Is the West Losing China — Again?

The scale and location of the military exercises that have accompanied China’s recent rhetoric toward Taiwan represent an escalation of not only cross-strait but also US-China tensions. This moment is pregnant with potential — almost all of it bad, from a longer-term geopolitical perspective. Has it pushed the West’s relationship with China past a point of no return?

In this opinion, Dan Ciuriak looks at the political, military, economic and technological dimensions and argues that it would be wise for US and Chinese parties to start a track-two dialogue as a reset.

As Susie Alegre writes in this policy brief, the desire to get inside the human mind — to understand, to control and, ultimately, to judge other people’s inner lives — is not new. What is new is the pace and ubiquitous nature of technological and scientific developments that are specifically designed to get inside our heads. To guide technological development, we must understand the threats to freedom of thought in the digital age.

Alegre says we need an effective international framework to protect the rights at the heart of the technological revolution — our absolute right to freedom of thought, now and for the future.

Democracies are, and should be, loud: protest and demonstration are essential to free speech and public engagement. That such protests cause inconvenience and disrupt politicians is part of the cut and thrust of politics. Yet, events and actions seen around the world in recent months are increasingly combining demonstration with the threat or use of brute force to promote change.

Stephanie Carvin writes that understanding what is behind this behaviour and finding solutions is complicated — but a critical first step is for political parties in Western states to step back from endorsing movements that embrace physical intimidation over the norms on which democracies rest.

Bianca Wylie and Matt Malone discuss the problematic ArriveCAN app — into which all travellers, with few exceptions, must submit their health and travel information before they can enter Canada.

Presenting enduring challenges to those without access to or comfort with the required technologies, and against the advice of the federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners, the once-voluntary and glitch-prone alternative to COVID-19 contact tracing is now mandatory — its use enforced through steep penalties that have steadily climbed to $5,000. As Wylie and Malone lay out, the right thing to do now is shift the app to voluntary use — or retire it for good.