After weathering shocks such as the 'Meng Wanzhou incident,' China-Canada relations are gradually warming up. Canadian Prime Minister Carney will pay a four-day visit to China starting on the 14th, where he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to seek stronger cooperation with China in energy, trade, agriculture, and other fields. This marks the first visit by a Canadian Prime Minister to China in over eight years. Last week in Beijing, Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min met with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, describing China-Canada relations as embarking on a new chapter. He said that China is willing to resume the China-Canada economic and financial dialogue, which has been suspended for eight years, to promote stable growth in bilateral economic and trade relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced on the 12th that Carney will make an official visit to China from the 14th to 17th. China looks forward to using Prime Minister Carney's visit as an opportunity to strengthen dialogue and communication, increase political mutual trust, expand pragmatic cooperation, properly handle differences, address each other's concerns, consolidate the momentum of China-Canada relations turning around, and better benefit the peoples of both countries.
Building New Partnerships in Energy and Trade
The last Canadian Prime Minister to visit China was Trudeau in December 2017. In December 2018, at the request of the United States, Trudeau's government detained Huawei's Deputy Chairwoman Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, sending China-Canada relations into a low ebb. It was not until last March, when Carney took office, that a turning point emerged. In October of the same year, during the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Carney and invited him to visit China.
Carney, an economist by training, has previously served as Governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, and is seen as relatively pragmatic politically. Regarding this visit to China, the Prime Minister’s Office said that amid global trade turmoil, Canada is focusing on building a more competitive economy, shifting from reliance on a single trading partner to a model more resilient to global shocks, and establishing new partnerships in the fields of energy and trade.
On the eve of Carney’s visit, China has extended an olive branch. Last Thursday in Beijing, Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min met with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, mentioning that President Xi Jinping successfully met with Prime Minister Carney last October in South Korea, opening a new chapter in China-Canada relations. China is willing to work together with Canada to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of both countries, and resume and restart dialogue and cooperation in fields such as the economy and finance.
The China-Canada Economic and Financial Strategic Dialogue was launched in 2017, aiming to strengthen communication between the two sides on major international economic and financial issues. In November 2018, the first round of the China-Canada Economic and Financial Strategic Dialogue was held in Beijing, reaching over 50 outcomes. Afterwards, due to the 'Meng Wanzhou incident,' the dialogue was suspended.