There are increasing signs that Mark Carney’s cabinet, which is anxiously trying to mend our crumbling alliance with the United States, is quietly pursuing a major policy shift in Canada’s relations with China.
Foreign Minister Anita Anand reinforced the notion after meeting with her Asian counterparts in Malaysia in early July. “It is important for us to revisit our policy – not only in the Indo-Pacific but generally speaking – to ensure that we are focusing not only on the values that we have historically adhered to,” she said.
“Foreign policy is an extension of domestic interest and particularly domestic economic interests,” she added. “This is a time when the global economy is under stress.”
When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met recently in Beijing with Xi Jinping, the Chinese Leader made the standard comment that Western nations dealing with China should “seek common ground while setting aside differences.” Mr. Albanese actually concurred, saying, “That approach has indeed produced very positive benefits for both Australia and for China.”
Unfortunately the “differences” that Mr. Xi talks about result in harms to Canada, not China. For Ottawa, the price of enhanced trade would be dear: Let China mine critical minerals in Canada’s North, give open access to Canadian high tech and dual-use military technologies, abandon implementing a foreign influence transparency registry, accept China’s incursions in the Canadian Arctic, and cease Canada’s modest freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. And those are just for starters.
