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China watchers are expressing concern about Beijing’s recent messaging on bilateral relationships with Canada, as Prime Minister Mark Carney
met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Oct. 31.
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The Chinese readout of the
meeting says Xi told Carney that both countries should “develop an objective and rational perception of one another, view each other in the correct way, and advance the bilateral relations in light of the common and long-term interests of both countries”—points not mentioned in the Canadian
readout.
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Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Canada-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, says the Chinese framing of the meeting is a “diplomatic rebranding” of a position Xi previously
expressed to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: that Canada must “create conditions” first for bilateral relations to improve.
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“Different words, same message,” Tohti said in an Oct. 31 social media
post. “In plain street language, it means: ‘Come to our terms — fix your attitude, admit your mistakes, and repent for hurting the feelings of the Chinese people.’”
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The Oct. 31 engagement was the first meeting between Canadian and Chinese leaders since Trudeau
visited Beijing in December 2017. It took place amid strained trade relations, marked by tariff disputes, as well as fragile diplomacy following the Meng Wanzhou affair in 2018 and recent
revelations of China’s foreign interference and escalating
transnational repression operations in Canada.
Carney said after his meeting with Xi that he was “very pleased with the outcome” and that Canadian and Chinese officials have been “instructed to work at pace on issues moving forward,” regarding trade issues and irritants.
“We now have a turning point in the relationship, a turning point that creates opportunities for Canadian families, for Canadian businesses and Canadian workers, and also creates a path to address current issues,” Carney said.
The ‘Correct’ Perception
Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig echoed Tohti’s concerns, saying in an Oct. 31 social media
post that Xi’s calls for other leaders to show a “correct” perception of China equates to “diplomatic gatekeeping.”
“The key phrase ‘correct perception’ … encompasses political demands rooted in decades of Communist Party discourse: never question the legitimacy of its authoritarian rule,” Kovrig wrote in an Oct. 16 blog
post.
“‘Correct perception’ also reflects an ideological tradition that goes back to Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong that the [Chinese Communist Party] has a monopoly on truth,” he added. “Either you understand it ‘correctly’ and accept its political system and red lines, or you are wrong—and will suffer.”
Kovrig, a former diplomat who is now a think tank scholar, was detained in China in 2018 for more than 1,000 days along with fellow Canadian Michael Spavor as part of Beijing’s retaliation tactics for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver due to a U.S. extradition request.
A ‘Pragmatic’ Approach
The Chinese readout of the Oct. 31 meeting also says that the new Canadian government places “high importance” on its relations with China.
“[Canada] wishes to seize the opportunity of the improvement of bilateral ties, renew the founding spirit of diplomatic relations, make up for lost time, restart bilateral cooperation, and achieve more outcomes in Canada-China relations in a pragmatic and constructive manner,” the readout says.
The Canadian readout also used the terms “pragmatic and constructive” to describe how both countries intend to approach bilateral relations.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy, says that approach may mean different things for both countries.
“The PM likes to say that he’s pragmatic,” she said in an Oct. 31 social media
post. “For the Chinese, that word means that we will do what they tell us we must do to create stable relations [with] Beijing (silence on Uyghurs & Taiwan, allow EVs, access to critical minerals, etc).”
Tohti says that by stressing the need to diversify trade beyond the United States amid tariff tensions, Canada may be “exposing itself a bit too much.”
“That message may sound pragmatic at home, but to hostile or rival states it can signal vulnerability — even desperation,” Tohti
said.
“Our plain, straightforward style of communication — admirable in principle — doesn’t always translate well in places like China or India,” he added. “In those older political cultures, subtlety and leverage define diplomacy, and naïveté is often read as weakness.”
On the same day as Carney’s meeting with Xi, Canada’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson and his G7 counterparts announced a critical minerals
pact during a meeting in Toronto, aimed at countering China’s market-distorting practices.
Recent Engagements
Carney’s meeting with Xi follows a recent visit by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand to Beijing, after which she said Canada was in a “strategic partnership” with China. This wording was criticized by Conservatives, who said it appeared to contradict Carney’s comments during the election that China is Canada’s “biggest security threat.” [Taken from
here]
“Can the minister reconcile these two things, or is this another example of the prime minister saying one thing during the election and doing another afterward?” Tory MP Michael Chong
said in the House of Commons on Oct. 23.
Anand responded that the security of Canadians is always “top of mind” for her government.
“At the same time, Canada will continue to become the strongest economy in the G7, and the way we do that is to diversify our supply chains while making sure we protect our citizens at home,” she said.
Carney last month
met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the two discussed trade irritants and agreed to continue talks at the highest levels of government.
As well, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe
visited China in early September to advocate for a resolution to the ongoing canola trade dispute. China has imposed steep tariffs on Canadian canola—one of Saskatchewan’s main exports—and other agricultural products in retaliation for Canada’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and metals.
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Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
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Udumbara
