Canada – China August 2023-

The search for common ground
Steve Chase, Senior parliamentary reporter
On Jan. 17, the Prime Minister reset relations with Beijing after years of strained ties by jettisoning 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles that Ottawa had originally imposed in tandem with the United States to prevent these subsidized and overproduced autos from damaging nascent EV production in North America. In return, Canada got relief from retaliatory tariffs on its No. 1 export to China, canola seed, as well as temporary exemptions from punitive levies on other products including seafood.
Carney said he hopes to see Chinese automakers put down roots in Canada within three years, offering hope that Beijing could offset declining domestic vehicle production by U.S. automakers. And it seems it worked quickly: My colleagues have published an exclusive report that Chinese car company Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. is laying the groundwork to sell its EVs in Canada.
Carney’s government also invited China to invest in Canada’s energy sector, including its oil sands, with few signs it was fencing off areas other than critical minerals, artificial intelligence and defence.
The most memorable phrase from the Prime Minister’s trip to China was how he justified inviting Beijing to play a larger role in Canada’s economy despite its human rights record and its menacing of Taiwan. We must “take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be,” Carney told reporters.
What’s interesting about this new approach, which Carney says is more realistic, is Canada and China have stowed their differences, not resolved them. This includes China’s EV subsidies, Canada’s arrest of tech executive Meng Wanzhou and Beijing’s jailing of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, concerns over Chinese interference and national-security fears over espionage and hacking that led Ottawa to bar a slew of investment from China over the past 10 years. — Globe & Mail Morning Newsletter 23 January 2026

3 April
Champagne leaves China with pork tariffs still in place, but touts relationship-building
(CBC) Champagne acknowledged the trade irritant around pork and noted other outstanding issues, like seafood. But he emphasized there is a larger vision between the Canadian and Chinese governments to engage more closely and work together when interests align.
“In a sense, my mission here was to turn the vision of [Prime Minister Mark Carney] into action,” Champagne said. “But anyone who has done business in this part of the world would know you need to build a relationship. This is not transactional.”
“You can’t expect to have more trade if you don’t show up. Showing up is half the work,” Champagne added.
A focus on financial services
At an earlier news conference on Friday, Champagne said he met with Chinese Finance Minister Lan Fo’an and Vice-Premier He Lifeng to talk about ways the Canadian financial services sector can increase operations in the country.

1 April
Canada’s finance minister aims to shore up support, investment in China
Champagne says his trip builds on Carney’s visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in January
(CBC) Champagne is meeting with high-level leaders in the financial sector and Chinese government counterparts on a two-day visit to Beijing.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is on a trade mission to China, an attempt to woo a crucial trading partner as Canada looks to shore up friends and strengthen the country’s economy. …
Last year, Canadian merchandise exports to China totalled $34.1 billion, while imports from there were $90.1 billion (though both rates were higher than in 2024).
Many Canadians who facilitate business in China see the new chapter in bilateral relations as a long-awaited opportunity to close the gap on the trade deficit as Canada works toward the goal Carney set of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030.
“It is a significant market that cannot be substituted or replaced. And especially for a country like Canada that trades a lot of commodities,” said David Perez-Des Rosiers, director of the Canada-China Business Council’s (CCBC) Beijing chapter, noting China has approximately 1.4 billion people.
Perez-Des Rosiers pointed to China’s latest five-year plan as a roadmap for Canada. The policies, which were officially adopted into government policy at the latest “two sessions” meetings, included emphasizing boosting slumping domestic consumption — something Canada could capitalize on, he says.
Bank of Canada Governor, Bay Street executives to join Finance Minister for China meetings
Mr. Champagne arrived in Beijing on Wednesday and will hold a roundtable with Canadian financial services executives on Thursday morning – some of whom are based in China and others who have travelled to the country.
The group includes Phil Witherington, chief executive of Manulife, Kevin Strain, CEO of Sunlife, and Scott Brison, vice-chair, BMO Wealth.
Also attending are local executives from Power Corp., Brookfield Asset Management, National Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Mackenzie Investments and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

29 January
Chinese EVs and Canadian Trade Remedies
By Lawrence Herman, international lawyer with Herman & Associates, a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto and a member of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations. He is a former foreign service officer, having served in Canada’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and the GATT.
(Policy) For the record, nothing in this deal on Chinese EVs contravenes any agreement we have with the Americans. While the CUSMA provides for advance information if one of the parties seeks to negotiate a free trade agreement with China, simply adjusting some tariffs, much like Trump himself has done with China many times, is not — by any stretch — a free trade negotiation.
What this latest Trump threat reveals, however, is the likely atmosphere in the impending review of the CUSMA.
Whether the agreement itself survives the process is uncertain, but whatever happens, it is difficult to imagine Trump reducing his 25% duty on Canadian auto imports. With that being the reality, the concerns of the Canadian auto sector over Chinese EV imports are understandable, every imported Chinese EV sale meaning one less sale of a Canadian-made vehicle. That means Canadian jobs.
… If these vehicles are unfairly priced and take away sales or force price reductions on Canadian auto makers, Canadian trade law gives the companies and their unions the right to seek import relief through the application of anti-dumping and countervailing (AD/CV) duties, levelling the playing field by removing any unfair price advantage from Chinese government subsidies or from below-cost, predatory export practices.
In fact, Canadian companies have been remarkably successful over many years in using these laws to combat a variety of unfairly priced Chinese imports, to the point where today almost two-thirds of all of Canada’s AD/CV duty orders are against goods from China. Most orders cover industrial products but there are those against Chinese consumer product exports as well.
These can be used as precedents for a complaint in the EV sector. Nothing in this recent agreement with China prevents these remedies being invoked. The Carney government needs to make it clear that it cannot and will not limit or curtail these long-established rights for Canadian producers, in full accord with the rules of the World Trade Organization.

21 January
Andrew Coyne: No, Canada is not selling out to Beijing
Well, that got their attention. Since the Prime Minister’s visit to China, the American media – and social media – have been filled with expressions of shock and amazement.
For critics of Donald Trump, it was payback for his bullying and abusive treatment of America’s nearest neighbour and historic ally. For the President’s supporters, it was a sign of Canadian perfidy, if not grounds for invasion. Canada will “surely regret” gives you the flavour of it.
… Don’t get me wrong. Like the former Canadian diplomat – and Chinese hostage – Michael Kovrig, I could have done without the smiley photo shoot between the Prime Minister and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The reference to a “new world order” was likewise probably ill-advised, though the same phrase has been used by everyone from George Bush the Elder to Tony Blair.
And the risks of engaging China even this far are real. The Chinese regime has not changed: it remains as vile in its treatment of its own people and as aggressive in its designs on its neighbours as before. It has a long history of cultivating dependence on its trade and capital, then using this as a lever to force compliance with its foreign policy – as Mr. Trump is trying to do now.
Therein lies both the opportunity and the danger in the Prime Minister’s “strategic partnership” with China. In seeking to lessen our dependence on the United States, Canada must guard against becoming too dependent on China.
Okay, then: how exposed are we after this agreement? Exports to China currently amount to $30-billion annually, or less than 4 per cent of all Canadian exports. A government background paper sets an “ambitious new goal” of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030. But exports would be expected to rise anyway, in line with growth in the Chinese economy: by about 25 to 35 per cent, on current trends. And Canada has similar ambitions of expanding trade with other, non-U.S. countries.
So the total impact, in trade terms, of this great pivot/tilt/reset might be to increase China’s share of Canadian exports over five years from a little under 4 per cent to maybe 5 per cent. …

19 January
Burner phones, security warnings and no ‘megaphones’: How Carney’s trip to Beijing struck a surprising new tone with China
Before entering Chinese airspace, all political staff were required to power down their usual work and personal devices and stash them in a faraday bag
In April 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney was standing on the stage of the federal election leaders’ debate when he was asked to identify the greatest threat to Canada’s national security.
Without hesitation, Carney declared: “China.”
On Thursday, Carney stood at a podium in Beijing’s Ritan Park and beamed as he announced a new “strategic partnership” with China that aims to increase trade, communication and collaboration between both countries.
It also makes a strong push for Chinese EV investments in Canada with the eventual objective of having a manufacturing plant established in Canada. …
One hour before Can Force One entered Chinese airspace Wednesday, all public servants and political staff were required to power down their usual work and personal devices and stash them in a Faraday bag.
While in Beijing, they all used “burner” devices, which were promptly returned as soon as the delegation’s plane left Chinese airspace Saturday.
There’s no need to use burners in Qatar and Switzerland — the next stops on the eight-day trip — showing that not all allies are on equal security footing.
Carney’s emphasis at the end of the trip was on the restoration of Canada’s trade, political and cultural relationships with China, which are emerging from eight years of deep frost.
After his meeting with President Xi Jinping, the prime minister proudly announced a new “strategic partnership” with the Asian superpower built on five pillars: energy, increased trade, international governance, public safety and security, and increased “people-to-people” ties.

16-17 January
Mr. Carney Goes to Beijing
The trip, a whirlwind of meetings with Chinese industry and top government officials, conveyed how the prime minister is viewing the wider world.
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
(NYT) I spent this week in Beijing with Prime Minister Mark Carney, reporting on his landmark state visit …culminating in Mr. Carney’s meeting Friday with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.
The Canadian delegation is a small army of senior cabinet ministers such as Mélanie Joly, the minister for industry, and Tim Hodgson, the minister for energy, as well as numerous policy advisers and diplomats….
… During his news conference in Beijing on Friday I asked Mr. Carney if China was now a more predictable and reliable partner to Canada than the United States.
“Our relationship with the United States, and this is no insight, is much more multifaceted, much deeper, much broader than it is with China,” he said. “But yes, in terms of the way that our relationship has progressed in recent months with China, it is more predictable, and you see results coming from that.”
Mark Carney in China positions Canada for ‘the world as it is, not as we wish it’
PM’s visit to Beijing seen as a welcome reset to relations in a ‘new world order’ but critics worry what trade deal could mean for Canadian workers
Canada PM hails strategic partnership with China to adapt to ‘new global realities’
Mark Carney holds talks with Xi Jinping on rare Beijing trip as Canada seeks to diversify trade links away from US
Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said: “Together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities.”
… Engagement and cooperation would form “the foundation of our new strategic partnership”, Carney said, adding that agriculture, energy, finance offered opportunities for the most immediate progress.

16 January
Canada, China slash EV, canola tariffs in reset of ties
Canada to allow Chinese EV imports at 6.1% tariff, Carney says
Says Canada expects China to lower canola tariff
Canada welcomes further Chinese investment
(Reuters) – Canada and China struck an initial trade deal on Friday that will slash tariffs on electric vehicles and canola, as both nations promised to tear down trade barriers while forging new strategic ties during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit.
The first Canadian prime minister to visit China since 2017, Carney is seeking to rebuild ties with his country’s second-largest trading partner after the United States following months of diplomatic efforts.

The Trade Minefield of Carney’s China Visit
By Fen Osler Hampson
Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to Beijing this week with the goal of easing Sino-Canadian tensions and boosting trade. But he is also walking into a political minefield—one laid not just by the Chinese but also Washington.
The biggest minefield right now is the EV-Canola trade war.
China slapped punitive tariffs on Canada’s lucrative canola exports last year in retaliation for Canada’s 100% tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs), which Ottawa had introduced the year before under the Trudeau government. There can be no question that China’s motivation was less about securing access to Canada’s relatively small EV market than trying to drive a wedge between Ottawa and Washington as Donald Trump re-took the reins of power.
There is room for a deal in which Canada gradually reduces tariffs on Chinese EVs while China dismantles its canola (and pork and seafood products) barriers perhaps through a phased tariff‑rate quota arrangement.
But any bargain must navigate Ontario’s fears about its auto plants, which is precisely why the EV tariff was imposed, and intense pressure from the prairie provinces to reopen the Chinese market to their agricultural products.
What Mark Carney’s China trip could mean for the future of Canadian-Chinese relations
Ye Xue, Research Fellow, China Institute, University of Alberta
(The Conversation) Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s visit to Beijing, together with Carney and Xi’s informal meeting on the margins of the APEC summit last October, suggests that the groundwork now exists for a serious stabilization of Canada–China relations.
Carney’s visit to China this week builds on this emerging momentum.
While the visit could be positive, Canadian expectations should be realistic, since the trip marks a stabilizing process rather than a symbol of stabilized relationship.
Trade will be at the top of Carney’s agenda, particularly the Canadian push for China to lift anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola oil. Yet few should expect an immediate breakthrough. Economic sanctions are rarely undone in a single high-level meeting; more often, such visits lay the groundwork for the harder, more technical negotiations that follow.
Rather than expecting immediate, tangible outcomes, this state visit is best understood as an ice-breaking moment to encourage governments at different levels and across sectors to resume or establish dialogue. Over time, such channels can normalize working relationships and foster bilateral co-operation.

2025

31 October
Canada’s Other Superpower Problem
The leaders of Canada and China will meet for the first time in eight years to try to reset relations after years of acrimony.
(NYT) … Canadian citizens have been used as pawns by China, its top leader publicly humiliated a former Canadian prime minister and the two countries are locked in a brutal tariff war. A recent poll showed that the only nation Canadians generally trust less than the United States is China.
Now there is cautious optimism around the first formal meeting since 2017 between the two nations’ leaders.
That a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Xi Jinping is even taking place is an example of how Mr. Trump’s global tariff campaign and unpredictable diplomacy have forced a once close U.S. ally to look to China.
“Trump is the invisible presence in every meeting between two leaders in the world today,” said Roland Paris, an international relations professor at the University of Ottawa. “For Canada, the primary overriding imperative is managing our relations with the United States, our closest trading partner.’’
“But if it’s possible to achieve relief on the Chinese tariffs,” he added, “then that would be a great thing.”
… This year a Canadian inquiry found evidence of election meddling in Canada by China, though there was no evidence that it successfully influenced the outcomes of any votes.
More recently, China applied tariffs of up to 100 percent on canola, an oil seed that accounted for about 5 billion Canadian dollars, or about $3.6 billion, in sales last year, making it Canada’s most valuable agricultural export to China.
Carney wants a China ‘reset.’ May he avoid the mistakes of the previous four
(Globe & Mail) Amid the drama of this week’s meetings in Asia, Prime Minister Mark Carney said his overarching goal is “resetting” Canada’s relationship with China – a reflowering of scorched and barren terrain that, the PM says, could result in the removal of major tariffs and sanctions and even a full-scale free-trade agreement with Xi Jinping’s regime.
… This will mark the fifth time Canada has reset and reversed its relations with China in the past 20 years, under three prime ministers. Two of those resets have required their own resets, by the same PM, after they worked out badly. …

27 October
Carney says he’ll meet with Xi, Trump says he won’t see the PM for ‘a long time’</
(Globe & Mail) Monday was the first time Mr. Carney confirmed a meeting with Mr. Xi. Both sides have been trying to set one up for months. The two countries are attempting to repair a six-year rupture in relations and resolve a punishing trade war.
… Mr. Carney, who last month praised China as a country “run by engineers,” is trying to rebuild Canada’s ruptured relationship with this emerging Asian superpower while avoiding alienating Mr. Trump, who expects allies to support his tough-on-China agenda.
Speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Carney wouldn’t rule out relaxing investment restrictions placed in the way of Chinese capital under predecessor Justin Trudeau, saying Canada and China are in the process “of resetting expectations of where the relationship can go.”
He also didn’t dismiss an eventual free trade deal with Beijing or cutting tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that Canada imposed in 2024 in tandem with the U.S. The Prime Minister said he would be in a better position to answer these questions as things evolve with Beijing.
Mr. Carney said the rapprochement with Beijing is long overdue. “This is our second largest trading partner. This is the second largest economy in the world. This is one of the most influential actors in terms of the global system such as it is, and it is a country with whom we had no senior-level contact for seven years until I met Premier Li in New York,” he said, referring to his meeting with Li Qiang on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Canada-China relations entered a deep freeze in 2018 after Ottawa arrested a Chinese tech executive and Beijing subsequently locked up two Canadians.
Beijing’s retaliation for tariffs Ottawa imposed on Chinese EVs and steel and aluminum is causing widespread pain across Canada. China has imposed tariffs on canola seed, canola oil, canola meal and peas as well as 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian seafood and pork products.

28 January
Trudeau Government Left Canada Vulnerable to Foreign Interference, Report Finds
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have acted quicker to protect Canadian elections from outside meddling, a government commission said, shaking trust in democratic institutions.
(NYT) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was “insufficiently transparent” about foreign interference in Canadian politics and sometimes took “too long to act” against attempts to meddle in the country’s past two general elections by foreign powers including China and India, a government commission said on Tuesday.
“Trust in Canada’s democratic institutions has been shaken, and it is imperative to restore it,” the commission said in its final report, which summarized 18 months of hearings, testimony and examination of classified intelligence documents.

2024

16 April
Politico Ottawa Playbook -always an entertaining read – mentions in passing Sharp tongues and wishful thinking that “[Minister Melanie] Joly has yet to visit China since her appointment as foreign minister in late 2021. She arrives in Capri, Italy today for the first of two G7 foreign ministers meetings this year. Joly is the only G7 foreign minister to have not visited China in the past year.”
…Deputy minister, DAVID MORRISON, will visit China by the end of the month, according to a senior government official not authorized to talk publicly about details on the upcoming trip.
— Signs of rapprochement: Morrison’s trip will follow one made last month by a delegation that included Liberal MP MAJID JOWHARI, NDP MP DON DAVIES, Conservative Sen. VICTOR OH, Independent Senators Group Sen. PAUL MASSICOTTE and independent MP HAN DONG.

11 April
A club for hemming China in
Stephen Maher
(GZERO Media) On Monday — the day that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Canada is interested in joining the AUKUS defense alliance — documents were released at a public inquiry that showed that Canada’s intelligence agency believes China “clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections.”
Historically, Canada spends little on defense, falling well short of the 2% of GDP that NATO members have all agreed to spend. In an increasingly dangerous world, though, pressure is mounting for Canada to step up, and on Monday, Trudueau’s government did roll out a five-year plan to bring defense spending up to 1.76% of GDP by 2030, up from 1.38% last year.
Allies welcomed the announcement, but there was nothing significant enough to make Canada a much more desirable partner for AUKUS, says Eugene Lang, a former Liberal defense official turned Queens University professor.
“I just don’t know that we’re doing anything to get their attention,” he says. “What they’re doing in AUKUS is investing in developing brand-new technologies. To my knowledge, Canada has not got any specific money set aside for any of that.”
University of Ottawa Professor Thomas Juneau, who has interviewed allied officials about Canada’s potential role in AUKUS, found that Canada is increasingly seen as a free rider in defense and intelligence circles. It’s not surprising that Japan was invited before Canada, he says.
“It’s really normal for AUKUS to bring in Japan before Canada because Japan is not only a much bigger country than we are, but it’s right next to China.”

28 February
Censored documents about Winnipeg scientists reveal threat to Canada’s security
(Globe & Mail) Two scientists at Canada’s high-security infectious disease laboratory – Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng – provided confidential scientific information to China and were fired after a probe concluded she posed “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security” and it was discovered they engaged in clandestine meetings with Chinese officials, documents tabled in the House of Commons reveal.
The two infectious-disease scientists were escorted out of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in July, 2019, and later had their security clearances revoked. They were fired in January, 2021. Their whereabouts are not known.
CSIS, in a Jan. 8, 2021, report marked secret, said its findings call “into question Ms. Qiu’s loyalty to Canada and her reliability as it relates to loyalty.”
It highlights her “close and clandestine relationships with a variety of entities of the People’s Republic of China, which is a known security threat to Canada,” her “complete lack of candour regarding her relationship with those institutions and her reckless judgment regarding decisions that could have impacted public safety and the interests of Canada.”

18 February
Chinese FM urges Canada to create positive elements for bilateral relations
As China and Canada differ in system, history and culture, the two sides should respect and learn from each other to expand consensus, rebuild trust to achieve win-win cooperation, noted Wang.
(Xinhua) — It is hoped that Canada could establish a correct understanding of China, take a long-term view of bilateral relations and provide a positive perspective for their practical cooperation, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi [in Munich] on Saturday.
China-Canada relations have long been at the forefront of China’s relations with Western countries, and the current difficult situation is not what China wants to see, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, when meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly.

12 February
B.C. Senator Yuen Pau Woo challenges reports suggesting China targeted MPs
A B.C. senator is casting doubt on the findings of two federal election-monitoring reports that suggest the Chinese government in 2021 may have targeted then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and former fellow MP Kenny Chiu through disinformation campaigns.
Yuen Pau Woo raised his concerns in a Feb. 6 submission to the foreign interference commission headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue that is preparing for hearings in March. The commission is probing meddling primarily by China in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

9 February
China offers ‘new way of thinking,’ former Canadian ambassador tells business audience
(Globe & Mail) Western understanding of China is “pathetic,” and the Communist Party-run country should be seen as a source for “new ways of thinking,” says Dominic Barton, Canada’s former top envoy to Beijing.
Mr. Barton, the chair of mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd. RIO-N, has been among the most influential figures in Ottawa’s recent posture toward the rising superpower, spending more than two years as ambassador to China. After he stepped down from that post, the federal government named him to a 14-member Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee, which wound down operations last summer.
… Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy, released last year, called China “an increasingly disruptive global power” that has grown accustomed to disregarding the international rules and norms that enabled its immense rise. Canada “will challenge China” in areas of disagreement, the strategy pledged, noting that Canada has been on the receiving end of China’s coercive diplomacy.
Mr. Barton this week argued for a different approach in remarks to a Lunar New Year dinner hosted this week by several groups including the China-Britain Business Council at The Dorchester Hotel in London. The dinner’s corporate sponsors included the Bank of China, HSBC and PetroChina.
The Globe and Mail obtained a recording of Mr. Barton’s remarks at that dinner, in which he is effusive about China’s role in the world and the need to grow closer to its people and companies. In a world that has grown more turbulent and volatile, he said, “it’s imperative that we continue to deepen our understanding and engagement at this people-to-people level.
Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China who spent almost 40 years in the diplomatic corps, said it’s clear the West should spend more time studying China – but in part for defensive purposes, given the Chinese Communist Party’s tightening grip on the country and its attempts to change international institutions to fit its purposes.
“We need more young people to learn and we need government officials and think tanks to get more interested to learn about China, but I would say, mainly about the Communist Party of China, because the government now, for all practical purposes, is the same as the Communist Party.”

3 January
Canada must face the facts: China is now closed for business
Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, non-resident senior fellow of the European Values Center for Security Policy in Prague, and former diplomat at Canada’s embassy in Beijing.
(Globe & Mail) 2023 has afflicted China with alarming concerns, including deflation, a terrifying crash in real estate, falling domestic consumer demand, and youth unemployment so bad that Beijing simply stopped reporting it. Foreign investment plummeted as overseas investors pulled billions out of China, seeking better returns elsewhere. (Canada “suspended indefinitely” our involvement in China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.)
… Canadian business and investors should not expect prospects with China to improve any time soon, for various reasons.
To mute domestic disgruntlement over the economy, Mr. Xi might play the nationalism card through military engagement in the South China Sea and Taiwan as soon as 2027. As well, the regime has been reaffirming its Leninist core through renewed predominance of state-controlled enterprise over successful capitalists, to the extent that large Chinese companies have developed PR plans to respond to sudden “disappearances” of their chief executives.
Foreign businesspeople embroiled in arbitrary commercial disputes are increasingly denied exit from China until they comply with demands from Chinese state counterparts. And there are ever more controls and restrictions on security of business data, including bans on foreign businesses in China sending information to servers outside the country.
Then there are growing concerns about China’s political stability, as evidenced by the purge in 2023 of the Foreign Minister, the Minister of Defence and a range of senior military figures. This can’t be good.

2023

Canadian universities conducting joint research with Chinese military scientists
The joint research projects are generating knowledge that could help drive China’s defence sector in cutting-edge, high-tech industries (30 January 2023)

18 December
Canada should “de-risk” from China by updating its foreign-investment screening
Combine it with ramped-up funding for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate and neutralize other attempts at foreign interference.
By Nicolas Pellicer-Garcia, Simon Hogue, Benjamin Fung
(Policy Options) Questions about how the West should re-envision its economic relations with China have been answered recently through “de-risking” – a term that suggests a nuanced, sector-by-sector approach to minimizing economic vulnerabilities while maintaining ties in other strategic areas.
… “Diplomatic de-risking is also important because we want to keep open communication lines with China on issues where we agree,” [Ursula von der Leyen] said.
In Canada, the discussion centres around the National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act – legislation that would amend the Investment Canada Act (ICA). The new act has been approved by the Commons but is still being considered in the Senate.
The new legislation strengthens the requirements for approving foreign investment in strategic areas in the economy in the hope it will succeed in preserving Canada’s reputation as a foreign investment-friendly country and preserving relations with China while preventing harm to national security.
Canada has seen many high-profile foreign buyouts of major brands – Tim Hortons, CCM, Eaton’s, Molson and the Hudson’s Bay Co. – as well as the controversial acquisition of real estate by foreign investors and considerable foreign interest in key industries such as mining and construction.
This willingness to sell to the highest bidder fitted post-Cold War globalization when prospects of high returns took precedence over risks of undesirable foreign influence. Yet, recent geopolitical power shifts are bringing about fundamental re-evaluations of those risk-reward perceptions, particularly when they involve China.

24 November
CSIS warns of Chinese recruitment campaign targeting Canadian government employees
Spy agency says PRC talent programs can lead to loss of proprietary and sensitive information
In an alert sent to federal employees earlier this month and seen by CBC News, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warns of a large-scale email campaign trying to lure workers into an overseas talent program.
“The [People’s Republic of China] is likely using this recruitment campaign to acquire Canadian knowledge and expertise,” says the alert.
“These types of talent recruitment and technology transfer initiatives can result in the misappropriation of government of Canada resources and the loss of proprietary and sensitive information.”

19 November
Why did Xi scold Trudeau? Maybe because Canada spent years helping China erode human rights
David Webster, Associate professor, Human Rights Studies, King’s University College, Western University
(The Conversation) Chinese president Xi Jinping has given Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a well-publicized dressing-down, accusing him of leaking to the media the contents of a meeting between the two leaders about alleged Chinese interference in the 2019 federal election.
The confrontation has grabbed attention around the world and sparked debate about the ways diplomatic conversations are communicated to the public.
Tony D: As we all know, informal discussions in the world of diplomacy are not to produce attributed publicity. Our Prime Minister either does not know that, or decided to appear a truth-to-power hero in the Canadian media and accept the consequences abroad. It is also possible that he stumbled into the situation, and now tries to make the most of it.

18 November
Spavor blames fellow prisoner Kovrig for Chinese detention, alleges he was used for intelligence gathering
(Globe & Mail) One of the two Canadians jailed by China for nearly three years in a case that was at the heart of a diplomatic crisis is seeking a multimillion-dollar settlement from Ottawa, two sources say, alleging he was detained because he unwittingly provided intelligence on North Korea to Canada and allied spy services.
Michael Spavor alleges that the deception was conducted by fellow Canadian prisoner Michael Kovrig, and it was intelligence work by the latter that led to both men’s incarceration by Chinese authorities, according to the sources.
These allegations cast a new light on the lengthy imprisonment of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor as well as on the work that Mr. Kovrig was doing in China.
Adam Zivo: It turns out it was one Michael and another Michael
Espionage revelations don’t excuse China’s hostage diplomacy
The arrest of the Two Michaels tanked Sino-Canadian relations and damaged China’s credibility among Canada’s allies. Many wondered: if Beijing was willing to achieve its diplomatic goals by essentially kidnapping ordinary foreigners, what else might it be capable of?
We now know that the truth was more complicated than the Trudeau government let on.

After close encounter at APEC summit, Trudeau appears to steer wide berth around Xi
China and Canada routinely rub elbows when leaders gather for photos at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering.
But outside the family photo, officials took pains to point out that the two leaders shared little Thursday beyond a perfunctory hello.

14 November
MPs agree to probe allegations of Chinese interference in federal elections
Chinese communist regime accused of funding a ‘clandestine network’ of candidates, staffers in 2019 election
(CBC) A multi-partisan group of MPs on the procedure and House affairs committee agreed Monday to probe claims that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its agents have interfered in the Canadian political process.
Citing unnamed sources, Global News reported last week that China was behind “a vast campaign of foreign inference” in Canadian politics.

7-8 November
PM says foreign actors playing ‘aggressive games’ with Canadian democracy, institutions
Trudeau responded at the news conference to a report that he’d been briefed on a Chinese operation to interfere in the 2019 federal election.
Canadian intelligence warned PM Trudeau that China covertly funded 2019 election candidates: Sources
(Global) Canadian intelligence officials have warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that China has allegedly been targeting Canada with a vast campaign of foreign interference, which includes funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election, according to Global News sources.
Delivered to the prime minister and several cabinet members in a series of briefings and memos first presented in January, the allegations included other detailed examples of Beijing’s efforts to further its influence and, in turn, subvert Canada’s democratic process, sources said.

5 November
Canada is set to reveal its China strategy. For a sneak peek, look to Washington
In the China-obsessed U.S. capital, there’s an extensive trail of clues about looming battle over technology

23 October
China linked to propaganda campaign targeting Trudeau, Poilievre, says Global Affairs
GAC says goal of ‘spamouflage’ campaign was to silence PRC critics
The Chinese government likely was behind a “spamouflage” disinformation campaign targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and other MPs in August and September, says Global Affairs Canada.
The department’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), which was set up to monitor foreign state-sponsored disinformation efforts, said the campaign was “connected to the People’s Republic of China” and was meant to curb criticism of the communist regime.
According to a report released Monday morning, the propaganda campaign began in August and targeted dozens of MPs from across the political spectrum.

17 October
CSIS chief opens up about China’s interest in Canadian universities
Director David Vigneault spoke at a conference Tuesday
The head of Canada’s intelligence agency spoke openly about China’s interest in partnering with Canadian universities to gain a military edge during a conference with his Five Eyes counterparts on Tuesday.
“China has been very transparent,” Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault said.
“Everything that they’re doing in our universities and in new technology, it’s going back into a system very organized to create dual-use applications for the military.”
Vigneault made the comments on stage during a rare public gathering with spy bosses from the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

13 October
CSIS warning Inuit leaders about covert foreign investment in Arctic, documents show
(CBC) China’s vast interests in the North
Casey Babb, an international fellow with the Glazer Center for Israel-China Policy and an instructor at Carleton University in Ottawa, said China uses foreign investment as a strategic tool.
“They use foreign investment as a door, as an entry point, to gain access to markets, to gain access to government, to investors as well,” he said.
“It’s a great way to sort of use licit means to carry out illicit, or even legal but injurious, activities.”
Babb said China is looking to tap into the region’s natural resources, including oil, critical minerals and fish.