Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping gesture towards their seats at the start of a meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Oct. 31.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
A senior Taiwanese official is warning Prime Minister Mark Carney of the perils of boosting trade relations with China, saying economic dependency will ultimately give Beijing leverage to use against Canada.
Ming-Chi Chen, Taiwan’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, points to recent retaliatory measures China took against Japan over remarks by the Japanese Prime Minister that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could prompt a military response from Tokyo.
Mr. Carney in November accepted an invitation from Xi Jinping to travel to China in the new year after the first formal meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Chinese President since 2017.
Mr. Carney has said the tête-à-tête with Mr. Xi in South Korea represented a “turning point” that he predicted would pay dividends for Canadian families, businesses and workers.
The Prime Minister, who is new to politics, was not part of the Canadian government when the Canada-China relationship deteriorated over national security concerns during the last decade.
Mr. Chen cautioned Canada about pursuing closer ties to China.
“We know that every new administration has its own learning curve, but the learning curve involving China is not usually a happy one,” he said in an interview Saturday.
He said just as with Japan, Beijing could block Canadian imports whenever it decides it’s unhappy with Canada.
“I think that you have to have a high awareness of the level of the risk involved in this engagement with Chinese people.”
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China’s Communist Party, which seized power more than 75 years ago, has never ruled Taiwan. But China’s authoritarian rulers consider the island democracy of 23 million a breakaway province and have not ruled out annexing it by force. Taiwan’s government has rejected Beijing’s claims and said its future is for the Taiwanese people to decide.
Mr. Chen, whose responsibilities include the Western Hemisphere, was in Canada for the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual gathering of foreign policy and security experts. He is scheduled to meet with Canadian government officials in Ottawa afterwards.
China informed Japan on Nov. 19 that it will ban all imports of Japanese seafood, media outlets reported – a decision that comes amid an escalating diplomatic dispute between Asia’s top two economies.
Tensions between the two countries ignited after new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said earlier this month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s survival could trigger a military response.
Ms. Takaichi, a conservative nationalist who took office last month, ditched the ambiguity that Japan and the U.S. have long used regarding Taiwan when she told a questioner in parliament on Nov. 7 that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan, which lies just over 100 kilometres from Japanese territory, could be deemed “a situation threatening Japan’s survival.”
That is a legal designation that allows a Japanese prime minister to deploy the nation’s military.
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Canada and China are locked in a trade dispute that began after Ottawa co-operated with the former U.S. president Joe Biden administration on levies against Chinese electric vehicles and steel and aluminum.
Canada imposed a 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles last year in tandem with the United States, as well as a 25-per-cent levy on steel and aluminum from China.
China retaliated with tariffs on Canadian canola oil, canola meal, peas and Canadian seafood and pork products. It ratcheted up the pressure in August by imposing a duty of more than 75 per cent on Canadian canola seed, a major crop in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Shortly after the Xi-Carney meeting this month, the Chinese government has allowed the country’s group tour operators to resume travel to Canada, a potential boon for tourism.
Canada was left off the list in 2023 when China loosened restrictions on group travel for its citizens that had been imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. That year, Canada was embroiled in a debate over Chinese foreign interference, which led to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau announcing a public inquiry into the matter.
Mr. Chen warned that China is trying to exploit eroding relations between the United States and its allies as U.S. President Donald Trump imposes protectionist tariffs on imports including from Canada.
“They are trying to find every opportunity to drive a wedge between democracies, including Canada and the U.S.,” he said.
The Japanese media outlet Nikkei reported in October, citing anonymous sources, that Canada has kept Taiwan waiting on signing an economic co-operation pact. The outlet said negotiations on the deal had concluded before the Canadian federal election campaign began in April.
Mr. Chen denied Taiwan is impatient to have the deal signed. “We understand Canada, the new government, has a lot of things to take care of.”
But, the deputy foreign minister said, “definitely we want the agreement to move ahead.”
With reports from Reuters