Trudeau says China ‘playing’ democracies against each other, urges ‘united front’
Global News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Beijing is 'playing' democracies 'off each other,' but countries still must work together with China on big issues like climate change.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Chinese government is using its economic weight to “very cleverly” play democratic countries off one another.
But Trudeau suggested democratic countries’ pursuit of Chinese markets means political ideals can take a back seat to economic imperatives.
“We compete with each other. We’re trying to see how could we get better access for Canadian beef than Australian beef to this country or that market,” Trudeau told Global News’ Ottawa Bureau Chief Mercedes Stephenson.
In a wide-ranging year-end interview, the prime minister said like-minded countries should “show a united front” against Beijing’s increasingly “coercive diplomacy.”
“We’ve been competing and China has been from time to time very cleverly playing us off each other in an open market competitive way. We need to do a better job of working together and standing strong so that China can’t, you know, play the angles and divide us one against the other.”
Trudeau’s comments come as Canada’s relationship with China is at a low. Canada’s 2018 detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou – at the behest of American authorities, who wanted the telecom executive on fraud charges – resulted in a diplomatic chill with Beijing.
It also led to the detention of the Two Michaels – Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman – by Chinese authorities on national security charges. After nearly three years in prison, the Michaels were released in September shortly after Meng’s lawyers cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors.
Reflecting on meeting the two men after their release, Trudeau said it was a “surprisingly emotional” moment.
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