Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to visit China after years-long rift

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is headed to China on Friday at the invitation of Beijing, after years of diplomatic strain following the 2018 detention of two Canadians.

In recent months, China has urged Canada to work on shared priorities and draw less attention to disagreements.

Joly’s visit follows Canadian security officials flagging Chinese interference as the country’s greatest strategic threat, a charge Beijing rejects.

Canadian business leaders have called out Ottawa for being an outlier in restoring high-level dialogue with Chinese leaders, arguing Canada can still raise human-rights concerns while boosting trade.

Yet in a survey last fall of Canadian business leaders, more than half said the risk of China arbitrarily detaining staff was still negatively affecting their business.

In 2018, China arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor following the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver at the request of the United States.

Spavor was convicted of spying in 2021 in closed Chinese courts. Kovrig also stood trial, but no verdict was ever announced. Canada and many allies said the process amounted to arbitrary detention on bogus charges in an unaccountable justice system.

The U.S. worked out a deferred prosecution agreement in Meng’s case, allowing for her release, and Beijing permitted the two Michaels, as they came to be known, to fly home in September 2021.

Global Affairs Canada said in a statement Thursday morning that Joly would meet her counterpart in China to discuss Canada-China relations and security issues.

“As the world faces increasingly complex and intersecting global issues, Canada is committed to engaging pragmatically with a wide range of countries to advance our national interests and uphold our values,” Joly wrote in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press