{"id":239189,"date":"2026-01-11T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/239189\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:09:16","slug":"floor-crosser-michael-ma-will-escort-carney-in-china-to-woo-xi-jinping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/239189\/","title":{"rendered":"Floor-crosser Michael Ma will escort Carney in China to woo Xi Jinping"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Source: Facebook\/Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Michael Ma, who defected from the Conservative party just weeks ago, will accompany Prime Minister Mark Carney on his high-profile trip to Beijing.<\/p>\n

Carney is scheduled to visit China from Jan. 13 to 17, 2026, marking the first visit by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau\u2019s unsuccessful 2017 trip.<\/p>\n

The visit signals a major shift by the Liberal government to cosy up to China after years of strained ties over human rights abuses, Beijing\u2019s coercive diplomacy and the former detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.<\/p>\n

According to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, Carney will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. He will be joined by a delegation of senior government officials and business leaders. Ma stands out as the most controversial political attendee, given his short time in the Liberal caucus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Outlets like The Bureau have highlighted<\/a> Ma\u2019s ties to Chinese diaspora organizations suspected of promoting communist China\u2019s talking points abroad. After he crossed the floor to join the Liberal government, former supporters of Ma protested outside of his constituency office, with some speculating<\/a> about Ma\u2019s ties to China.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Ma was listed as a director of the Chinese Canadian Conservative Association (CCCA), a diaspora organization that has repeatedly echoed Beijing-aligned talking points on Canada\u2013China relations.<\/p>\n

The group gained notoriety after the 2021 federal election when it publicly urged then\u2013Conservative leader Erin O\u2019Toole to resign, citing what it described as his \u201canti-China\u201d stance.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2025 election, the organization told Chinese Canadian voters to \u201cvote carefully,\u201d later escalating its rhetoric by calling on Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to step down. After the Conservatives\u2019 election defeat, the group claimed that party leaders who \u201cantagonize Beijing\u201d are unelectable in Canada.<\/p>\n

Statements attributed to a CCCA spokesman have further fueled controversy. The spokesman asserted that China\u2019s arrest of the \u201cTwo Michaels\u201d occurred only after \u201cCanada started the war,\u201d argued that Beijing had the right to fly military aircraft into Taiwan\u2019s air-defence identification zone, and said Canada should refrain from publicly criticizing China\u2019s human-rights abuses.<\/p>\n

Social media posts on WeChat also show leaders of the organization meeting with Ma in March 2025 and publicly promoting their endorsement of him.<\/p>\n

Ma\u2019s inclusion in Carney\u2019s Beijing delegation comes as Parliament and Canada\u2019s security agencies continue to grapple with allegations of Chinese interference<\/a> in federal elections and diaspora politics. Conservatives have repeatedly warned that efforts to normalize relations with Beijing risk sidelining concerns about national sovereignty, human rights and foreign influence.<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Facebook\/Wikimedia Commons Liberal MP Michael Ma, who defected from the Conservative party just weeks ago, will accompany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-239189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}