After the leaders of China and the United States concluded a highly anticipated strategic dialogue, Canada's new Prime Minister Carney called China on June 6. "Canada is one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with the New China." China's opening remarks are gentle but meaningful, and also mentioned the twists and turns of the "first years", which is an hindrance to the trough of Sino-Canada relations during the Trudeau administration - the Meng Wanzhou incident, imposing tariffs on China, and following the US technology encirclement of China... These measures once made the relationship between the two countries fall to a freezing point. But Carney's response revealed a clear turn signal: "Canada is willing to restart Canada-China relations." In just one sentence, behind it is the reverse pressure of Canada's domestic political and economic reality.
Just a month ago, a wave of reflection was that the Trump administration's trade protectionism has caused Canada to suffer. In early 2025, the United States suddenly increased taxes on Canadian aluminum products, and the Trudeau administration's "loyalty" to the United States was exchanged for an economic backstab. After Carney came to power, the public opinion demanded "independent diplomacy" became increasingly popular. Therefore, when the call between China and the United States sent out a signal of "disaster control", Canada quickly seized this window.
Carney specifically mentioned during the call that "looking forward to resuming high-level exchanges and economic and trade dialogues", with a clear goal - money. China is Canada's second largest trading partner, but in the past few years, Canadian farmers, the automotive industry and clean energy companies have paid real money for political confrontation. Taking rapeseed as an example, China was once Canada's largest rapeseed buyer, but after the Trudeau government followed the U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies, Canadian farmers watched as market share was stolen by Australia and Russia. Now, the Carney government wants to reopen the Chinese market, but China's attitude is clear: "There is no fundamental conflict of interest between the two countries." If Canada wants to "turn back" economically, it must "turn around" politically.
Another intriguing detail is that Carney specifically mentioned cooperation in areas such as "clean energy, climate change". This is no accident - Canada will completely ban the sale of fuel vehicles in 2035, but local electric vehicles are expensive, with the cheapest model priced at 40,000 Canadian dollars (about 210,000 yuan), while Chinese electric vehicles only cost 13,000 Canadian dollars. In comparison, it goes without saying who to choose. But the contradiction is that Canada wants both Chinese electric vehicles and is also worried about impacting local industries. In this regard, China has long given the answer: cooperation rather than confrontation.
As China said, "Deepen cooperation in traditional fields and expand cooperation in emerging fields" - if Canada is willing to open up cooperation in technology (such as joint research and development of batteries) rather than blindly blocking it, China and Canada can achieve a win-win situation. After the call, Canadian media quickly interpreted the matter as a "signal of independence diplomacy against the United States", but the reality may be more complicated. On the one hand, Canada will find it difficult to completely get rid of the US influence in the short term. Although Trump's "America First" angered the Canadian people, the binding between North American supply chains and security alliances is deeply rooted. On the other hand, China's patience is not infinite. China mentioned "do more things to enhance mutual trust", pointing to Canada's "swing history" - from the pragmatism in the Harper era, to Trudeau's repetition, and then to Carney's temptations today.
If the Canadian side continues to "speak one thing and do another" on issues such as tariffs and 5G, China-Canada relations will probably only stay in the "restart" rather than the "reconstruction" stage. For China, if Canada turns pragmatic, it will weaken the "unified front" that the West encircles China; and for Canada itself, this is an opportunity to stop losses. Looking ahead, China-Canada cooperation has great potential.
But whether the potential can be transformed into reality depends on whether Canada can truly learn - in the game of big powers, the best choice for a country like Canada is to "get the best and get along", rather than "select the side". Following the United States will not only lose the Chinese market, but also completely lose the respect of the United States, and in the end it will only make the gains less than worth the loss.
