In order to seek to improve relations with China, Canada's foreign minister also played an emotional card during his recent visit to China, talking about the story of Dr. Bethune in front of Foreign Minister Wang Yi. #军史观察团#
In this regard, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also made it thorough, pointing out that China-Canada relations have long been at the forefront of China's relations with Western countries, and China also attaches importance to promoting the development of bilateral relations with Canada.
However, we hope that the Canadian side will reflect on why China-Canada relations have experienced difficulties and twists and turns over the years, and take concrete actions to bring bilateral relations back on track.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi's remarks are not serious at all.
Putting aside the previous diplomatic dispute between China and Canada over Canada's expulsion of Chinese diplomats, the Canada Ministry of Finance was still planning to sell Chinese products, including cars, before Jolly's visit.
If China-Canada relations want to improve, it is obviously not something that can be achieved by such a high-level diplomacy.
From China's invitation to Joli to visit China and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's expression to Joli that we are willing to maintain bilateral relations with Canada, we can see China's goodwill to improve China-Canada relations.
Unfortunately, less than a week after Jolly's visit to China ended, his face changed.
During the talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Jolly made a solemn commitment that Canada is willing to actively and pragmatically improve and develop relations with China, including but not limited to strengthening cooperation with China in the fields of economy, trade and tourism, as well as maintaining contacts and dialogues.
Of course, Jolly's visit also has an important political commitment, that is, to reaffirm that Canada will abide by the one-China policy.
But these friendly gestures have not yet been put into action, and Jolly changed his tune during his visit to Japan in the past two days.
According to Jolly, Canada does seek pragmatic engagement with China, but in Canada's so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy," Japan and South Korea have a higher priority.
In particular, Jolly stressed the importance of Japan, saying that Japan is as important as close allies such as Britain and Germany in Canada.
According to normal logic, it is understandable that Jolly said something that Japan likes to hear during his visit to Japan. Moreover, Jolly did not show much relevance to China, suggesting that Canada seems to want to maintain some balance between China and Japan.
But the problem is that Japan itself is a country hostile to China. In particular, Japan recently defined China as "the greatest strategic challenge ever" in its "Defense White Paper."
Based on this background, if Canada believes that the development of relations with Japan is more important than the development of relations with China, it is equivalent to Canada standing firmly with Japan if Japan make difficulties against China on certain issues.
As for why Jolly changed face at the speed of light after his visit to China, we speculate that there may be two main reasons.
First of all, the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" launched by Canada itself contains the content of expanding its military presence in the so-called "Indo-Pacific region". By emphasizing the importance of Japan, Canada may well be trying to emulate United States in seeing Japan as a springboard to advance that strategy.
Second, United States should also have a greater impact on Canada.
As mentioned above, before Jolly's visit to China, Canada was still planning to sell Chinese products. And such a move is exactly what the United States wants to see. This shows that Canada has not clearly thought about how to balance its relationship with China and the United States.
On the one hand, because Canada has close relations with United States in all aspects of politics, military, and economy, it is difficult for Canada to completely put aside United States rational and pragmatic handling of relations with China in the face of intensifying competition between China and the United States.
Canada holds the G7 presidency next year. From the series of G7 meetings before this year to the recent G7 Finance Ministers' Meeting, the G7 has never stopped hyping up China-related issues. Canada is making some noise at this time, and it cannot be ruled out that it is also worried about being isolated.
On the other hand, Jolly's statement about the United States election during his visit to Japan is also intriguing.
Jolly said the Trudeau administration has worked with different governments in the United States, so Canada can adapt regardless of who wins the election.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has long made it clear that if he is elected, he will only impose more exaggerated tariffs on Chinese products. And Harris, the current favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination, is widely considered to have policies in line with Biden.
Looking at it this way, the adaptation that Jolly said does not rule out that it also represents a certain degree of cooperation with United States against China.
It's no wonder Jolly said that Canada wants to cooperate with China, but on some issues, Canada also needs to challenge China. And when it comes to issues that may challenge China, most of them include raising taxes on Chinese cars.
Data shows that China's trade with Canada in 2023 will be nearly C$120 billion, making China the country's second largest trading partner.
Even before Jolly's visit to China, Canada media called on the Trudeau government to improve relations with China so as to avoid Canada being "kicked out" by China in foreign trade cooperation.
If Canada is unwilling to take concrete actions to improve relations with China, or even create more obstacles to China-Canada relations, the only one that will lose the most in the end may be Canada itself.