China and Canada Reset Ties after Xi and Carney Meet in Beijing
China and Canada Reset Ties after Xi and Carney Meet in Beijing
Noriko Watanabe, Kanako Mita, and Sawako Utsumi
Modern Tokyo Times
Economic, geopolitical, and political ties between China and Canada have deteriorated sharply in recent years. However, following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, the two sides formally signaled the beginning of a strategic reset.
Carney acknowledged that trade with the United States remains overwhelmingly dominant, even though China stands as Canada’s second-largest export market. He stated candidly, “Our relationship with the US is much more multifaceted and broader than our relationship is with China.”
Yet the increasingly unpredictable nature of President Donald Trump’s administration is unsettling long-standing allies. From erratic trade policies to provocative rhetoric — including threats regarding Greenland — alarm bells are ringing across NATO. Against this backdrop, Canada is recalibrating its external relationships. Ottawa is seeking to reset ties with Beijing primarily through an economic lens, while China, in turn, views the reset through a broader geopolitical framework shaped by America’s shifting posture.
The BBC reports: “North America’s auto supply chains are deeply intertwined between Canada, the US and Mexico. But Trump’s tariff and trade war has rattled businesses, and the entry of more affordable foreign vehicles could alter the market in a number of ways.”
On Taiwan, Carney adhered to established diplomatic language, stating: “It’s consistent. We have relations with the government here, the People’s Republic of China, and we have people-to-people relations with Taiwan.”
Canada has made clear that it seeks to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and food exports, reaffirm its commitment to multilateralism and global governance, expand collaboration in clean energy and environmental protection, and deepen cultural and people-to-people ties.
President Xi told the Canadian leader that “our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement.”
Xi added, “The healthy and stable development of China–Canada relations serves the common interests of our two countries.”
Carney echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of a “new strategic partnership” and noting that both countries “can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities.”
The Guardian observed: “Carney’s state visit, the result of methodical diplomatic calculations, speaks to the pain of a trade war with the US and an urgent need to expand Canada’s exports in order to offset mounting economic punishment inflicted by its neighbour and largest trading partner.”
Similarly, The New York Times reported: “Carney has pledged to diversify Canada’s customers to counter a seismic pivot away from the United States because of Mr. Trump’s policy of imposing tariffs on some key Canadian goods, questioning the necessity and future of their free-trade agreement (which also includes Mexico) and occasionally laying claim to Canada itself.”
Lee Jay Walker (Modern Tokyo Times analyst) says, “In this climate of tariff escalation and strategic uncertainty driven by the Trump administration, both China and Canada recognize the tangible benefits of recalibrating their relationship. A reset is no longer optional — it is a pragmatic response to a rapidly shifting global economic and geopolitical order.”
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