The complexity of this relationship hasn’t changed. While Mr. Carney described a “new strategic partnership … that will help set Canada and China up for the new world order”, Chinese President Xi Jinping referred to the partnership as “with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world.” The new order that Canada is invited to join is the China-dominated world Xi envisions by 2050, which he calls "the community of the common destiny of mankind."
Beijing likes joint statements that cite “strategic partnerships.” Canadian officials may not have grasped the consequences of the phrase, but Xinhua news agency seized upon it with the headline, “Xi calls for advancing building of China-Canada new strategic partnership.”
Past experiences of Canada and other nations is that if we don’t subordinate our values and sovereignty to China’s expectations of a “strategic partner,” then canola sales don’t happen, or Beijing’s interpretations of agreements weaken considerably from how we understood them.
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