Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly met Chinese counterpart in Beijing in effort to ease tensions

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday as both countries appear to be taking steps to ease ongoing tensions that have strained bilateral relations.

After the sit-down, a senior government source told CBC news the ministers held a “constructive and productive meeting” — the first face-to-face talks in Beijing involving a Canadian foreign minister in nearly seven years.

The meeting “achieved the goals that we [Canada] set out to achieve on the bilateral front,” the source said. “We wanted to voice our concerns. And we wanted to work on things of common interest between Chinese people and Canadian people.”

The source said those common interests include climate and the environment, tackling the fentanyl trade and working to improve trade relations.

“This is ‘pragmatic diplomacy’ in action — having a productive conversation, conversations, and identifying challenges and concerns,” the source said.

Relations soured after China’s detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — detentions Canada maintains were arbitrary — and have been set back since by reports of Chinese political interference and the prospect of Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

After the meeting, China issued an official statement saying that while “China-Canada relations have experienced difficulties … this is not what China wants to see, and it requires serious reflection from Canada.”

“There is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and Canada. The people of the two countries have a long history of friendly exchanges,” the translated statement said. “China-Canada relations have long been at the forefront of China’s relations with Western countries.”

The statement does not mention possible trade irritants between the two countries, China’s arbitrary imprisonment of Kovrig and Spavor or allegations that China has interfered in Canadian politics.

Those allegations cover alleged Chinese interference in elections, its efforts to set up “police stations” to intimidate and track the Chinese diaspora in Canada and the role of a Chinese diplomat in efforts to target the family of Conservative MP Michael Chong, who has been critical of China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.

While China says it is seeking improved relations, its official statement also says that some issues are not open for debate. 

“Issues related to Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong are all China’s internal affairs and no external interference is allowed,” the statement said.

Human Rights Watch says at least one million Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang have been arbitrarily detained in what China calls “re-education” or “vocational training” camps, in prisons or “pre-trial detention” facilities. 

In 2021 a majority of MPs — including most Liberals who participated — voted for a Conservative motion declaring that China’s actions in the western Xinjiang region meet the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.

The final tally was 266 in favour and zero opposed. Two MPs formally abstained. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and almost all of his cabinet colleagues were absent for the vote.

Global Affairs Canada has yet to release an official statement detailing its version of the meeting.