Human Security in China's Foreign Relations

Overview:

This workshop brought about a dozen leading scholars from around the world to the University of Victoria campus on November 5th and 6th, 2010 to discuss human security within the context of China's foreign relations.  With financial sponsorship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, the workshop also featured a keynote presentation by Dai Qing who delivered the keynote address on the evening of Friday November 5th, 2010 on China's environmental issues and their global implications. Ms Dai is a well-known writer, investigative journalist, and environmentalist; her engagement in the 1980s in protecting the Yangtze River against the construction of the Three Gorges Dam gained worldwide attention and sympathy.

 

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Program: 

Friday November 5, 2010

Keynote Speech Session

Location: Hickman Building, 105 

Speaker: Dai Qing (Beijing-based free-lance journalist, writer, and environmental activist): "Beijing's water crisis: Environment, civic engagement, and their international relevance"

Chair: Tom Pedersen, Director of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (University of Victoria)

 

Saturday November 6, 2010

Location: The Arbutus-Queenswood Room, Cadboro Commons

 

Opening Session

Chair: Guoguang Wu (University of Victoria)

Opening Remarks: Andrew Harding, Director of Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (University of Victoria)

 

Paper Session I

Chair: Guoguang Wu

Presenters:

Robert Bedeski (University of Victoria): "Human security and China: policy v. theory"

 

 

 

Robert Hanlon (University of British Columbia): "Corporate social responsibility and human rights: China's new economic diplomacy"

 

 

 

Discussant: Scott Watson (University of Victoria)

 

 

 

Paper Session II

Chair: Andrew Harding

Presenters:

Joanna Lewis (Georgetown University): "Climate change impacts, security risks and foreign policy outlook in China"

 

 

 

Zhang ZhongXiang and Junko Mochizuki (East-West Center): "Environmental security and its implications for China's foreign relations"

 

 

 

Timothy Scolnick (University of Victoria): "Economic nationalism behind China's international engagement in climate change"

 

 

 

Discussant: Shelly Chan (University of Victoria)

 

 

Paper Session III

Chair: Helen Lansdowne (University of Victoria)

Presenters:

David Kerr (University of Durham): "Water security in shaping China's international politics in South and Central Asia"

 

 

 

Gaye Christoffersen (Soka University of America): "The human security implications of China's foreign energy relations"

 

 

 

Gabriel Botel (University of Victoria): "Fuelling insecurity: energy and politics in Sino-Myanmar relations"

 

 

 

Discussant: Richard King (University of Victoria)

 

 

Paper Session IV

Chair: Heidi Tyedmers (University of Victoria)

Presenters:

Jonathan Schwartz (State University of New York at New Paltz): "Pandemic disease in Sino-US relations: Threat and opportunity"

 

 

 

Elizabeth Wishnick (Montclair State University): "Food safety and China's relations with the United States and Japan"

 

 

 

Willy Wo-Lap Lam (Akita International University): "China's brain drain dilemma: Elite emigration and foreign relations"

 

 

 

Discussant: Feng Xu (University of Victoria)

 

 

 

Concluding Session

Chair: Guoguang Wu

 

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Background: 

As China has become a major exporter of goods to the rest of the world, China has also greatly increased its export of pollution, pandemics, tainted food products, and the like, and could be seen as a threat to the security of ordinary people everywhere on the globe. This workshop is not, however, an investigation into the "dark" side of China's development and globalization; it is a discussion about how these human security issues affect China's foreign relations, and, how they are dealt with in Chinese foreign policy. How does the Chinese government view human security as it pays major attention to state security in international relations? How do human security issues affect China's agenda and the manner in which it conducts its foreign policy? What are the factors stimulating or constraining China's participation in, and contribution to, global efforts to fight climate change? Why is a government so strong in the maintenance of political control and promoting economic success, relatively weak in governing issues such as pandemics, food safety, and the trafficking of women? What are the implications for human security in the regions where China seeks energy and natural resources? And, how can the world, including Canada, work more effectively with China to reduce the human security threats that arise from globalization? This workshop brought together a small group of leading scholars working on China's foreign relations to address these questions for the purposes of enhancing understanding and knowledge of the implications of China's rise as a world superpower, and to contribute to the emerging academic study of human security.

The design of the workshop, and the scope of presentations and discussions, facilitated engagement on three interrelated topics:

1) An overview of the concept of "human security" and its relevance within the Chinese context, including Chinese articulations, and Chinese ramifications;

2) Prominent issues on the agenda, including environmental protection, climate change, water resources, energy acquisition, control of pandemics, food safety, immigration and international mobility, cross-border crime, and the like;

3) China's international conduct around these issues, particularly vis a vis Canada, the USA, Europe, Japan, other Asian countries, and international and multilateral organizations.