With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set to embark on his first official visit to China, the Chinese government is trying to ease concerns about its human rights record as a way to encourage a deeper business relationship with Canada.
Advertisement
Canadian officials caution there is unlikely to be an announcement on possible free-trade talks with China during Trudeau’s visit, which culminates this weekend with a G-20 summit meeting in the city of Hangzhou. British Columbia instituted a tax on foreign real estate buyers, a move aimed nearly exclusively at wealthy Chinese driving up the Vancouver housing market, while Trudeau’s government has moved to collect more data on foreign home ownership.
Trudeau is in the east Asian country for high-level meetings and the G20, which gets underway later this week, but the canola dispute is expected to dominate the trade agenda.
On the issue of Human rights, the Canadian Prime Minister said that his country has earned a reputation for standing up strongly for human right issues, and China with its increasing influence on the world stage need to take responsibility for its action.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government discussed free trade with China, but chose instead to focus its energy on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Canada’s pact with Europe, says a former cabinet member.
Through 10 years of working with the Conservative government, he said Canada-China relations made some progress, but noted that sometimes the “pace and priorities” were “quite different”. He later tried to cozy up to China, but the relationship was always marked by suspicion – especially as China became more assertive under strongman president Xi Jinping.
Trudeau also says he will raise human rights, an issue of great sensitivity in Beijing.
The prime minister tried to sell China on the idea that strengthening its connection to Canada would ease worldwide concerns about the stunning rise of the economic superpower.
China will view the visit as a chance to fix ties with Canada, said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing and an adviser to the State Council.
There remains the issues of how to handle Chinese incursions in the South China Sea and consular cases including that of Canadian Kevin Garratt, still in Chinese prison after being arrested for espionage, as well as the ongoing dispute over canola.
He noted that “a renewed relationship” will benefit both countries and create new opportunities for trade and investment.
China hopes Trudeau’s visit can bring fresh impetus to ties, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday at a daily briefing.
He also said Canada can play a key role in dealing with anxiety around the world about trade and China, in general. Canada exports almost four million tonnes of canola seeds to China every year, which is approximately 40 per cent of Canada’s yearly canola seed exports.
Advertisement
At a question-and-answer session with the China Entrepreneur Club, Jack Ma, founder of the tech company Alibaba Group and one of Asia’s wealthiest people, paid “special thanks” to the elder Trudeau during a love-in for his son.
