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Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has met China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing as the two leaders seek to rebuild bilateral relations at a time when the US is disrupting global economic and political alliances.
Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit Beijing in almost a decade, is turning to the world’s second-largest economy as part of an effort to double exports to non-US partners over the next decade.
For China, the trip offers a chance to take advantage of US President Donald Trump’s erratic policies towards Canada and to bring an important US economic partner and Nato ally closer into its orbit.
Carney said on the eve of the trip: “We’re forging new partnerships around the world to transform our economy from one that has been reliant on a single trade partner to one that is stronger and more resilient to global shocks.”
His visit to Beijing is the first by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau in late 2017.
Relations between the two countries chilled in 2018 when China detained two Canadians in response to the arrest by Canadian authorities of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications equipment group Huawei, following a US extradition request.
Ottawa’s official Indo-Pacific strategy released in November 2022, described China as “an increasingly disruptive global power” but added its “economy offers significant opportunities for Canadian exporters”.
Ties began to improve in June when Carney and premier Li Qiang, China’s second-ranked leader, agreed to “regularise channels of communication”. Carney then met Xi during a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in October.
Chinese officials and state media were enthusiastic about this week’s visit.
Carney’s trip “is of pivotal and symbolic significance for bilateral relations”, state news agency Xinhua quoted China’s foreign minister Wang Yi as telling his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand on Thursday.
China wanted to “strengthen communication with Canada, enhance trust, eliminate interference, deepen co-operation”, Wang said.
Carney on Thursday also met Li and Zhao Leji, the head of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress.
In a post on social media site X, Carney thanked Li for his “warm welcome” and said their conversation had focused on how to “work together to build stronger, more sustainable economies”.
“Our countries align in many areas, such as clean energy, agriculture and finance,” Carney wrote.
Zhao Minghao, professor at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said: “Most US allies are doing some de-risking from the US, so this is a very important opportunity for China to warm up its ties with Canada.”
However, despite the show of friendship, restoring genuine goodwill between Ottawa and Beijing would be difficult, analysts said.
Canada’s security services accuse China of meddling in its elections, threatening members of the Chinese diaspora — in particular Hong-Kong activists — and of being its top cyber security threat.
Carney is also under pressure from canola farmers, the lobster industry and fishermen to persuade Beijing to lift devastating tariffs it imposed last year on their produce.
Ottawa has since October 2024 imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and steel, closed Chinese-owned social media app TikTok’s offices in Canada and banned Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Hikvision.
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