Expectation that Carney will reset Canada's China policy

China is willing to work with Canada, in the spirit of looking to the future, to promote the steady improvement of bilateral relations, bring them onto the track of sound and steady development, and strive for win-win cooperation, said Premier Li Qiang in a telephone call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday.

The message is clear: Beijing hopes the Carney government will review its predecessor's China policy, develop a correct perception of China's development, and come up with a rational strategic judgment on bilateral relations so that the two sides can work to foster mutually beneficial cooperative relations.

The relationship with Canada is at the forefront of China's ties with Western nations. China's stance on it has remained consistent even during the height of the previous Justin Trudeau government's collusion with the United States, in which it played a key role in the US' strategy to contain China.

The reason why the China-Canada relationship has encountered serious difficulties in recent years is because the Trudeau government sacrificed Canada's strategic autonomy in handling foreign relations in exchange for preferential treatment from the US.

Yet how Canada has been treated by the US, particularly in the economic and trade fields, in recent months, speaks volumes of the fallacy of that one-sided pro-US policy in dealing with foreign relations, especially China-related issues.

That ill-judged policy turned the otherwise win-win cooperative relations between Canada and China into mutual suspicion and mutual harm, and the structural complementarity between the two economies into a pain point in their relations that they have leveraged to exchange trade hostility.

That should not continue to be a normal state for China-Canada relations. As Li stressed, the two countries are not a threat to each other and there are no fundamental conflicts of interest between them. Their traditional friendship reaped mutual benefits.

The change of government in Canada represents an opportunity to reset relations.

Beijing expressed a similar message last month upon Carney's inauguration, when Li sent a congratulatory message to him, in which the Chinese premier said he is willing to work with Carney to take the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the 20th anniversary of the China-Canada strategic partnership as an opportunity to promote bilateral relations in the right direction of improvement and development.

The Canadian side should realize that it will only gain from making joint efforts with the Chinese side to achieve shared success and prosperity, which does not target any third party, and should not hinder Canada's relations with any other country.

Looking ahead, there is enormous potential for China-Canada cooperation as the two economies are highly complementary. As Li urged, both sides can deepen cooperation in traditional areas, expand collaboration in emerging fields such as clean energy, climate change and scientific and technological innovation, and strengthen people-to-people, as well as economic and trade exchanges.

The Carney government should listen to the Canadian people, respond to their concerns, and do more to enhance bilateral friendly cooperation and increase mutual understanding and trust.

No space should be left for any doubt that China is willing to work with Canada, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to seek and expand common ground while shelving and narrowing differences.

The two sides should demonstrate the wisdom and flexibility to strengthen exchanges and dialogue in various fields, and address each other's concerns appropriately.

It is good to hear that Carney said in the call that Canada is ready to restart its relationship with China, after highlighting the profound traditional friendship between the two nations and the importance of China as Canada's second-largest trading partner. And that the Canadian side looks forward to resuming high-level exchanges and dialogue mechanisms in areas such as diplomacy and economic and trade ties with China, and strengthening pragmatic cooperation in trade, agriculture, energy and environmental protection.

As two major economies, a sound relationship between China and Canada is undoubtedly conducive to safeguarding multilateralism and free trade, promoting economic globalization and the multilateral trading system to develop in the right direction, and injecting more stability into the global economy. Only those standing on the wrong side of history would try and disturb the healthy development of China-Canada relations.