Middle path proves hazardous for Canada
- By siding diplomatically with Washington, but also wanting to further Ottawa’s economic interests with its second largest trade partner, China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must tread carefully
Make nice or make war? In every major Western country, you have senior people in the foreign policy establishment who advocate one side or the other over China. Canada is no exception.
David Mulroney, Canadian ambassador to China between 2009 and 2012 whom this newspaper recently interviewed, is a major hawk. Commenting on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Washington last week, he claims his country will side with the United States to defend a rules-based international order.
Actually, the main point of the visit was to get the Americans to own up to the pickle they have put the Canadian government in after requesting the arrest of Huawei’s No 2 Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver for extradition.
Trudeau needed, and received, US President Donald Trump’s assurance to raise the case when he meets President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit this week. Beijing has so far refused to talk to Ottawa, which is desperate to get back two Canadians detained on the mainland following Meng’s arrest.
Canada ‘will join US’ in speaking out for rules-based order against China
It might have escaped Mulroney’s notice, but Trump’s America is the biggest opponent of a rules-based world order. Trump thinks World Trade Organisation rules don’t apply to his country, that Nato is obsolete and wastes valuable US military and financial resources, and the G20 is no more than a talking shop. He has unilaterally broken the Iran nuclear deal. Until recently, he had imposed steel and aluminium tariffs on Canada to force it to renegotiate a long-standing trade treaty.
Mulroney was the envoy to China under the hawkish Conservative Party prime minister Stephen Harper and does not reflect current policy. Former Liberal Party prime minister Jean Chretien, who represents “the dovish school of dealing with China”, may be closer to Ottawa’s thinking.
He recently offered himself as a special envoy to China to resolve the diplomatic impasse on the premise that Canada’s justice minister has judicial power to halt Meng’s extradition proceedings. Ottawa has rejected the offer on the grounds that it would set a bad legal precedent. And, of course, asking a party elder to do its job will make the government look amateur.
In principle, Trudeau wants to neither appease nor confront China. Canada always needs to side diplomatically with Washington, but Trudeau also wants to further the country’s economic interests with its second largest trade partner, China.
This middle path, though, is proving hazardous to tread.
