Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly speaks during NATO's 75th anniversary summit, in Washington, on July 11.Ken Cedeno/Reuters
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is making her first visit to China in a bid to reopen diplomatic channels after years of fractured relations, including over the imprisonment of two Canadians and Chinese interference in this country’s domestic affairs.
Ms. Joly will hold high-level talks on Friday with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, her office said.
Ms. Joly’s outreach is an attempt to repair strained ties with the world’s second-biggest economy and a growing military power. Other countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Germany have also sought to improve relations with China, as has the United States.
“As the world faces increasingly complex and intersecting global issues, Canada is committed to engaging pragmatically with a wide range of countries to advance our national interests and uphold our values,” Ms. Joly said in a statement announcing the trip.
“We must maintain open lines of communication and use diplomacy to challenge where we ought to, while seeking co-operation in areas that matter most to Canadians.”
Sino-Canadian relations have been deteriorating since late 2018, when China arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on allegations of espionage. The arrests were believed to be in retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant. She had been indicted for bank and wire fraud in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
The two Canadians were freed in September, 2021, after the Biden administration dropped the charges and the extradition order.
Last year, The Globe and Mail and Global TV reported on classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents that outlined how Beijing and its proxies had interfered in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
Those revelations of foreign interference led to parliamentary hearings, the appointment of a special rapporteur and, eventually, a public inquiry – actions that have angered the Chinese government.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa welcomed the visit by Ms. Joly, saying: “We hope that this visit will be a smooth and successful one, inject vitality to the improvement and development of China-Canada relations and enhance the friendship between the two peoples.”
While in Beijing, Ms. Joly’s office said she will discuss complex global and regional security issues and possible avenues for collaboration on common challenges, as well as “exchange views on concrete ways to enhance the already deep ties between the people of Canada and China.”
In April, Ms. Joly dispatched her deputy minister, David Morrison, to China in an effort to repair relations and set the stage for Friday’s visit.
Relations between China and the West have faltered over Beijing’s crackdown on democracy and civil liberties in Hong Kong; its repression of Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group, in its Xinjiang region; and its increasing harassment of self-governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
Last year, Ms. Joly expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after The Globe reported Beijing had targeted Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong in an attempt to gain leverage over the MP. Mr. Chong has upset China by sponsoring a parliamentary motion to condemn its repression of Uyghurs.
Guy St. Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, lauded Ms. Joly for engaging in pragmatic diplomacy even though there are major issues of dispute with China that cannot easily be resolved.
“Pragmatic diplomacy means you sometimes have to speak with people who you don’t necessarily agree with, but you need a minimum of dialogue,” he said. “China also wants to send a message that they are open for business and the fact is China is still very important for us despite the political tensions. Last year we had over $31-billion of exports to China.”
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said the Joly visit should not be seen as a reset of Canada-China relations.
She said it’s an effort “to stabilize relations and to keep channels open” but nobody, she said, should “be under any illusion that this is some kind of a change in fundamental nature of the relationship, which is one of strategic competition.”
Ms. Nadjibulla said Canada must be careful that this visit is not presented “especially in Chinese media, as some kind of a concession, or evidence that Canada has seen the light.”
China represents a challenge to the rules-based international order that Western countries seek to preserve “and we need to be clear-eyed about that,” she said.
As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has noted, Ms. Nadjibulla said, China is a “decisive enabler of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, and we need to keep those lines open to understand their position and to be able to argue our position and defend our interests and values.”
Canada has much to talk to China about, including foreign interference in Canada, imports of Chinese precursors to make the deadly opioid fentanyl, and the tariffs Canada is considering on Chinese-made electric vehicles, she noted.
China expert Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa and board member of the China Strategic Risks Institute, said Ms. Joly’s visit is a positive sign. The two countries can co-operate on climate change, health and environmental protection, but Ms. McCuaig-Johnston said there are thorny issues to be addressed, including Beijing’s foreign interference in Canada.
“What the Chinese will be looking for is for her to make commitments to downplay foreign interference here in Canada in some way. That is one of their big concerns, because they are one of the most significant perpetrators of interference in our electoral system and with our diaspora,” she said.
She said another trouble spot is China’s concern that Canada will join the U.S. and European Union in increasing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, which are heavily subsidized by the government.
“The Chinese believe that their EVs should come into the country tariff-free, and of course they don’t want to make a commitment to manufacture here because the environmental and labour standards are much higher here in Canada.”
A third problem area is Taiwan, but Ms. McCuaig-Johnston said she can’t imagine Ms. Joly would give any ground to Beijing on this issue.
She added that she is hopeful Ms. Joly will get a commitment from China to open up tourism because in recent years Canada has been left off the list of places Chinese tourists are permitted to visit.