Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Beijing this week to discuss closer relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This Canadian overture is taking place just as the United States is taking unprecedented actions to rebuff the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence in North America and across the western hemisphere. In a National Post op-ed “Carney cozying up to China aligns us with those who would destroy us,” Geoff Russ made the observation on the prime minister’s foreign affairs ventures, “Canada has nothing to gain from isolating itself from the United States or the West in the short term, just to stick it to Donald Trump.” Certainly, the courting of Xi is part of a larger plan by Carney and, as certain, it will have ramifications for Canada’s relations with the U.S.
For the past couple of months, the Carney Liberals have been promoting their efforts to “reset” Canada’s relationship with the CCP. Carney went about to arrange meetings with Xi and Premier Li Qiang and he has framed the anticipated discussions as essential to “build strategic partnerships, diversify Canada’s trade, and attract new investment.” Canada’s foreign affairs minister Anita Anand has been publicly ruminating over the Canada-China “strategic partnership.” Government talking points state Canada wishes to “recalibrate” the relationship with China in order to explore new economic opportunities. MP Kody Blois, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, stated, “He believes there’s opportunity for partnership” – so much so that the government is now reviewing and rewriting its trade and security options as written in the 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy that identifies China as an “increasingly disruptive global power.”
The justification given for “resetting” Canada-China relations is trade – yet the numbers do not add up, especially when one considers that the CCP courtship may result in the cancellation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA). Carney has established a trade objective to double non-U.S. exports and increase Canada’s trade figures by $300 billion by 2035, but is this to be achieved by sabotaging Canada’s trade relations with the U.S.? The Liberals are publishing trade backgrounders stating, “China is the second largest single-country trading partner to Canada, totaling $118.7 billion in two-way merchandise trade in 2024. Canadian merchandise exports to China were $29.9 billion, while merchandise imports were $88.8 billion.” So, let’s compare the China data with trade figures from our southern neighbours: exports to China account for 3.8 per cent of Canada’s total exports and that is 1/20th of our exports to the U.S.; and, imports from China account for 12 per cent of all Canada’s imports and our country imports about four times that amount from the U.S. These numbers suggest that Canada’s jeopardizing of U.S. trade for new China trade is a no-win, high-risk gamble.
Many Canadians are expressing caution and doubt that a mutually beneficial relationship can be struck with the CCP. There are accounts by Canadian national security and intelligence sources that detail how the CCP has been consistently applying undue foreign interference in Canada, including undermining the country’s federal electoral process. Canadian officials have confirmed that there are at least 11 (and a claim of as many as 50) members of parliament and staff who are working alongside foreign governments, potentially against Canadians’ interests. This brings into question much of the Trudeau government legacy with its CCP relations: denial of Sino fentanyl drug and money laundering operations, lip service paid to Taiwan, denying human rights abuses of Uyghurs, Hong Kong residents and Fulan Gong believers, holding joint military training exercises while China displayed aggressive military moves in the south Pacific, permitting CCP to operate police stations on Canadian soil, and the lengthy delay in establishing a foreign agent registry.
Michael Kovrig, one of the “two Michaels,” who was imprisoned in China for more than 1,000 days without cause, has been outspoken with his concern on the direction the Carney Liberals have taken in dealing with China. Kovrig told CBC News, “My concern is that the government makes concessions on national security and policy autonomy and mutes its diplomacy in return for economic benefits. It shouldn’t do that.” In another interview with Canadian Press, he stated, “It’s ultimately about keeping hold of your values and your integrity and having a strategic approach that prioritizes your holistic national interests, rather than just looking at relations deal by deal and agreement by agreement.”
Kovrig has been very active on X and in one post he cautioned against the CCP underhandedness, governing through force, using rules and laws as political tools and ignoring them at will. He stated, “How the CCP behaves toward people it governs, detains, or dislikes is a preview for how it’s likely to deal with other citizens and countries it acquires power over. The Party-state interprets silence as acquiescence that emboldens it to grind further into aggression, totalitarianism and weaponizing its political-legal system.”
Already there is a strong belief that Canada’s sovereignty is jeopardized by quid pro quo arrangements made in recent years with the CCP. In 2023, MP John McKay, a veteran Liberal backbencher and chair of the national defence committee in the previous parliament, stated “The government of China is an existential threat to Canada on a multiplicity of levels. We need as a nation to come to grips with the desire of the government of China to turn us all into vassal states.”
Sam Cooper, independent investigative journalist and most knowledgeable on the CCP’s infiltration of Canada, last November wrote of U.S. officials who consider Canada’s elite class and institutions as being “overrun” with Chinese influence and struggling to counter Beijing’s ever-expanding operations in the country. Cooper quotes former national-security analyst Dennis Molinaro who uncovered a consensus in the U.S.’s intelligence community and within the Biden administration that “Canada is … overrun. I know some of the people I work with in the malign-influence space say ‘Canada is trying to stay afloat.’”
With the Trump administration making strident moves to harden its trade war against China and re-establish secure supply-chains with aligned trading partners, Carney is increasingly seen in Washington D.C. as being offside and Canada as an unreliable ally. The number of foreign affairs irritants have piled up: foot-dragging on transnational efforts to curb fentanyl production and drug cartel money laundering, differing on immigration and open border polices, failure to meet NATO’s financial commitments, and openly undermining American foreign policy in the Hamas-Israeli war, Ukraine-Russian war, and in Venezuela.
Tasha Kheiriddin raised a most pertinent question regarding the wisdom of Carney choosing this time to initiate talks with China instead of aligning Canadian foreign policy with American efforts to stem the influence of Beijing. In her National Post column “Venezuela proves Trump wants China out. Carney better take notice,” Kheiriddin wrote, “Understanding that this is Trump’s big-picture agenda, what should Canada do? Answer: what we should have done 40 years ago. Stem the foreign interference by these same countries that has infected our political, economic and social spheres. For decades Beijing has engaged in elite capture, messed with our elections, and intimidated the Chinese-Canadian diaspora.”
To again reference Geoff Russ and his erudite op-ed, “It is also deeply delusional to think of the Americas as some sort of shared neighbourhood when it comes to foreign policy. North and South America sit inside a U.S. security perimeter, and Washington has always insisted on primacy in the region. Canadians should understand that reality, and plan accordingly.”
This week in Beijing is one stop in Carney’s 2026 globetrotting tour to explore new trade and foreign relations deals with France and EU leaders, China, Qatar, and with his World Economic Forum network in Davos, Switzerland. He is a man on a mission and, unquestionably, Carney’s actions are having a direct impact on Canada-U.S. relations.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
