Now Docking at Pier 21: The US-China Trade War?
In March 1928, the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia boasted a new addition to its harbour front: a facility that was known as Pier 21.
The space was set up as a reception centre in response to the growing number of immigrants arriving at Canada’s East Coast and given that the city’s comparatively modestly sized Pier 2, was no longer able to accommodate the influx.
Over the course of its operation from 1928 to 1971, Pier 21 permitted over one million arrivals. Administrative records indicate that immigrants into the centre were organised into two tranches: “British” and “foreigners” and that the services offered included assessments of “citizenship and medical condition, providing quarantine, detention, customs, and social services”.
The arrival of the centre also heralded some notable changes in the transatlantic region, some of which were the result of a burgeoning immigration ecosystem. For example, newspaper accounts from the time showcased Canada’s “improved commercial transatlantic radio telephone service”, while steam ship services (that provided transport across the Atlantic) partnered with Canadian railway companies to promote immigration.
By many accounts, Pier 21 was considered a pioneering development for its time and the site would soon come to be known as the ‘Gateway to Canada’. However, the pomp and circumstance around the centre came to a near halt in 1929: the year of the Great Depression.
The economic downturn invariably meant high unemployment rates (a quarter of the country was unemployed in the early 1930s) and as a consequence, there were “profound responses in Canadian immigration policy”. Immigration arrival numbers fell from 105,000 in 1930 to 21,000 in 1932. The next major step to ease the burden on government coffers was deportations, with historians noting that “for every two or three people admitted to Canada, one was being deported”. Come 1939, Canada faced yet another crisis with the onset of the Second World War, which caused a further drop in immigration numbers to an average of 12,000 arrivals per year.
While the architects of the grand Pier 21 project may not have been able to anticipate the onset of the Great Depression and the Second World War so soon after its construction, there is opportunity for us to brace for the impact of other major economic and political developments including the US-China trade war.
As is widely known by now, China holds the unique distinction of being the only country exempt from US President Trump’s tariff exemptions and subject to a 125 percent cumulative tariff on imports.
In his recent Op-Ed in The Indian Express, our Indo-Pacific Studies Programme Staff Research Analyst, Amit Kumar, expands on these recent and sweeping developments and argues:
While the economists backing Trump are right that America’s financial guarantee benefits the world, they carefully omit the benefits that the US accrues from this arrangement. The foremost among them is the low cost of capital and financing, which has been instrumental in driving America’s tech innovation. With the deepening US-China tech rivalry, Washington needs it, perhaps now more than ever.
To read his analysis in full, including his astute predictions of where this tariff war is headed, follow the link provided.
P.S.: Pier 21, soon became the ‘Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21’, to showcase the essential role of immigration in Canada’s history. Pier 21 was designated a national historic site in 1997 and is Canada’s sixth national museum.
Welcome to Our Satellite Internet Series!
What technology demonstrates applicability across military operations, disaster response, healthcare services, agricultural productivity, transportation, and public services? Satellite internet, of course.
In fact, as our High-Tech Geopolitics Research Analyst, Ashwin Prasad, would argue in his recent discussion document on the topic, the dual-use nature of such technologies across both military and civilian activities, “creates complex security dynamics” and leads to him arguing:
Satellite internet can simultaneously function as critical civilian infrastructure and as a strategic military asset. The Ukraine-Russia conflict has highlighted how satellite internet has become a geopolitical tool capable of shaping modern warfare and crisis response. Governments will increasingly recognise that control over satellite internet infrastructure represents a new dimension of national power and influence in the international system.
To read the first of his series on satellite internet, including four factors that will transform the satellite internet landscape, follow this link.
Applications Open: Our 12-week Graduate Certificate in Public Policy!
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Advanced Public Policy: Deepen your understanding of economic and governance systems use frameworks to understand how politics and economics intersect and strategies to navigate them effectively.
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Applications close on 20 April, 2025 so apply here at the earliest.
Understanding UCAVs: All Things Policy Episode of the Week!
This week’s All Things Policy Episode we’re showcasing is China’s manufacturing of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs). In this conversation our High-Tech Geopolitics Research Analysts, Adya Madhavan and Shobhankita Reddy discuss the factors that have led to China building a strong export market for UCAVs, and the implications for India and others.
To listen into their insightful chat, follow this link.
Takshashila Tabletop Trove!
For regular readers of the Dispatch, this section needs no introduction, but for our newer viewers, I’ll have you know that this section is intended to be a digital repository of the books that sit in Takshashila’s physical office space in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
This week’s theme is Spaced Out Frontiers curated by our Indo-Pacific Studies Programme team:
Rockets and Missiles: The Life Story of a Technology (A. Bowdoin Van Riper)
Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens (Joan Johnson-Freese)
Another Bloody Century (Colin S. Gray)
Crowded Orbits: Conflict and Cooperation in Space (James Clay Moltz)
The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (Christian Davenport)
China's Space Programme: From the Era of Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping (S. Chandrashekar)
This edition of the Dispatch was written by Kripa Koshy, Programme Manager for Takshashila’s Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy.