The Beaver and the Dragon

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. From Tiananmen to hostage diplomacy, this book captures the history we lived through but failed to understand. 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. These essays, spanning 2009 to 2025, expose the sharp power tactics and global ambitions that define Xi Jinping’s China. But Burton also leaves us with a challenge — and a hope — that democratic resilience can reclaim the future.