Charles Burton (sinologist)

Charles Burton (b. 1955) in Ottawa, Canada) is an associate professor at Brock University and a "scholar-diplomat" whose writings, policy reports and extensive media interviews have had considerable impact on Western governments' approach to relations with the People's Republic of China.

He has a B.A. from Trinity College at the University of Toronto as well as a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (1987). His thesis topic was "Political Authority and Value Change in Post-Mao China". He is the author of the book Political and social change in China since 1978 (Greenwood Press, 1990).

Burton's 2005 report commissioned by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs entitled Assessment of the Canada-China Bilateral Human Rights Dialogue was released in an unclassified public version in April, 2006. As revealed by U.S. diplomatic cables from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks the "Burton Report" had considerable impact on Western policy approaches to engagement with China on human rights and China's engagement with the West on human rights. Burton's findings were the lead story in the Toronto Globe and Mail on April 16, 2006 and the subject of an editorial in the same paper entitled "China isn't listening" which noted "China has a long tradition of receiving foreign guests and then utterly ignoring what they say. Today's Communist leaders are no more fond of foreigners' lectures than emperors of old, especially if the subject is human rights. Canada should have known this when Beijing agreed to begin a human-rights 'dialogue' with Ottawa in 1997. In return for Canada's pledge not to co-sponsor a motion chastising China at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, China's leaders promised they would listen when Canadian officials came to talk about rights violations in China. Always unpromising, this process has now been revealed as a complete charade." . The report was the subject of hearings in the Canadian House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee between 2006 and 2008 which were extensively reported in the Canadian and international press.

In February 2009, the Canadian International Council issued Burton's monograph A Reassessment of Canada's Interests in China and Options for Renewal of Canada's China Policy. This report was the subject of considerable scholarly debate in Canada and internationally. and the subject of numerous media interviews and reports.

Burton has served as a senior policy advisor to the Government of Canada. . He has also been involved in policy discussions at the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Party School and other senior Chinese Government institutions. He has taught at Brock University in Ontario since 1989. . Burton was educated at Trinity College of the University of Toronto, Pembroke College at Cambridge University and Fudan University. He was Izaak Walton Killam Post-Doctoral Scholar at the University of Alberta and served as "Post Sinologist" and Counsellor for Cultural and Scientific Affairs at the Embassy of Canada to China 1991-93 and subsequently as the Embassy's Counsellor for Political and Economic Affairs, 1998-2000.