China weighs in on Canada’s election after Conservatives promise to ‘stand up’ to Beijing

Canada’s Conservative Party has China in its election crosshairs amid the worst period of diplomatic relations in recent history – prompting a strong pushback from Beijing’s ambassador and state media, which lambasted the opposition party’s “hostile” platform for catering to “toxic” anti-China sentiment.

But despite the rhetoric on either side of the Pacific, Canadian political observers told the South China Morning Post that there would be little room for either the Tories or the ruling Liberal Party to chart their own course on China, whichever wins the September 20 election. Ottawa would remain beholden to how the broader China-US relationship played out, they said.

China-Canada ties are already at an abysmal low, dragged down by the arrest of Huawei Technologies Co executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018, and by the subsequent arrest of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in China.

Last month, the Conservatives, led by Erin O’Toole, released an election platform that took a strikingly hardline stance towards Beijing, saying the party would reduce Canada’s overall reliance on China, ban Huawei from 5G networks and withdraw from the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.