EBOOK
The Beaver and the Dragon
How China Out-manoeuvred Canada's Diplomacy, Security, And Sovereignty
Charles Burton, Ph. D.(0)
About
For decades, Canada believed it could gently shape China into a responsible global actor through diplomacy, commerce, and cultural exchange. But as this clear-eyed, searing account reveals, it was China that ended up reshaping us. In The Beaver and The Dragon, acclaimed sinologist Charles Burton takes readers inside Canada's most fateful geopolitical miscalculation. Drawing on a lifetime of engagement - from dorm rooms at Fudan University to behind-closed-doors diplomacy in Beijing - Burton chronicles China's strategic ascent and the naïveté that allowed it to happen within Canada's political and corporate boardrooms.
From Tiananmen Square to hostage diplomacy, this book captures the history we lived through but failed to understand that has allowed China and Beijing's authoritarian model to quitely infiltrate all of Canada's institutions including the halls of parliament. These essays, written in real time across four Canadian governments, expose the illusions of engagement and the emergence of an authoritarian power that seeks to dominate the 21st century at democracy's expense.
The essays combined with his new insights expose the sharp power tactics and global ambitions that define Xi Jinping's China and how Canada has become a proving ground for its totalitarian ambitions. But Burton also leaves us with a challenge - and a hope - that democratic resilience can reclaim the future.
His solution for Canadian policy makers and businesses is to understand that China is not interested in friendship for Win-Win trade but rather total dominance and global hegemony at the expense of our nation. With those lessons learned engagement must be about every element of the Chinese regimes internal and external policy dynamics.
When Charles Burton first arrived in China as a student, he hoped to witness a society in transition. Decades later, he was banned from re-entering the country by the Communist regime he once studied up close.
A fluent Mandarin speaker and trusted advisor to Canadian institutions, Charles Burton has spent over 50 years engaging with China - from philosophy dorms at Fudan University to diplomatic postings in Beijing, from public policy forums to interrogations by state security. In The Beaver and the Dragon, he draws on his most insightful and urgent essays from 2009 to 2025, chronicling how a once-hopeful engagement soured into repression, propaganda, and geopolitical hostility.
Burton's commentary is not mere journalism. These pieces track flashpoints like the imprisonment of the Two Michaels, the Huawei crisis, Canadian election interference, and the growing influence of China's United Front network. They also reflect on Canada's institutional blindness - across Chrétien, Harper, and Trudeau - to the ideological depth and strategic ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party.
But this is not just a book of warnings. In the final section, Burton envisions a world where authoritarian models collapse under their own contradictions, and where the pendulum of global governance swings back toward democratic resilience, civic liberty, and multilateral cooperation.
The Beaver and the Dragon is essential reading for diplomats, academics, civil society actors, and every engaged citizen concerned with sovereignty, justice, and the fragile promise of global order.
From dorm rooms at Fudan University to behind-closed-doors diplomacy in Beijing ― The Beaver and The Dragon chronicles China's strategic ascent and the naïveté that allowed it to happen within Canada's political and corporate boardrooms.
Charles Burton is a distinguished Canadian sinologist and senior fellow at Sinopsis, a Prague-based research platform focused on China's influence in global democratic systems. A longtime professor of political science at Brock University, Burton has specialized in comparative politics, Confucian political philosophy, and the evolving dynamics of Canad
From Tiananmen Square to hostage diplomacy, this book captures the history we lived through but failed to understand that has allowed China and Beijing's authoritarian model to quitely infiltrate all of Canada's institutions including the halls of parliament. These essays, written in real time across four Canadian governments, expose the illusions of engagement and the emergence of an authoritarian power that seeks to dominate the 21st century at democracy's expense.
The essays combined with his new insights expose the sharp power tactics and global ambitions that define Xi Jinping's China and how Canada has become a proving ground for its totalitarian ambitions. But Burton also leaves us with a challenge - and a hope - that democratic resilience can reclaim the future.
His solution for Canadian policy makers and businesses is to understand that China is not interested in friendship for Win-Win trade but rather total dominance and global hegemony at the expense of our nation. With those lessons learned engagement must be about every element of the Chinese regimes internal and external policy dynamics.
When Charles Burton first arrived in China as a student, he hoped to witness a society in transition. Decades later, he was banned from re-entering the country by the Communist regime he once studied up close.
A fluent Mandarin speaker and trusted advisor to Canadian institutions, Charles Burton has spent over 50 years engaging with China - from philosophy dorms at Fudan University to diplomatic postings in Beijing, from public policy forums to interrogations by state security. In The Beaver and the Dragon, he draws on his most insightful and urgent essays from 2009 to 2025, chronicling how a once-hopeful engagement soured into repression, propaganda, and geopolitical hostility.
Burton's commentary is not mere journalism. These pieces track flashpoints like the imprisonment of the Two Michaels, the Huawei crisis, Canadian election interference, and the growing influence of China's United Front network. They also reflect on Canada's institutional blindness - across Chrétien, Harper, and Trudeau - to the ideological depth and strategic ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party.
But this is not just a book of warnings. In the final section, Burton envisions a world where authoritarian models collapse under their own contradictions, and where the pendulum of global governance swings back toward democratic resilience, civic liberty, and multilateral cooperation.
The Beaver and the Dragon is essential reading for diplomats, academics, civil society actors, and every engaged citizen concerned with sovereignty, justice, and the fragile promise of global order.
From dorm rooms at Fudan University to behind-closed-doors diplomacy in Beijing ― The Beaver and The Dragon chronicles China's strategic ascent and the naïveté that allowed it to happen within Canada's political and corporate boardrooms.
Charles Burton is a distinguished Canadian sinologist and senior fellow at Sinopsis, a Prague-based research platform focused on China's influence in global democratic systems. A longtime professor of political science at Brock University, Burton has specialized in comparative politics, Confucian political philosophy, and the evolving dynamics of Canad