Beijing’s biggest fish bazaar is a briny-smelling maze of stalls stocked with massive crabs from Russia, purple lobster from Australia and yellow croaker fish from China’s southeastern coast.
What’s increasingly hard to find at Jingshen Seafood Market, however, are products from Canada: the casualties of a punishing trade war between Ottawa and Beijing.
This lost business is becoming harder for Canada to write off as the United States under Donald Trump grows increasingly protectionist and unpredictable.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who last month praised China as a country “run by engineers,” is attempting a difficult feat of construction himself in the days ahead.
He is trying to rebuild Canada’s ruptured relationship with this emerging Asian superpower while avoiding alienating Mr. Trump, who expects allies to support his tough-on-China agenda.
More than 5 per cent of Canadian exports head to China, making it among the country’s top foreign markets, but still far smaller than the 75 per cent of exports purchased by the United States.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s trip to Beijing Friday was the latest in a series of escalating diplomatic efforts to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Mr. Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping as early as late October. She is only the second Canadian foreign minister to visit China in eight years.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand, to Beijing on Friday. After their meeting, he spoke about the prospect of a ‘new starting point’ between the countries.Gilles Sabrié/The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail was granted access to China this week after being denied permission for a reporter to enter the country for several years. The newspaper hasn’t reported from China since the Winter Olympics of February, 2022, and its last full-time correspondent to be stationed inside the country left in June, 2021. The Globe currently has a correspondent based in Hong Kong.
Both Canada and China are trying to pave the way for a face-to-face between their leaders during Mr. Carney’s upcoming trip to Asia: possibly on the sidelines of the late October Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
The challenge for Mr. Carney is moving beyond the worst chapter in Canada-China relations since Beijing’s violent crackdown on protesters in 1989, which for a time made the country a pariah among Western nations.
Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, at left during an extradition hearing, was one factor that led to the current Sino-Canadian rift. She was released and sent back to China in late 2021.
Don MacKinnon and Jane Wolsak/AFP via Getty Images
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, jailed by China in retaliation for Ms. Meng, spent 1,019 days in prison. They got an ovation in Parliament when Joe Biden, then the U.S. president, spoke there in 2023.
Darryl Dyck and Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
To attribute the fracture in ties to China’s 2018 jailing of the two Michaels – Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – doesn’t capture the scope of what happened under prime minister Justin Trudeau, who early in his tenure was fairly friendly to the Chinese and had ambitions of signing a free trade deal with Beijing.
Mr. Trudeau, whose father, Pierre, famously broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1970 and instead recognized the Communist-run People’s Republic of China, was bullish on Beijing early in his career as an MP, saying publicly he admired “China’s basic dictatorship” for its ability to effect change and “turn their economy around.”
By the time Mr. Trudeau’s term as prime minister ended, however, the admiration had faded. His government had arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request, prompting the tit-for-tat jailing of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor, blocked high-profile corporate takeovers by Chinese companies, banned China’s flagship firm Huawei from the country’s wireless infrastructure, expelled one of Beijing’s diplomats and called the Hogue inquiry into foreign interference by the Asian power. It also restricted funding for academic collaboration with Chinese military and state security institutions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, greeting Justin Trudeau to Beijing in 2016, would be increasingly at odds with the Canadian government in the years that followed.Wu Hong/Reuters/Reuters
During one particular low point in 2019, then-Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye accused Canada of “white supremacy” for its treatment of Ms. Wanzhou.
Things got worse. In 2022, the House of Commons endorsed a resolution condemning China’s treatment of minority Uyghurs as “genocide,” and in recent years Ottawa teamed up with Western allies to condemn Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong and accept dissidents who fled the former British colony. Canada also deepened unofficial relations with Taiwan, beefing up its representation in Taipei and appointing an attaché there to collaborate on fighting cyber attacks – with China a major source of these.
None of this happened in a vacuum and Mr. Trudeau’s cold shoulder to China mirrored similar measures in many Western countries. Like Russia, China has transformed over the past decade from a potential partner to a rival.
The arrival of Mr. Carney, a former central banker who played no part in any of this, represents an opportunity to turn the page.
But how far he will go as prime minister in repudiating Mr. Trudeau’s value-based foreign polices is unclear.
Before he entered politics, however, Mr. Carney already demonstrated his willingness to build bridges with China, heading there as then-Bloomberg board chair in March, 2024, with a North American business delegation to meet Mr. Xi in Beijing. The event was seen as a strategic effort to restore confidence in China’s economy.
Tariffs and annexation rhetoric from the United States – the catalysts for ‘Elbows Up’ protests in the buildup to Mr. Carney’s election – have changed the politics of trade. Mr. Carney went to the White House last week to try to sway President Donald Trump, but left with no new agreement.
Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
An industry source with ties to Canada says the Chinese government has sent word through unofficial channels to the Prime Minister to say he would be welcome if he made a trip to China. The last time Mr. Trudeau visited was 2017. The Globe is not identifying the source because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The challenge for Mr. Carney is whether he can cut electric-vehicle tariffs – even partially – on China and not risk angering Mr. Trump, who just announced a new 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese imports this week and considers Beijing the greatest strategic and economic challenge.
China enacted retaliatory tariffs this year on Canadian seafood, pork, canola and other products for levies Canada imposed in concert with the United States in 2024 under Mr. Trudeau. Back then, in the name of protecting the North American auto industry from a glut of Chinese electric-vehicle overproduction, Canada and the former Biden administration slapped 100-per-cent tariffs on EVs. Both also imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.
Canola was one of the most serious casualties of Canada’s trade dispute with China. Seed oils are among Canada’s top exports to the Chinese market.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Canada is trying to strike a trade deal with Washington that would remove a string of protectionist U.S. tariffs enacted by Mr. Trump this year despite the fact the two countries had a free trade deal in place. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick dashed hopes of future co-operation in autos last week when he said the Trump administration has no interest in Canada continuing to make cars for the United States market and that U.S. tariffs on Canadian-made vehicles would remain in place even after a new trade pact.
Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan, home to significant canola production, suggested in September that Canada could look to jurisdictions that have lower tariffs on EVs – such as the European Union’s levy of up to 35 per cent or Mexico’s proposed 50-per-cent charge on Chinese vehicles.
Mr. Carney, speaking to reporters Thursday in Ottawa, acknowledged his dilemma.
“The relationship in the auto sector is [not] that simple to just open the door to China with no impact on the relationship with the United States and the activity here in Canada,” he said.
China in August imposed a 75.8-per-cent duty on Canadian canola seed, a major crop in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as part of its retaliation for Ottawa’s 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and 25-per-cent levies on Chinese steel and aluminum in 2024.
Beijing’s move was on top of a 100-per-cent tariff on Canadian canola oil, canola meal and peas imposed in March, and a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian seafood and pork products.
China has made no secret of its wish for Canada to drop the tariffs on electric vehicles, saying it would then drop the retaliatory levies it enacted.
At the Jingshen Seafood Market, where giant crabs are trying to climb out of their tanks and vendors chop live fish for sale right in front of customers, the space dedicated to Canadian lobster has shrunk. Vendor Huang Sheng said he plans to fill some empty tanks with U.S. lobster.
Mr. Huang says the doubling of prices for Canadian seafood as a result of tariffs have also driven him to import more Russian crab because Chinese consumers aren’t willing to pay twice the price when the domestic economy is sluggish. “Consumers will definitely prioritize Russian seafood,” he said.
Seafood importers across China say they are anxious for the trade war to end. The retaliatory tariffs are hurting their livelihood, they say, and shrinking the Chinese market for products from Canada.
Haishan Brother Seafood, in China’s southeastern Fujian province, which sells Canadian-harvested shrimp as a “pure delicacy of the polar regions,” has had to look elsewhere for supply.
Jeremy Lin, vice marketing director at Haishan Brother Seafood, based in Fuzhou, said the company’s imports of Canadian shrimp have plummeted.
He said Chinese importers have turned to Canada’s competitors in Denmark, Greenland and Norway to make up the difference.
Mr. Lin said his overall Canadian seafood imports have fallen by as much as 40 per cent.
He said he prefers Canadian suppliers, explaining that “Canadian seafood exporters are among the more professional” trading partners to be found.
Wang Heng, the owner of Jinguo Seafood in the northern Chinese city of Shenyang, has sold northern shrimp for more than 20 years to both restaurants and retail customers. She said the tariff is making her company consider cutting its losses and finding another line of business after the levy cut revenue in half.
“Our ability to withstand risk is definitely not the same as larger companies.”
She said Canadian shrimp has been losing ground in the local market – a trend exacerbated by the trade war. “The number of stores specializing in Canadian seafood in our area has been decreasing over time, and now there are only two or three left.”
From the lobster boats of the Maritimes to the seafood market in Beijing, many stakeholders are paying a price for the tariff standoff between China and Canada. Many Chinese importers are turning to other suppliers, like the Nordic countries.
Gilles Sabrié/The Globe and Mail; Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Despite the chill that still hangs over the Canada-China relationship, trade is booming in some sectors. China is purchasing record amounts of Canadian oil as it cuts American purchases amid rising trade tensions with the United States. Thanks to the recent expansion of capacity on the Trans Mountain pipeline, almost five million barrels were shipped out of Vancouver in the first half of October, Bloomberg reported, citing Vortexa ship-tracking data.
China’s commentariat is divided on whether Mr. Carney will make headway on course correcting Ottawa-Beijing relations.
Dan Liu, a researcher at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies’ Center for Canadian Studies, said she thinks the intensified pressure on Mr. Carney to diversify Canada’s export markets beyond the United States will help drive compromise.
Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre on American Studies at Renmin University of China, cautions against expecting too much from a Carney-Xi talk. He said he holds a “rather pessimistic attitude” on Canada-China relations. “Sometimes meetings can even be harmful because they create illusory hopes, and when those hopes shatter, it may lead to even greater irritation toward the other side.”
He said he thinks Mr. Carney’s need to stay on Mr. Trump’s good side will prevent progress.
“His priority is managing Trump, and with Trump’s current sharp opposition to China, how could Carney possibly side with China and harm his own first priority?” Mr. Shi said. “Impossible.”
In Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s struggle for world economic dominance, every country has had to think more carefully about their trading habits.Dmitri Lovetsky/The Associated Press
Public attitudes in Canada seem to be warming to China.
A new poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada – a Canadian think tank – found that 27 per cent of Canadians now hold a favourable view of China, up from 16 per cent earlier in 2025 and nearly three times the number recorded in 2021 when it was only 10 per cent. Despite this, the Angus Reid Institute noted, 59 per cent of respondents still view the country negatively.
More than half, or 51 per cent, say Canada should focus more on its economic relationship with China – up 15 points from 2023.
On the trade-off between human rights and trade opportunities, concern over the former has fallen, the poll suggests. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, more than 70 per cent of Canadians prioritized human rights in dealing with China. That number has fallen to 52 per cent, with 48 per cent now saying trade opportunities are paramount, the polling institute said.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted the online survey Sept. 25-29 among a randomized sample of 1,700 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum.
Solar farms in the Kubuqi Desert are a monumental example of China’s energy transition, and many Chinese tourists come to Inner Mongolia to see it for themselves. China remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but is seeking to cut back.
Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
Ms. Anand’s Beijing visit Friday included a two-hour meeting with Wang Yi, her Chinese counterpart, where they agreed to revive a regular communication channel in the hopes of stabilizing relations and resolving the trade dispute. Mr. Wang issued a statement that said the meeting was a step along the way to a “new starting point” in China-Canada relations.
Ms. Anand told The Globe that under Mr. Carney the country has a “new foreign policy,” which will include a co-operative relationship with China.
“There was a full recognition that while we don’t always agree, we should be able to have a conversation,” she said.
She said Canada’s concerns about human rights in China remain, but she also noted that they are not the only consideration for Ottawa. “There are other issues as well that are important, given the changing global strategic environment, given the changing economic environment.”
Ms. Anand, at the Canadian embassy before her meeting with Mr. Wang, said human rights are among the factors Canada is weighing in its new China policy.Gilles Sabrié/The Globe and Mail
In June, a little more than a month after leading the Liberals to victory in Canada, Mr. Carney began the process of repairing relations. He and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed in a phone call to “regularize channels of communication” and to convene deputy-minister level talks to try to tackle the trade war. He also met with Mr. Li on the sides of the United Nations General Assembly last month, but not before floating public praise of China in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
In these remarks, Mr. Carney laid out a possible roadmap for co-operation with China. Canada could “engage deeply” when it comes to commodities, energy and basic manufacturing, but with guardrails that “left off to the side” anything that could “bridge into national security, privacy” or other matters.
He said fighting climate change is one area where Canada feels comfortable working with China. “This is a country that understands a lot of the engineering solutions to issues around emission,” he said of China.
Mr. Carney’s September meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang signalled the start of closer communications between Ottawa and Beijing.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Chris White, president of the Canadian Meat Advocacy Office in Beijing, said the Chinese government sees Mr. Carney as “an economic heavyweight with gravitas” who recognizes the global trading system’s reliance on China’s economy. With Mr. Carney, he said, “the focus is less on public lecturing and more on managed engagement: co-operate where interests align, ring-fence the red lines, and keep disputes out of the spotlight.”
The Canada China Business Council likes the Carney approach. “The Prime Minister has put pragmatism back at the centre of Canada’s China policy,” executive director Bijan Ahmadi said, adding that this renewed engagement matters for exporters, investors and workers “who depend on predictable access to one of Canada’s most important markets.”
Roland Paris, who once served as foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trudeau when he was prime minister, and is a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa, said how far this rapprochement might go and what it might deliver is uncertain.
“Stabilizing the relationship would be welcome given the turbulence of recent years, but the prospects for deeper co-operation are limited,” Prof. Paris said. “This is partly because China has a well-established record of turning other countries’ dependence into a source of political leverage – or worse, a weapon against countries that displease Beijing – and partly because Canada’s larger imperative remains managing its economic relationship with the U.S., by far its largest trading partner.”
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said Canada can surely export more oil and liquefied natural gas and agri-food products to China. But she warned against over-dependence on this market, saying Beijing doesn’t separate trade and diplomatic relations, which would mean that in return for buying more Canadian products the Chinese might expect changes to Canada’s support for Taiwan or its position on the South China Sea.
“The goal is not to contain China but to contain our vulnerability to the Chinese Communist Party,” Ms. Nadjibulla said.
Sophie Richardson, co-executive director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, cautioned the Carney government against backing off Canada’s commitment to promoting human rights abroad, saying “it is now painfully clear that democracies merely ‘raising’ ” human rights concerns with China doesn’t work.
Former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques said Mr. Carney must continue implementing recommendations from the Hogue inquiry into foreign interference, including a promised foreign influence registry, to stop Chinese foreign interference in Canada. “Otherwise the Canadian public will believe Mr. Carney has sacrificed Canadian values.”
With reports from Alexandra Li
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