance (MP) and the creation of budgetary slack (BS). These two effectiveness constructs are chosen for this study because they provide a complementary picture of effectiveness in a budget‐related behavioural settings. To test the various “fit” hypotheses, this study provides results from a survey of Sino‐foreign JVs. Specifically, middle and senior managers representing the foreign partner to a Sino‐foreign JV were chosen in two groupings, Hong Kong Chinese managers and Western managers. Multiple regression was performed for the independent variables (EU, OOC and BE) in relation to the respective dependent variables (MP and BS) and the respective sample groups (HK Chinese and Western). Both main and interaction effects are reported in this study. Implications of the findings for the use of budgetary emphasis in management performance evaluation in IJVs are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the gap between what should happen and what actually happens in Sino‐UK transnational education (TNE) provision, with a focus on the barriers of language and culture.

Following a literature review, an exploratory study was carried out using the non‐probability‐based snowball sampling method. In total, 38 programme managers from ten Sino‐UK TNE providers responded to a questionnaire survey, with eight of them taking part in a subsequent semi‐structured interview. Additional data were collected via observations at staff meetings and classes.

Demand for Sino‐UK TNE based in China was in decline for reasons including demographic changes, increased competition and expansion in the Chinese state sector. Due to barriers of language and culture, the overall learning experience of TNE students in China was not found comparable with that of their counterparts in the UK in terms of learning, teaching and academic support.

Without further research, the findings of this study may not be generalised to all Sino‐UK providers due to the non‐probability based sampling method.

Managers of a Sino‐UK TNE partnership on both sides need to be open about the language and culture induced challenges facing the sector and be committed to addressing them in the long term if they are to continue their operation.

The paper presents admissions from practitioners about the disparities between the rhetoric and reality of the current Sino‐UK TNE provision, which raise questions critical to the future survival of the sector.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether large blockholders are associated with financial statement fraud at their companies. Although a substantial body of prior studies has focused on chief executive officers’ motivations to manipulate financial statements, the correlation between majority shareholders and financial statement fraud has received little attention. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating whether the sample firms have controlling shareholders or executives (i.e. blockholders vs management) and whether financial statement fraud schemes, motivations and consequences differ between blockholder- and management-controlled firms.

Using a clinical approach, the authors Study 12 Canadian financial statement fraud cases uncovered by the Ontario Securities Commission between 1997 and 2020.

First, the authors find blockholder control in six cases. These findings infer that these large shareholders received private benefits at the expense of minority shareholders. The comparative analyzes suggest that fraudulent firms controlled by blockholders go bankrupt more often than those controlled by managers. The authors also find that improper disclosure is the most common fraud scheme in blockholder-controlled firms.

The authors conduct a deep analysis of financial statement fraud cases to examine the of blockholder control on the likelihood of financial statement fraud. This paper adds new insights to the research on financial crime by investigating whether large shareholders affect the probability of fraud and the extent to which they might do so.