Canada‘s ambassador to China has been called Home for strategic consultations on how the federal government should respond to the Communist Party’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy, including the trial of two imprisoned Canadians, The Globe and Mail reported earlier this week.
Canada’s ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, has been recalled for high-level talks. On Monday, Canada joined the United States, Britain and the European Union in imposing sanctions on Chinese Communist Party officials.
(Source: The Globe and Mail)
This is the first Time since 1989 that Canada has imposed sanctions on the Chinese Communist Party. The sanctions freeze any assets held by Canadian financial institutions that have significant operations in China and prohibit banks from providing financial services to those named.
Two senior Canadian officials said Barton, who was in isolation in Toronto after his trip, was picked up from Beijing for an important strategy meeting on “sensitive issues” with China; they declined to discuss further details.
Relations between China and Canada have been deteriorating since Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained by the Chinese Communist Party in 2018. Foreign media believe this is an apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the United States. Trudeau said the two Canadians were the victims of “fabricated” allegations. China held a secret trial of the two men on Friday and Monday.
The Globe and Mail says the federal government recalled Mr. Barton for consultations. He returned to Canada a few days ago. According to government officials, Barton’s return to Canada was scheduled before Ottawa learned that the Chinese Communist Party had set a trial date for the two men. The Globe and Mail did not identify the officials because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Charles Burton, a former diplomat and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and an expert on China, said the timing of Barton’s return is confusing because he will be in isolation in Canada for 14 days and will be in isolation for 14 days upon his return to Beijing.
Gordon Houlden, a former diplomat and director emeritus of the University of Alberta’s China Institute, speculated that Ottawa is considering making some changes to Beijing’s foreign policy. At the same time, he said, Canada must judge what measures the White House will take against Beijing, now that Biden has been in power for only 60 days.
He said: “The new U.S. administration has not yet released its cards on China Policy.”
He said:I suspect there will be future studies on a range of issues in terms of policy changes because the administration knows that the situation has been deteriorating over the past two years and there is no clear indication of the future …… we are in an area of uncertainty.”
Professor Holden said trade between Canada and China has grown after a quiet period during the pandemic, but there is currently no high-level dialogue between Canada and China (the Communist Party).
One of two senior Canadian officials said Ottawa, for its part, is trying to make a clear statement about China’s policy of consistency across government departments and focusing on coordinated cooperation with the United States and other allies, such as sanctions against the Uighurs.
Diplomats from 23 countries, including the United States, the European Union and Britain, showed strong support Monday in Beijing’s trial of Kang Mingkai, the official said, indicating that Canada is trying to build an alliance against the Chinese Communist Party.
The official described the evolving Canada-China policy as putting pieces on the chessboard on the table, pointing to a recent statement signed by 58 countries criticizing the Communist Party’s use of arbitrary detention.
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