{"id":5039,"date":"2026-01-20T13:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/canada-turns-to-china-as-trumps-tariffs-and-threats-bring-foes-together\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:44:43","slug":"canada-turns-to-china-as-trumps-tariffs-and-threats-bring-foes-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/canada-turns-to-china-as-trumps-tariffs-and-threats-bring-foes-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada turns to China as Trump’s tariffs and threats bring foes together"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING \u2014 With U.S. ties <\/strong>at their lowest point in modern history, Canada is turning to one of the only countries with which it had even worse relations: China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canada is forging a \u201cnew strategic partnership\u201d with China, its second-biggest trading partner, Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> said Friday during what he called a \u201chistoric\u201d trip to Beijing. <\/strong>That includes a break with the United States on tariffs, which have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China since 2017, met with President Xi Jinping <\/a>at the Great Hall of the People. He is one of a series of world leaders shaken by President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s geopolitical disruptions who are traveling to Beijing as it seeks to exploit U.S. unpredictability to bolster its global influence. <\/p>\n

For Canada, the Trump administration has been especially head-spinning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States used to be a friend and ally,\u201d Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, told NBC News in an interview. Now, \u201cwe are treated as an enemy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Carney\u2019s trip follows <\/strong>years of frosty relations over Beijing\u2019s lengthy detention of two Canadians<\/a> regarded as hostages as well as allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those tensions slowed investment and left Canada \u201ceven more dependent on our largest trading partner,\u201d Carney said, referring to the U.S., which is now the object of extraordinary Canadian anger<\/a> and boycotts<\/a> after a year of insults and threats by Trump.<\/p>\n

As part of an effort to \u201crecalibrate\u201d the relationship, Carney said Canada had agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a major shift for Canada, a major auto producer that in 2024 followed the U.S. in imposing the 100% tariff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carney said Canadians would also be allowed to travel to China visa-free.<\/p>\n

\"CHINA-BEIJING-XI
Carney said the two countries reached a \u201cpreliminary but landmark trade agreement to remove trade barriers and reduce tariffs.\u201d<\/span>Xie Huanchi \/ Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During their meeting earlier Friday, Xi told Carney that China was willing to strengthen coordination \u201cto jointly address global challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney, who called China his country\u2019s biggest security threat while campaigning for office last year, said Friday that the global security landscape \u201ccontinues to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a world that\u2019s more dangerous and divided, we face many threats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though Canada\u2019s relationship with the U.S. is much deeper and broader, Carney said, ties with China were now \u201cmore predictable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada-China relations went into a \u201cdeep freeze\u201d in 2018 when China arrested the two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig<\/a> and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, said Lynette Ong, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Toronto. <\/p>\n

Their detention came days after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou<\/a>, an executive at the Chinese tech giant Huawei, at the request of U.S. officials seeking her extradition on fraud charges. Kovrig and Spavor, who were accused of spying<\/a>, spent almost three years in Chinese detention before being released in 2021<\/a>, hours after Meng made a deal with the Justice Department. <\/p>\n

\"Image:
The saga over Canadian detainees in China fueled tensions between the two countries.<\/span>Lindsey Wasson \/ Reuters file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEven after the two Michaels were released, people did not warm up to China at all,\u201d Ong said.<\/p>\n

Then Trump returned to the White House last January. <\/p>\n

Within days, he imposed a 25% tariff<\/a> on most Canadian goods and started talking about making Canada, a nation of 40 million people, the 51st U.S. state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S.-Canada trade talks have been on hold since October, when Trump cut them off in anger over an anti-tariff ad<\/a> produced by the Ontario government.<\/p>\n

\"Mark
\u201cNever have all your eggs in one basket. We have too many eggs in the American basket,\u201d Carney told CBC News last month.<\/span>Geoff Robins \/ AFP – Getty Images file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian public opinion on China is becoming more positive<\/a> even as goodwill toward the U.S. plummets<\/a>, according to polling by the Pew Research Center<\/a>. Last year, 34% of Canadian survey respondents had a favorable opinion of China, up from 21% in 2024 before Trump took office. <\/p>\n

An equal proportion of respondents had a favorable opinion of America, down from 54%.<\/p>\n

Though the same pattern can be seen<\/a> in a number of countries around the world, in Canada \u201cthe flip is especially obvious,\u201d Ong said.<\/p>\n

Canadian officials say they are seeking to grow non-U.S. trade by at least 50% over the next 10 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurther trade engagement with China should first and foremost be seen as diversification away from the United States,\u201d Ong said.<\/p>\n

About 75% of Canada\u2019s manufactured goods exports go to the U.S., according to government figures. China is the second-largest market at about 4%.<\/p>\n

Though Canada is seeking to increase exports to a number of countries \u2014 including India<\/a>, where Carney has also been trying to improve strained relations<\/a> \u2014 a major priority is China, where imports of Canadian goods fell more than 10% last year, according to Chinese customs data released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The two countries made a major step forward in October when the leaders met on the sidelines of a regional summit in South Korea<\/a>, where Xi invited Carney to Beijing.<\/p>\n

The speed with which Carney went to China \u201creflects a sense of urgency,\u201d said Saint-Jacques, the former ambassador. \u201cHe knows that Canada is in a tough spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image:
Carney, a former central banker, replaced Justin Trudeau as leader.<\/span>Vincent Thian \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Showing the U.S. that Canada has other options for its exports, he said, could put Carney in a stronger position as the U.S., Canada and Mexico begin a \u201cjoint review\u201d of their free trade agreement, known as the USMCA. Trump this week dismissed the agreement, which he praised when it was announced during his first term, as \u201cirrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, \u201cCanadians know also that China is a very difficult partner,\u201d Saint-Jacques said. \u201cWe know very well how they can contravene international rules.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saint-Jacques said that in his meeting with Xi, Carney would \u201cemphasize the need to put pressure on Putin to accept a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine,\u201d in addition to discussing China\u2019s relationship with North Korea<\/a> and expressing support for the Beijing-claimed island of Taiwan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like the U.S., Canada has no official ties with Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, but supports it in the face of Chinese pressure.<\/p>\n

Carney said Friday that he had raised human rights issues such as last month\u2019s conviction of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cWe take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Beijing, and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING \u2014 With U.S. ties at their lowest point in modern history, Canada is turning to one of the only countries with which it had even worse relations: China. Canada is forging a \u201cnew strategic partnership\u201d with China, its second-biggest trading partner, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday during what he called a \u201chistoric\u201d trip <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}