China's rise means resource-rich Canada should beware, historian Niall Ferguson says

OTTAWA — China will attempt to drive an economic and political wedge between Canada and the United States as it moves for a greater stake in this country's natural resources, celebrity historian and author Niall Ferguson said Friday.

"It wouldn't be China if it wasn't looking for a chance to detach Canada from its big southern neighbour and to exploit the resentment many Canadians feel about the United States," said Ferguson.

"There will be more friction between China and the U.S. in the next 10 or 15 years and Canada will find itself in the middle if that becomes a rather fraught relationship," he added.

"Imagine if either the United States or China said to Canada, 'You have to choose.'"...

Canada and other western nations should consider China a "threatening state," he said.

"Look behind the facade," he said. "It looks westernized — you see Kentucky Fried Chicken signs practically the moment you get off the plane. It looks a lot like they're westernized — more than Japan actually — but behind the facade is a one-party state where the power of the state is pretty much sacrosanct and individual freedom is circumscribed in a way we would find intolerable"...