DI SPATC H E S| CANADA-CHINA RELATIONS
Wanted: A major reset
Our writer, a former Canadian ambassador to China, says its time to re-examine and restart Canada’s relationship with its second-largest trading partner Guy Saint-Jacques
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oth Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau have alluded to an upcoming revised engagement strategy with China. This is good news as Canada takes stock of the aggressive path President Xi Jinping has taken in China. Trust has been broken with the heavy penalties imposed on Canada after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou in December 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities, including taking Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig as hostages. 60
The China of Xi Jinping
It is important to understand where China is going. When Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Communist Party of China in November 2012, he was concerned about instability, inequalities in Chinese society and the bad reputation of the party. He has put measures in place to clean up the party, launched a major anti-corruption campaign and more recently revived the notion of common prosperity. Domestically, there has been a major crackdown on freedom of expression, more lawyers and labour activists ar-
rested, no tolerance for dissent, controls on foreign NGOs and the introduction of the social credit system that penalizes those who dare to criticize the Chinese regime. Traditionally, China’s foreign policy has been based on its security and territorial integrity (it has 14 neighbours), but also on principles such as non-interference, equality and mutual respect. These principles seem to have been jettisoned when you look at the Wolf Warriors type of diplomacy pursued by Chinese diplomats, including recent Chinese ambassadors to Canada. Since 2012, we have seen a China FALL 2021 | OCT-NOV-DEC
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shown here with Chinese President Xi Jinping, has alluded to a revised engagement strategy with China.
