B.C. businesses reconsidering their ties with China after the Meng and 2 Michaels affair
CBC
Tom Sundher knows his timber.
He's spent 20 years buying logs from companies on British Columbia's coast, bringing them to mills and exporting them all over the world.
But the recent tension between Canada and China — and the swift release of two Canadians imprisoned in China after the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou came to a surprise end — have left him feeling uneasy about selling his Sundher Timber Products to the authoritarian country.
"I would favour India over China because I'm more comfortable there; because they're a more democratic country, there's rule of law," he said.
His local business association, the Surrey Board of Trade, is also urging business owners to reassess working in China.
Relations between the two countries remain unsettled after three years of diplomatic tensions brought on by the arrest of Meng in 2018 at Vancouver International Airport.
It might be some time before bilateral ties can mend, experts say — and for many, that leaves a cloud of uncertainty over business relationships with China.