Photo: VCG

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly is dispatching her deputy David Morrison to China in a bid to help thaw chilled relations with China, AFP reported on Monday, citing a government source with knowledge of the trip, who said the federal government of Canada wants to "normalize bilateral ties with China" and Morrison's trip to China "is part of that." Experts told the Global Times on Tuesday there is a growing public demand in Canada for improving economic and political relations with China, especially after observing recent increased high-level interactions between China and the US, Australia and Germany.

As of press time on Tuesday, neither the Chinese side nor the Canadian side had released any relevant information about the trip.

Joly herself has not travelled to China since assuming the role of Canadian Foreign Minister in 2021, partly due to factors such as COVID-19 restriction measures and the cooling relations between China and Canada.

Multiple foreign media reports said that the unreasonable detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant in Vancouver in December 2018, and China's detention of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on espionage charges, plunged relations into a deep freeze.

In 2023, Canada made wrongful remarks on issues related to China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Hong Kong and the Taiwan question, and its warships and military aircraft repeatedly followed the US in conducting provocative activities under the pretext of "freedom of navigation" along China's coast.

More recently, the Canadian side has repeatedly hyped up the so-called "Chinese intervention in Canadian elections" in 2019 and 2021, which China refuted multiple times, thus straining ties between the two countries.

According to the AFP report, despite that Joly has never visited China, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese Foreign Minister, met with Joly at the latter's request on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this February. At that time, Joly spoke about the need to "pursue pragmatic diplomacy" with China.

According to The Globe and Mail, Joly has recently frequently spoken of the term "pursuing pragmatic diplomacy" when talking about China-Canada relations. The report also noted that one of Joly's political mentors is former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, who during his tenure helped forge the "golden decade" of China-Canada relations.

According to AFP, pressure has been mounting in the Canadian business community for the two sides to repair relations, as news came that the Canadian deputy foreign minister would visit China.

Business in Vancouver reported in January that many Canadian companies are concerned that political tensions between China and Canada are stopping them from fully tapping into the world's second-largest economy.

The Canada China Business Council argues that Canadian industry is losing ground to its American, Australian and European competitors, who are taking on Canada's market share in China for goods such as beef and pet food.

According to The Globe and Mail and Global Television Network, due to the cooling of China-Canada relations in recent years, Canada's economic and trade interests have been seriously harmed. However, countries such as the US and Australia, which have consistently aligned with Canada, and even "led the way" on issues related to China, have taken significant steps to improve their relations with China. Senior officials from these two countries have recently visited China one after another.

According to The Globe and Mail, Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he believes Morrison's visit to China is "part of trying to find some form of accommodation because right now there [are] almost no exchanges," which could pave the way for a trip to China by the Canadian Foreign Minister Joly.

The Canadian government is preparing to send a deputy foreign minister to China as a preliminary step, which, based on recent statements by Minister Joly focusing on "pragmatic diplomacy" toward China, seems to be a temporary, seasonal, and expedient measure, Yao Peng, deputy secretary-general of the Canadian Studies Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

However, the sincerity of Canada's efforts to improve relations with China is still insufficient. The reason is that political mutual trust between China and Canada has been completely destroyed by the Canadian side, Yao said.

If Canada wants to reverse the difficulties in China-Canada relations and improve economic and trade ties, it must completely abandon the Cold War mentality and the notion of "clique formation," Yao noted, adding that Canada should adhere to the foresight of its older generation of politicians and fundamentally uphold the principle of "friendliness between China and Canada" to thoroughly reverse the years of difficulties in China-Canada relations.