Opinion of China hits new low in Canada amid coronavirus pandemic and Huawei case

More Canadians see Asian superpower in negative light than at any point in past 15 years, new poll shows

Only 14 per cent of respondents had positive opinion of China, down from 29 per cent just six months ago

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Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou leaves British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver in January. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

Published: 1:24am, 14 May 2020Updated: 8:54pm, 25 Nov 2020

More Canadians see China in a negative light than at any point in the past 15 years, according to a new poll.

Just 14 per cent of respondents in an Angus Reid Institute survey said they have a positive opinion of China. That is down sharply from six months ago, when 29 per cent viewed the government in Beijing positively.

Questions about the origins of the coronavirus that has hobbled the world economy are weighing on a relationship that was already soured by Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the end of 2018 on a US extradition order.

Some 85 per cent of Canadians said the Chinese government has not been honest about the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Angus Reid poll, published on Wednesday.

In February, as the world was beginning to be seized by the outbreak of the respiratory virus first reported in Wuhan, China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new ambassador in Beijing told lawmakers in Ottawa that he had his work cut out for him in mending ties.