More than four decades after his father first began paving the way in the 1970s, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in China early Tuesday to begin his first official visit there, with both countries keen to forge ever-stronger economic ties.
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After his stay in Beijing, Trudeau will fly to Hangzhou to attend the G20 summit.
Canada’s ambassador to China says human rights in that country have taken a step backwards in some areas in recent years.
Canada is also among the seven countries that came together to express concern over China’s claims in the South China Sea, which further upset Beijing.
The admission could be considered a preemptive strike to ease tensions since Canada has chastised China on its human rights issues many times in the past.
“Around the world there is anxiety around trade, there is anxiety around China”, Trudeau told a question-and-answer session at the China Entrepreneur Club.
Li also said the case of a Canadian citizen detained in China on suspicion of spying was being handled according to law.
The Globe and Mail/Nanos survey found that 44 per cent of Canadians feel that ensuring Canada has good trade relations with China should be the priority for Canada’s relations with China.
Trudeau’s Liberal party is billing this first official visit as an opportunity to build a closer long-term relationship with China compared with what party members call the “ad hoc” relations of the past.
“Membership in the AIIB is an opportunity to do just that”, he said. He’ll meet with Premier Li Keqiang, Alibaba Group Holding’s Jack Ma and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, controlling shareholder in Calgary-based Husky Energy Inc.
Trudeau also says he will raise human rights, an issue of great sensitivity in Beijing.
China wants Canada to reduce the level of dockage in its shipments by half over due to concerns about blackleg disease.
Justin Trudeau has submitted Canada’s application to join a controversial new global infrastructure bank led by China.
“We are at a time where global trade and worldwide investment often get looked through a populous lens as being something that is bad”, said Trudeau, mentioning Britain’s referendum on an exit from the European Union and the polarizing politics seen in this year’s USA presidential election cycle.
They say the growing economic clout wielded in Canada by China, Canada’s largest trading partner after the United States, is leading to an erosion of their own freedom – specifically their freedom to speak openly about China’s authoritarian state.
“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.
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In response, the Garratt family said in a statement through their lawyer that they were “extremely frustrated” by a lack of progress in securing his release and enabling him to obtain “critically-needed medical treatment”.
