Article content continued

There was little mention of the diplomatic dust-up at the Dec. 18 event at the Chinese Embassy, which was attended by a several dozen people, including leading Canadian academics and business leaders, as well as past students in the program.

“We are currently accepting applications from Canadians wishing to study, research or pursue language-training in China during the 2019-2020 academic year. I encourage you to share this opportunity with your respective networks so they can apply before the deadline on March 1, 2019,” Taylor said.

At this particularly sensitive period, however, if I were a Canadian citizen I would be cautious about travelling in China or studying abroad there

Taylor said that strong “people-to-people connections have been the bedrock of our dynamic bilateral relationship” and that both countries view “education co-operation” as a strategic priority.

“And that priority is easy to see. China is Canada’s most important source of international students with more than 140,000 Chinese students on campuses of Canadian institutions,” she said, adding that Chinese nationals account for more than one-quarter of Canada’s international student population.

Canada’s continued engagement with China on the education exchange is indicative of its “national myopia” in relation to the People’s Republic, said Mulroney.

“If any other country had detained Canadians in a similar manner, all government-sponsored exchanges would immediately be put on hold,” said Mulroney.

“It’s not our fault that China has made it riskier for scholars to work there, nor should we be so eager to contribute to the fiction that it’s business as usual,” he added. “To get our future engagement of China right, we’re going to have to change things, and see the relationship in entirely new ways. That’s really hard to do, but it’s absolutely necessary.”

Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said she has never opposed government scholarships for study in China.

“At this particularly sensitive period, however, if I were a Canadian citizen I would be cautious about travelling in China or studying abroad there.”