Canada is a neighbor of the United States and an important NATO ally of the United States, and for many years, Canada has been "copying" the practices of the United States in its relations with China, so that Sino-Canadian relations have been in a state of "shaking," and Canada has lost an important partner as a result. Recently, Canada's "Five Eyes" allies, the United States and Australia, have continuously sent high-level officials to visit China to repair relations with China, and have achieved remarkable results. Seeing this, Canada also couldn't sit still and began to shout to the Chinese side in the air, hoping to have a dialogue with China and "normalize" relations between the two countries.
According to the global network, recently, a source disclosed that Ottawa hopes to "normalize bilateral relations with China". To that end, Canada's Foreign Minister Jolly will send his deputy, Deputy Foreign Minister David David, to China to help thaw tensions with Beijing. Jolly himself has not visited China since becoming Canada's foreign minister in 2021, but met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in February this year. Taking the initiative to invite Wang Yi to dialogue may be the first step for Canada to try. In this regard, we will talk about three topics.
First, Canada is responsible for the turmoil in China-Canada relations until it turns cold.
On the whole, there has been disharmony between China and Canada in the past five years, mainly because of the following four things.
First, Canada cooperated with the United States to arrest Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Ren Zhengfei, a Chinese Huawei executive, at Vancouver Airport and placed him under house arrest in Canada for three years. This incident occurred during the United States' efforts to crack down on Huawei around the world, and cracking down on Huawei is actually a representative action to suppress and block China's science and technology. After the matter against Huawei eased up a little, the United States has now begun to block China in the field of semiconductors, and asked its allies to follow up.
Second, Canada announced the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat on the grounds of so-called "interference in Canada's internal affairs", but there is no factual basis. Under such circumstances, China has also taken reciprocal measures by designating the Consul of the Canadian Consulate General in Shanghai, Zhen Yihui, as "persona non grata" and asking her to leave China within a limited date to show her tough attitude to the Canadian government with concrete actions.
Third, Canada dispatched the frigate USS Ottawa to hold a 14-day exercise with US aircraft carriers and South Korean warships in the South China Sea under the pretext of commemorating the "73rd anniversary of the Inchon landing" and celebrating the "70th anniversary of the founding of the US-ROK alliance." The Yellow Sea is geographically located close to China's Shandong Peninsula, and sailing the fleet into the Yellow Sea is tantamount to challenging China's bottom line. The Chinese side sent warships to supervise and even sealed the Canadian warships with a fire control system, and the Canadian side was very dissatisfied, but has Canada ever thought about how you, a North American country thousands of miles away, could run to China's door?
Fourth, in 2023, Canadian warships, together with US ships, will sail through the Taiwan Strait several times, provoking China's sovereignty and sending wrong signals to "Taiwan independence". Against this background, the Chinese side dispatched the "Suzhou" warship to stop the US warship that was crossing the US ship and the Canadian crew that followed the US warship was also frightened into a cold sweat, but it did not take long for the Canadian warship to appear again in the formation passing through the Taiwan Strait. It can be said that Canada is also a "habitual offender" of provocations off the coast of China.
Second, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken harshly about China, saying that "there is no room for reconciliation with China".
The change from a shock to a cold turn in Sino-Canadian relations occurred during Trudeau's tenure, which also shows that Trudeau's China policy is seriously flawed. However, the Canadian government not only did not seriously review it, but also spoke harshly about China after problems arose, Trudeau once said in an interview with the US media, "The decisions made by China in the past few years have made it more difficult for China and Canada to interact, so there is no room for reconciliation between Canada and China." The implication is that it is necessary to carry China to the end.
Although Canada has the world's second largest territory, second only to Russia, it has a small population of only 38 million, and only 60,000 troops, so it cannot talk about national defense at all; second, it has no other land neighbors other than the United States, and it is also an Anglo-Saxon country with the United States, and has "blood" relations, so it has basically become a subsidiary of the United States in terms of defense and politics. In the past two U.S. administrations, China has been publicly listed as a "competitor" and vigorously promoted the so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy" in the Asia-Pacific region.
The problem is that it is Canada's own business to submit your name to the United States, but you cannot target China and wantonly interfere in China's internal affairs on the premise of targeting a third country. As a result, China is not polite, and the trade relations with Canada have been transferred to other countries, almost in a state of "zero". Originally, Canada and China have no geopolitical disputes and no territorial disputes, and are very good natural economic and trade partners, and doing business well is beneficial to both countries, but the Trudeau government has chosen "political retreat" and has to blindly follow the United States.
As a result, relations with China are naturally getting colder and colder, and the main responsibility lies entirely on the Canadian side. But Trudeau probably didn't expect that after the cruel words, it is Canada itself that takes the initiative to speak softly to China.
Third, after seeing the actions of the United States and Australia, Canada finally woke up and began to sit still.
After the new Australian government took office, the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Minister of Economy and Trade, and high-level delegations visited China one after another, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also paid a return visit to Australia. Between China and the United States, after entering 2024, senior U.S. officials have also visited China one after another, first Treasury Secretary Yellen came, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Conda, and White House National Security Council Senior Director for China Affairs Berthalan also came to China, and the U.S. side also disclosed that Secretary of State Blinken will also visit China in a few weeks.
This also shows that even if there is a "collision", China and the United States are still strengthening dialogue, looking for the greatest common denominator between the two sides, looking for the greatest interests, and increasing cooperation in areas where cooperation can be achieved. Seeing that their allies are interacting with China and that they are being sidelined, Ottawa's rulers can't sit still, and at the Mu'an meeting in Germany in February, Foreign Minister Jolly made an appointment to meet with Wang Yi, which may have been a preliminary temptation.
Wang Yi's remarks were also very flexible, saying that China-Canada relations have been at the forefront of China and the West for a long time, and the current difficult situation is not what China wants to see, and it is in the interests of both countries to promote China-Canada relations to stop falling and stabilize.
China's position is that we hope that Canada will stop hyping up the "China threat theory", stop spreading disinformation about the so-called "China interference in Canada's internal affairs", stop securitizing economic, trade and scientific and technological exchanges, and earnestly respect each other's core interests. If the dialogue between the two sides is constructive and a consensus can be reached, it cannot be ruled out that the Canadian side will send more important officials to China, and only then will Sino-Canadian relations be expected to stop falling and stabilize, and only after the Canadian side shows real sincerity will it be possible to warm up.
In fact, this process has already been carried out once in Australia, and Canada can learn from Australia.