Is China a better trading partner than Trump’s America?
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.
