Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where the first official visit to China by our prime minister since 2017 shows how much our relationship with the United States has hit the rocks, we are getting real about being realistic, and more. Let’s get to it!
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney stepped onto a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People last Thursday and reviewed a ceremonial honor guard of China’s People’s Liberation Army. Flanked by senior Chinese officials, he walked slowly past rows of soldiers standing at rigid attention as a military band played the Canadian and Chinese national anthems.
It was Carney’s first full day in Beijing, where no Canadian prime minister had paid an official visit since Justin Trudeau in 2017. Even the idea had seemed unimaginable since 2021, when Canada-China relations collapsed after the arrest of Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, known as the “two Michaels.” In 2018, they were detained in China on vague espionage charges, a move widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the U.S.
