The democratic mind is formed in childhood - Why engagement with China means more to our children than you think

The key to solving our challenges with China might literally be in our hands and what we (don’t) do with them?

With each passing day Canada’s relationship with China seems to deteriorate further, and in many ways it’s for good reason. The headlines are scary. China is becoming more aggressive abroad. Canadians have been arbitrarily detained in China with?no due process. There is?growing evidence?of terrible things happening in the “re-education” camps of Xinjiang, and?according to some commentators, if war doesn’t come next week, then it is sure to break out in the next decade. Given all of this, should we cut off ties with China and prepare for the worst???

In a?recent article, I argued for a pro-engagement policy with China. Following from that article, I received a lot of feedback on both sides, with many readers asking for specific examples of engagement. Today I would like to share one very specific and potentially very potent engagement policy that Canada should pursue with China, which will improve international relations and make the world a better place.?

Every child that grows up in a peaceful environment is someone more likely to collaborate, negotiate, and follow fair rules. In many ways, you might say the democratic mind is formed in childhood.

This is a pertinent topic, given the recent revelations in Canada about maltreatment and abuse of children in Residential Schools. So here it goes: If we pursued a consistent policy of engagement aimed at improving childhoods in Canada and China, in 10 or 20 years what we might have instead of a new cold war could be a thawing of relations that emerges out of the blooming of a generation of young people who grew up in more peaceful households and hold more values in common than not. Hear me out.?

There is?incontrovertible and a continually growing library of evidence?that corporal punishment (spanking) in childhood results in negative outcomes in adulthood, including increased aggression and criminality, and decreased empathy. Vancouver-based addiction specialist and author Gabor Maté is well-known for his research showing?the connection between childhood trauma and adult addiction. A lack of empathy with others and with oneself is directly linked to childhood trauma. It’s sad to think about, but many of us leave childhood with scars just as deep as war-ravaged soldiers returning home suffering from PTSD. Those childhood scars?influence international relations?just as much as they?influence local crime and addiction statistics.?

Scaling this out to Canada-China and other international issues, every child that grows up in a peaceful environment is someone more likely to collaborate, negotiate, and follow fair rules. In many ways, you might say the democratic mind is formed in childhood. Asia is one of three regions in the world where?violence against children is highest. If we want to make the world a better place, there are many things we need to do, but high on the list is we clearly need to treat children better – not just in Canada, but around the world.???

Canada is a leader?in the fight for the rights of the child, and?China is clearly not. Yet there are voices in China on both sides of the debate on issues such as spanking, just like in Canada. In China, 54% of mothers and 48% of fathers?admit to regularly hitting their children. By contrast, about?25% of Canadian parents?admit the same. That’s still a high number here in Canada, but the order of magnitude difference in childhood experience culturally might go some way to explaining some of the differences we see between East and West. Nonetheless, even in China, the government?is moving to discourage parents from engaging in severe corporal punishment.?

Research showing the risks associated with physical punishment is robust, and it is clear that changing adult behaviour starts from improving the quality of childhoods. A child who grows up in a peaceful household will be more empathetic, and will be more likely to seek out win-win outcomes as an adult, and that will reflect positively on a societal and even global level. The opposite is also tragically true.?

Similar to the rights of children, Canada is a leader in the promotion of diversity and inclusion, in the fight against racism, as well as in?upholding the rules-based order, just to name a few topics relevant to the Canada-China relationship. In all of these issues, the Canadian voice is desperately needed in Asia Pacific and around the world (case in point:?racism in China), which is why I am pro-engagement and support any effort whereby Canadian values and Canadian voices can be promoted and amplified abroad.?

It was over a hundred years ago that Wilfred Owen?lamented:?None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress. We have made enormous progress in how we as a society treat children, promote diversity and inclusion, and build a rules-based order. As I watch the opinion headlines calling for disengagement, retribution, and even war, what I often think about is the effects these actions will have on children on both sides of the divide. Canada does not need to trek from this progress nor sacrifice its values to engage with the world, because we can work to build a world founded upon and buttressed by Canadian values. In fact, to fail to engage would be exactly against the strongest and purest values that make Canada great.?

The protection of children is just one example of engagement as a subtle and nuanced strategy. It is much less sexy than calling for a new cold war. It’s not an adrenaline-drawing call to arms on Twitter; on the contrary, these are hard-nosed even sometimes boring fact-based policy strategies to help make the world a better place. Engagement is about developing and promoting policy recommendations aimed at picking winning issues for Canada and our interests, and pushing to build a world that will be better for our children and future generations. That’s how we can get to work, to make our kids proud and, in this case, safer and happier for the rest of their lives.?

Chris Pereira ([email protected]) previously worked for Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen, and most recently served as senior director of public affairs at Huawei Canada. Fluent in Mandarin, he serves as president of branding and marketing firm CEI, acting as a bridge between Asia Pacific and North America. He is based in Vancouver, B.C., and has over 15 years of experience in China.?

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