Carney’s Beijing visit could mark turning point for Canada’s tumultuous ties with China

BEIJING – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will head to Beijing on Jan 13 to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, hoping for closer ties as he looks to reduce his country’s dependence on the United States.

The trip will be the first by a Canadian leader in almost a decade, as the two sides seek to turn the page on a series of diplomatic spats.

Here is why the visit is significant and what it could mean for China-Canada relations:

Big deal

Mr Carney will visit China from Jan 13 to 17, and is scheduled to meet with Mr Xi and Premier Li Qiang, among other government and business leaders.

It will be Mr Carney’s first official trip to China as prime minister, and the first visit by a Canadian leader to Beijing since Mr Justin Trudeau’s in December 2017.

Canada’s relations with China have been among the worst of any Western nation. But Mr Carney and Mr Xi in late October 2025, held the first formal talks between the countries’ leaders since 2017, with the Chinese president inviting the Canadian to visit.

Mr Carney’s visit will aim to “elevate engagement on trade, energy, agriculture, and international security”, his office said in a statement on Jan 7.

Testy relations

Ties fell into a deep freeze in 2018 after the arrest of the daughter of Huawei’s founder on a US warrant in Vancouver, and China’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges.

Ottawa and Beijing have also imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products, including Canadian canola used to make cooking oil, animal feed and biodiesel.

Mr Carney announced in July a 25 per cent tariff on steel imports that contain steel melted and poured in China.

The following month, Beijing imposed a painful temporary customs duty of 75.8 per cent on canola imports from Canada, which is among the world’s top producers of the crop.

China has also been accused of interfering in Canadian elections in recent years.

The G-7, which Canada is a member of, in late October 2025 announced new projects aimed at reducing China’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains.

‘Turning point’

The first sign of warming ties came in late October with Mr Xi and Mr Carney’s meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2025.

The Canadian premier called it a “turning point” in relations, and said he raised tricky topics such as the alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections, saying it was “important to have that discussion” to get relations “back on track”.

The leaders discussed “respective sensitivities regarding issues including agriculture and agri-food products, such as canola, as well as seafood and electric vehicles”, according to a Canadian statement.

Meanwhile, Mr Xi told Mr Carney that China-Canada relations have “shown a recovery towards a trend of positive development” recently with joint efforts of both sides.

China was willing to work with Canada to bring relations “back to the right track”, Mr Xi added.

Cosying up to China

While Canadian foreign policy has for years been hawkish towards China, US President Donald Trump’s mercurial trade policies and aggression towards allies could prompt a pivot.

The majority of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free, but Canada has been hit particularly hard by Mr Trump’s global tariffs on steel, aluminium, vehicles and lumber – due to the interconnected nature of the neighbouring economies.

Mr Trump also previously hiked tariffs on Canada by 10 per cent over an anti-tariff ad campaign that featured late US president Ronald Reagan.

In October 2025, Mr Carney said Canada should double its non-US exports by 2035 to reduce reliance on the United States.

US-Canada trade was worth more than US$900 billion (S$1.1 trillion) in 2024, US government data showed.

Canada was also outraged by Mr Trump’s calls in 2025 for it to become the 51st US state.

With Canada and China both heavily targeted by Mr Trump’s tariffs, Mr Carney and Mr Xi will likely try to dial down trade tensions between their two countries.

China is Canada’s second-largest trade partner, Mr Carney’s office said, totalling C$118.7 billion (S$109.8 billion) in two-way merchandise trade in 2024. AFP