Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in Beijing, marking the inaugural visit by a Canadian prime minister to China in the last eight years. Carney is scheduled to hold meetings with senior communist leaders on Thursday, followed by a meeting with President Xi Jinping and attending a business banquet on Friday.
This visit is significant as it is the first time a Canadian prime minister has visited China since the country detained two Canadians for nearly three years in 2019 as a response to the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Carney aims to discuss enhancing trade and environmental collaboration with China while being cautious about sensitive sectors related to national security or the Arctic. A focal point of the discussions will be China’s imposing tariffs on products like pork, canola, and seafood, in retaliation to Ottawa’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel, and aluminum.
During the visit, Western and Atlantic premiers are hopeful that China will lift these tariffs. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is also visiting China concurrently with Carney’s visit. However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford expressed concerns about potential policy changes that could impact the Canadian auto sector.
Industry experts view this trip as a brief yet crucial visit where both countries aim to move past previous diplomatic strains and as Ottawa seeks to double non-U.S. trade by 2035. This visit occurs amidst ongoing concerns about Chinese interference in Canadian elections, human rights violations against the Uyghur minority, freedom of speech issues in Hong Kong, and China’s territorial expansion efforts.
In 2022, the Liberals labeled China as a “disruptive global power” that diverges from Canada’s values. Despite past issues, Carney’s government now considers Beijing a strategic partner and recently advised two Liberal MPs to cut short their visit to Taiwan to avoid conflicting with Ottawa’s stance of not recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation.