Senator Clement Gignac and Liberal MP Zoe Royer during their visit to China, including to the National People’s Congress in Beijing.Supplied
Beijing is pushing Ottawa to back its bid to join a major free trade agreement between Indo-Pacific nations, including Canada, Japan and Australia, according to a Canadian senator who just returned from a diplomatic mission to China.
Senator Clement Gignac, who co-chairs the Canada-China Legislative Association, said he in turn urged his Chinese counterparts to lift travel sanctions on Canadian MPs who have been critical of Beijing’s human rights record.
Mr. Gignac, and fellow co-chair Liberal MP Zoe Royer, spent March 14 to 21 in China, visiting Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to promote closer bilateral ties. They met senior members of the National People’s Congress.
Compared to his visit to China a year earlier, Mr. Gignac said Chinese parliamentarians and business executives were positive that Prime Minister Mark Carney had reset relations between the two countries and opened the door to enhanced trade and investment.
The rapprochement with China is taking place after relations hit a low in 2018, in the wake of the house arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. China responded by arresting and jailing two Canadians on trumped-up espionage charges.
All three were released in 2021 after Ms. Meng cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors.
“It was a completely different tone. It was a warm welcome and exchanges and they want to come more often to visit us in Canada as well,” Mr. Gignac said, noting a Chinese parliamentarian delegation will travel to Canada later this year.
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Mr. Gignac said China is keen for Canadian support to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, a multilateral free trade agreement.
CPTPP replaces the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a proposed agreement that included the United States until President Donald Trump withdrew from the trade pact in 2017.
With the rise of U.S. protectionism since Mr. Trump’s re-election, the CPTPP has become more attractive even for non-Pacific nations. Britain joined the trade pact in December, 2024, and the European Union has also expressed an interest to join.
China first applied for membership in 2021 but has been blocked several times.
“They would be interested in having the support of Canada regarding access to CPTPP. I reminded them that Canada helped China join the World Trade Organization,” Mr. Gignac said. “I am not in the executive [cabinet] and I don’t know whether Canada will support or not, but I hope Canada will do that.”
Mr. Gignac said China is keen for Canadian support to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral free trade agreement.Supplied
Mr. Gignac said the Chinese parliamentarians and executives also want clearer statements from Ottawa on what sectors of the Canadian economy are regarded as national security risks. Ottawa announced in 2025 that it will conduct enhanced national-security reviews for foreign investments in 11 sensitive technology sectors such as artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum and aerospace.
“Its important for Canada to identify the sectors sooner rather than later. If you spend two or three years on a file and suddenly at the end it is regarded as national security risk then it is better to know in advance,” he said.
Mr. Gignac said he did not raise Canadian concerns about China’s brutal treatment of its Muslim Uyghur population in Xinjiang province or its use of forced labour.
“My role as a co-chair was to build bridges and not raise walls. So I did not raise that topic,” he said. “It’s not my job to do that. I am not in the executive.”
But Mr. Gignac said he urged the Chinese to allow all Canadian parliamentarians to visit China, even MPs, such as Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, a strong critic of the regime.
“It is important that we have reciprocity so that we normalize our relationship,” Senator Gignac said.
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China imposed sanctions on the entire Canadian House of Commons subcommittee on international human rights in 2021 after it accused China of committing “genocide” against Muslim groups in its Xinjiang region. Mr. Chong sat on the committee.
The sanctions were applied after Canada joined with the U.S., Britain and the EU in imposing human-rights-related sanctions against senior officials in Xinjiang.
China recently lifted sanctions on MPs in the British Parliament and last year Beijing removed sanctions on members of the EU parliament as well as a subcommittee of the European legislature.
Mr. Gignac said Canadian and Chinese business executives are more optimistic now that Mr. Carney and President Xi Jinping have mended relations.
“In China, the tone from the top is very important,” he said. “The fact that Mr. Carney has gone to China and had a meeting with President Xi is a green light for Chinese companies to do business with Canada again,” he said.
In January, the Prime Minister travelled to China to forge a new strategic partnership with the world’s second-largest economy. As part of the deal, Mr. Carney agreed to import up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles annually in exchange for Beijing reducing punishing tariffs on Canadian canola and seafood.
Last week, federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne travelled to China and the two countries signed a joint statement to deepen financial-sector ties. Federal Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu is expected to travel to China later this month.