Remembering fondly his first visit as a child to China with his father, former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, the younger Trudeau said that he brought his daughter with him on this trip, and that he hoped to pass along “the friendship and the openness towards China” not only to his own children, but also to the future generations of Canada.
Advertisement
Trudeau travelled to China for his first official visit with wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and seven-year-old daughter Ella-Grace.
Trudeau will travel as well to Hangzhou for a summit meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers on September 4 and 5.
Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s top diplomat in China for four years, said he’s noticed a change in terms of people’s ability to express themselves freely, and not in a positive way.
A week later, Michael Chan, a Chinese-Canadian who was Ontario’s provincial minister of citizenship, immigration and global trade, defended China’s human rights practices in a column on a Canadian Chinese-language website, 51.ca.
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.
Canada complained earlier this year after China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, lashed out at a Canadian journalist during a visit to Ottawa for questioning China’s human rights record.
The poll results echo Mr. Trudeau’s parallel messaging in the lead-up to his eight-day trip to China, in which he said he would address issues of human rights and democracy even as he tried to boost Canadian exports to China. That has provoked anger in Canada, where many see China as a threat to their way of life, and underscored the challenge faced by Trudeau, who took office in November, as he seeks more engagement after a decade of sometimes chilly ties under his predecessor.
After meeting with Trudeau, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told reporters through a translator that Canada and China will launch a feasibility study on an eventual free-trade deal.
“In a way, when the numbers are like this, there is a lot more flexibility for the Prime Minister in terms of not just what he wants to achieve, but what is realistic in terms of engagement with the Chinese”, he said.
“We have important relationships with the world’s most powerful nations and have developed a capacity for mutual accommodation and governance”, Morneau said yesterday in Beijing.
Robertson added that Trudeau will be closely watched by the press on the issues following a visit in Juned from China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In particular, the Liberals feel they need to catch up with other countries that have developed or established stronger ties with China in recent years. The hard reality, though, is that China remains a very hard nut to crack.
“In a good year it’s Canada’s number one export and it’s easily this province’s number one export to China”.
On Tuesday, Trudeau hinted that Canada’s application had been in the works.
Advertisement
The detention of Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt in 2014 on espionage charges also looms over the visit.
