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Prime Minister Mark Carney has landed in Beijing, marking the first visit by a Canadian prime minister to China in eight years.
Carney will meet with senior communist leaders on Thursday, ahead of a Friday meeting with President Xi Jinping and a business banquet.
It’s the first visit by a Canadian prime minister since China detained two Canadians for nearly three years in 2019 in retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Carney has talked about advancing trade and environmental co-operation with China, while keeping Beijing away from sectors that touch on national security or the Arctic.
A major issue this week will be China’s heavy tariffs on pork, canola and seafood, which were imposed after Ottawa ordered tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum.
Western and Atlantic premiers are hoping China drops these tariffs, with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe visiting China during Carney’s stay. But Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday he’s “very concerned” Canada might drop policies he said are necessary to protect the Canadian auto sector.
Experts see the trip as a short but consequential visit, as China and Canada try to move past years of diplomatic tensions and Ottawa pushes to double non-U.S. trade by 2035.
The trip comes after years of warnings about Chinese electoral interference in Canada, mounting human rights concerns involving the Uyghur minority and free speech in Hong Kong, and military actions aimed at broadening China’s territory beyond the nautical zone laid out by the United Nations.
Those issues prompted the Liberals in 2022 to brand China a “disruptive global power” that does not share Canada’s values.
Carney’s government has since described Beijing as a strategic partner, and recently advised two Liberal MPs to wrap up a Taiwan visit early to avoid confusion over Ottawa’s policy of not recognizing the self-governing island as an independent country.
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