Canada has its eyes ‘wide open’ when it comes to normalising ties with China, says foreign minister

Foreign Minister Marc Garneau says his country has a fourfold approach to China: coexist, compete, cooperate and challenge
Garneau addressed relationship just days after Canada released Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to China and imprisoned ‘two Michaels’ returned to Canada

Meng Wanzhou

Reuters

Published: 4:09pm, 27 Sep 2021

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Canada’s “eyes are wide open” when it comes to normalising its relationship with China, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said on Sunday, after three years of rocky ties with Beijing since the arrest of a Huawei Technologies executive who was released on Friday.

Garneau told CBC News the government was now following a fourfold approach to China: coexist, compete, cooperate and challenge.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, flew back to China after reaching an agreement with US prosecutors to end a bank fraud case against her. That resulted in the scrapping of her nearly three-year extradition battle in a Canadian court.

Soon after Meng flew to China, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – the two Canadians detained by Chinese authorities just days after Meng’s arrest in December 2018 – were released by Beijing.

“There was no path to a relationship with China as long as the two Michaels were being detained,” Garneau said.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Garneau received the two Canadians on Saturday when they arrived in the western Canadian city of Calgary after spending more than 1,000 days in solitary confinement.

Chinese tabloid says ‘two Michaels’ allowed bail for medical reasons

Trudeau, who won a third term in the September 20 election after a tight race, had vowed to improve ties with China when he first became prime minister in 2015, building on his father’s success in establishing diplomatic ties with China in 1970.

But even before Meng’s arrest, Canada’s repeated questioning of China’s human rights issues has irked Beijing, and the two countries have failed to come closer.

China has always denied any link between Meng’s extradition case and the detention of the two Canadians, but Garneau said, “the immediate return of the two Michaels linked” it to Meng’s case in a “very direct manner”.

Garneau also said he did not think the timing of the men’s return had anything to do with the timing of the federal election.

“I think it just worked out that way.”