China’s rise is having a direct impact on our prosperity, our health and well-being, and our security here in Canada. The road to achieving many of our middle-power aspirations now runs through the Middle Kingdom. We need to start paying closer attention, says David Mulroney, author of the new book Middle Power, Middle Kingdom. China has become our second largest economic partner, not as important as the US is, but far bigger than all the rest. An assertive China is challenging the balance of power in the Pacific, and it is more than willing to reach across borders, including Canada’s, to steal technologies and to confront challenges to its ideology. We must do better. David Mulroney will also discusses what our challenges in Afghanistan were and how we eventually got it right, and how these lessons can be applied to the future challenges of China, and beyond. He is uniquely positioned to discuss these issues.

David Mulroney is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. He served as the Deputy Minister responsible for the Afghanistan Task Force, overseeing interdepartmental coordination of all aspects of Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan. He then served as Ambassador of Canada to the People’s Republic of China from 2009 to 2012.