But after a meeting Wednesday in Beijing between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the two countries announced the existing rules would stay in place as they continued to negotiate a long-term solution.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will tour the Great Wall, shoot hoops with retired basketball star Yao Ming and meet with female entrepreneurs when he travels to China in the coming week to bolster trade and diplomatic ties, his office said Friday.
After meeting with Trudeau in Beijing, Chinese premier Li Keqiang said that Canada and China will launch a feasibility study on an eventual free-trade deal.
China’s ambassador (Luo Zhaohui) also said last week that China sees the dawn of a new Trudeau era in Canada as a “new opportunity” to strengthen ties between the two countries.
China is now Canada’s second largest trading partner.
Evans said the Liberal government’s decision to sign on would be symbolically important in terms of Canada-China relations.
Forty-three years after his father’s historic footstep, Trudeau will visit a very different China, whose economic progress has lifted millions of people out of poverty and reforms have made it the second-largest economy in the world.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who will accompany Trudeau on the trip, hinted on August 21 the government was open to easing the 2012 restrictions.
In January, Reuters reported that Canada joined the United States, Germany, Japan and the European Union in expressing concern over a new counter-terrorism law in China and two draft laws, on cybersecurity and on the management of global NGOs, respectively.
“You say you’re concerned about human rights issues?”
Trudeau has also submitted Canada’s application to join a controversial new global infrastructure bank led by China.
The Prime Minister also attend the summit of leaders of the Group of 20 countries among the most developed in the world (G20) in Hangzhou, 4 and 5 September. In 2014, half of the Canadian respondents said their were against the free trade deal with China.
That gives Trudeau an opening as he faults the Harper government for going “from hot to cold” on various issues and failing to establish a “robust and stable relationship” with Beijing. The prime minister has said there’s no evidence to support the allegations. The documents also show that federal officials realized it was inevitable companies would need temporary foreign workers to proceed with the energy projects in western Canada.
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The family “implores the Canadian and Chinese leadership to set aside their differences and reach a resolution to allow Kevin to exit China and obtain critically needed medical treatment and to return to his family”, they said. Making no mention of China’s use of torture, illegal detention or other systemic abuses, Chan argued that China’s rights record should be viewed positively, in the context of economic development.
