{"id":263086,"date":"2025-11-05T10:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T10:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263086\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T10:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T10:09:08","slug":"canada-china-relations-are-about-more-than-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263086\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada-China relations are about more than business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping make their way to their seats after shaking hands at the start of a meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Oct. 31.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Charles Burton is a former diplomat at Canada\u2019s embassy in Beijing, senior fellow at Sinopsis.cz, a China-focused think-tank based in Prague and author of The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada\u2019s Diplomacy, Security and Sovereignty<\/p>\n

The remarks by Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a> and Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> ahead of their bilateral meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea last week were shockingly revealing about the changing dynamic between Canada and China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot more being discussed than Ottawa lifting tariffs<\/a> on Chinese EVs and steel in exchange for China removing tariffs on Canadian canola and seafood, whether Canada realizes it or not.<\/p>\n

As an updated barometer of the relationship, Mr. Xi\u2019s terse statement at the meeting made it clear that Canada is a supplicant to the Middle Kingdom, that we have been wrong and will change our ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadian side has expressed its willingness to promote the development of bilateral relations in a pragmatic and constructive manner,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Chinese side is willing to work with the Canadian side to push China-Canada relations back onto the correct track of sound, stable, and sustained development at an early date.\u201d<\/p>\n

China approves group tourism travel to Canada after Carney-Xi meeting<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Carney, in subordinate mode, echoed the Chinese messaging, promising \u201cpragmatic and constructive\u201d engagement. \u201cConstructive and pragmatic\u201d is specific Beijing propaganda code. What it means is, in return for access to our markets, you shall not voice criticism of Chinese actions that violate international norms.<\/p>\n

That would include Canada perhaps ignoring situations like China\u2019s interference in Canada\u2019s democratic processes or its intimidation of Chinese Canadians and permanent residents.<\/p>\n

Internationally, this may mean Canada does not challenge China over its policy regarding Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea or Beijing\u2019s practice of providing surveillance technology to repressive autocrats to suppress democratic forces. <\/p>\n

We should assume that Canada would no longer speak out about China\u2019s policies of genocide against Uyghurs or its violation of the language, cultural and religious rights of Tibetans and other ethnicities.<\/p>\n

But it was Mr. Carney\u2019s final words before the leaders went into their meeting that were most revealing: \u201cWe will establish a road to seize the many great opportunities between our countries and also to have the platform that\u2019s needed for the dialogue to help build a more sustainable and inclusive international system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: How Canada can properly use China as a hedge against Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA more sustainable and inclusive international system\u201d is Beijing\u2019s favoured terminology to describe China\u2019s planned new world order, which it calls \u201cthe community of the common destiny of mankind,\u201d which it sees as buttressing its rise as global hegemon, supplanting a fading Uncle Sam.<\/p>\n

China has already mapped out the rising and falling of empires. They plan a world that abandons the liberal democratic principles of the postwar United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international law against genocide and torture and the equal sovereignty of nations. Mr. Xi says this will happen by 2050; that would coincide with his 97th birthday, but Chinese Communist leaders are typically long lived.<\/p>\n

Shortly before Mr. Carney met with Mr. Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation conference in South Korea, Kody Blois, parliamentary secretary to Mr. Carney, had been in Beijing along with Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald. The statement from the Canadian Prime Minister\u2019s Office about Mr. Carney and Mr. Xi\u2019s meeting says, \u201cboth leaders directed their officials to move quickly to resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants.\u201d The \u201cirritants\u201d certainly include Canada\u2019s strictures against China, such as limiting access to mineral resources in Canada\u2019s North and removing regulations that prevent China from legally importing Canadian dual-use military high tech.<\/p>\n

Opinion: I\u2019ve spent 50 years navigating Canada-China relations. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned<\/a><\/p>\n

Obviously, the spark behind Ottawa\u2019s outreach to China is U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s economic and diplomatic belligerence. As Mr. Trump shreds the trading relationship that has long been the bedrock of Canada\u2019s mercantile economy, Ottawa is under pressure to quickly find new partners and markets.<\/p>\n

This is something China has the power to deliver.<\/p>\n

If Canada agrees to revive the free-trade negotiations bungled by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2017, or even join China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative global infrastructure program to remake the world in Beijing\u2019s favour, China could decide to buy much more Canadian grain, minerals and lumber by simply buying less from countries such as the United States, Australia or Brazil, and invest big-time in Canadian infrastructure.<\/p>\n

But does this reset of our bilateral relations with China in a pragmatic and constructive manner fall into the biblical trap: \u201cWhat is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, before he entered politics, Mr. Carney was in China in his capacity as board chair of the global financial and data company Bloomberg. One wonders if he fully appreciates that Canada-China relations are about a lot more than big business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping make their way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-263086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}