The long-term outcome of Mark Carney’s trade mission is unclear. What is clear is that the two countries have been working hard to repair the relationship.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 19, 2026.

OTTAWA—It is hard to believe that almost a decade has passed without a Canadian prime minister setting foot on Chinese soil.

There was a time when Canada and China were close.

Back in 1970, then-Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau became one of the first Western leaders to recognize the People’s Republic of China.

As a private citizen, Trudeau had travelled to China in 1949. He undertook a subsequent visit in 1960 with fellow traveller and future Senator Jacques Hebert. After the visit, the pair authored a book sympathetically chronicling their experiences Two Innocents in Red China.

The book was relatively positive toward the communist regime and paved the way for Trudeau’s future Sino-vision as prime minister.

In Trudeau’s first political campaign, his platform included recognition of the PRC and a promise to promote its membership in the United Nations. He fulfilled both promises with China joining the UN in 1971.

Canada was also on the receiving end of the friendship, based on the relations between a Canadian doctor and the revered leader of the Chinese revolution.

Dr. Norman Bethune was a communist and frontline trauma surgeon who served in the Spanish Civil War, and then served in China as a frontline medic of the Chinese Communist Party’s Eighth Route Army in the Sino-Japanese War.

Bethune is honoured in the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, but his notoriety in China is much greater. Chairman Mao Zedong, delivered a eulogy for the doctor, who died of septicemia on a battlefield after performing surgery on a wounded soldier. The eulogy was subsequently published as a chapter in Mao’s Red Book Essays.

Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong was mandatory reading in all Chinese elementary schools, so every Chinese student knows the story of Bethune.

The Red Book lauded Bethune’s “utter devotion to others without any thought of self.” The Mao essay portrayed Bethune as a model of communism and medicine, a legacy which remains today.

The strong ties established by Bethune and formalized by Trudeau put Canada in an excellent position to build business and personal relationships with Chinese counterparts.

Most expected that Trudeau’s son, prime minister Justin Trudeau, would build upon his father’s legacy.

Instead, early in his mandate, Canadian-Chinese relations reached a new low when Canada acceded to a provisional American extradition request, accusing the Huawei deputy board chair Meng Wanzhou of “conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions.”

The irony of the arrest was that Wanzhou was simply transiting via the Vancouver airport from Mexico when Canada arrested her in keeping with our extradition agreement with the United States.

It would have been so simple for Canadian officials to warn their Chinese counterparts in advance to avoid the airport, and the whole issue of her detention would have been moot. That kind of diplomatic backdoor discussion takes place all the time, and many observers could not understand why this country became the focus of Chinese ire because of an American extradition request.

At the time, the American allegation was that Wanzhou cleared money actually destined for Skycom, but transmitted illegally through Huawei. It was alleged that Skycom was doing business with Iran, which violated U.S. sanctions.

To make matters worse, the Chinese government arrested and imprisoned two Canadians. The case of the Two Michaels—Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig—made headlines in Canada, further straining relations between the two countries.

In the end, the U.S. and China negotiated an agreement to free Wanzhou and the political damage was largely meted out to Canada.

It was that fiasco that left Canada in political limbo as far as the Chinese were concerned.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s objective in his historic visit last week was to reboot the relationship politically and economically.

On the economic front, there were high hopes for a resolution to the 76-per-cent canola tariff imposed on Canada by the Chinese.

Global Affairs Minister Anita Anand stated last week that it is Canada’s intention to move away from American trade dependency and increase other international trade by 50 per cent in the next decade.

She also downplayed existing this country’s foreign policy labelling China an “increasingly disruptive” global force.

The long-term outcome of Carney’s trade mission is unclear.

What is clear is that the two countries have been working hard to repair the relationship.

A change on Canadian treatment of Chinese electrical vehicle sales is also under discussion. A collapse of the current Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade negotiations could open that door.

China is definitely a door worth opening.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Canadians trapped in the epicentre of the coronavirus in China had to wait in line behind the United States, Japan, South Korea, Jordan, Britain, Portugal, Bangladesh, Egypt, Thailand, and Indonesia to even land a plan in the Wuhan airport.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on February 10, 2020.

OTTAWA—The wheels of justice grind too slowly in Canada.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested at the Vancouver International Airport back in 2018. She finally got her day in court last month, but the decision on her extradition case is expected to take several months.

Meanwhile, according to Canada’s new ambassador to China, relations between the two countries are grim.

Canadians trapped in the epicentre of the coronavirus in China had to wait in line behind the United States, Japan, South Korea, Jordan, Britain, Portugal, Bangladesh, Egypt, Thailand, and Indonesia to even land a plan in the Wuhan airport.

Our people were treated with a diffidence similar to that afforded citizens of Taiwan, who wanted to be evacuated but were delayed because the Chinese government considers them citizens of their country.

On a business level, Canadians have been privately encouraging the Canadian government to find a way out of the Huawei mess.

The appointment of former business Sinophile Dominic Barton to the post of Canadian ambassador to China was seen as a step in the right direction.

But the ambassador’s two-hour appearance before a parliamentary committee last week laid rest to the notion that his work will be accomplished in short order.

Barton described the frosty welcome he got during his first meeting with his counterparts in decidedly undiplomatic terms.

It’s not as though Barton is new to China. As a key private-sector player, he has been actively engaged at the highest levels for the past two decades.

But representing the government of Canada comes with a whole new set of challenges.

Canada built a strong and stable relationship with China after our country became one of the first in the world to recognize the establishment of the People’s Republic of China back in 1970. That was done under the direction of prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who had travelled the country as a young backpacker before he ever entered politics.

Canada also benefited from the relationship of Dr. Norman Bethune to the China’s revered founder Mao Zedong. The two were so close that Bethune is lionized in Chinese revolutionary history and is better known to most Chinese than he is in Canada. But those deep and strong links have been damaged because of the Wanzhou case.

Former Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland presented the extradition case as a simple matter of the application of the rule of law.

However, foreign affairs experts affirm that the Canadian government would have been within its rights to inform China of the pending extradition request, and Wenzhou could have aborted her passage through Canada.

Instead, Canada is in the difficult position of doing America’s dirty work, while they get their planes to Wuhan and we are kept hanging.

Imagine how embarrassing it would be for Canada if one of our top business leaders was kept under house arrest for more than a year while the judicial extradition case lumbered along in China.

When Freeland departed the foreign ministry, many felt a new approach could end the impasse. But according to Barton, that is going to take some fancy footwork.

Barton told parliamentarians that both sides were literally spitting mad. Chinese are angered that the No. 2 in their country’s largest private company has been arrested at the request of a third country, the United States.

Canadians are equally upset that three Canadian citizens have been caught up in the judicial crossfire.

The “two Michaels,” as they are widely known were both arrested on the heels of the Meng Wanzhou’s detainment, with the Chinese government accusing them of being involved in state secrets.

The third Canadian referenced in committee, Robert Schellenberg, had already been convicted of drug smuggling in China, but his sentenced was increased from 19 years to death in the Meng fallout.

The best outcome of this mess would be a judicial decision in which the test for extradition has not been met.

Meng was alleged to have broken American law on sanctions against Iran but Canada does not apply the same sanctions, therefore an extradition could not be justified on that grounds.

Canadian lawyers made their extradition case on broader terms, claiming that a fraud could have been perpetrated on HSBC because of Meng’s actions.

We won’t know the answer to the judicial process for months to come.

Meanwhile, Canadians are paying the price in every walk of life, up to and including our right to evacuate countrymen from a coronavirus zone.

Time to find a solution to this mess.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.