The government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to toughen its rhetoric against China as part of its new Indo-Pacific strategy after accusing Beijing of «aggressively interfering» in Canada’s electoral processes.
Canada’s Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, explained during a speech in Toronto on Wednesday, reported by ‘The Globe and Mail’, that «the China of 1970 is not the China of today», but «an increasingly disruptive global power».
In his speech to present Canada’s new strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, Joly also pledged to denounce China’s human rights abuses against the Uighur community and other minorities in the Xinjiang region, to support freedom of expression in Hong Kong and to strengthen its relationship with Taiwan.
«We will continue to oppose unilateral actions that threaten the status quo in the Taiwan Strait,» the Canadian foreign minister said, adding that Canada will «deepen our economic ties with Taiwan,» according to Bloomberg.
Ottawa, which has been reluctant to criticize Beijing in the interest of promoting economic and trade ties, has favored keeping its «eyes open» to doing business with China. «My job is to tell you there are geopolitical risks,» he explained, referring to businessmen and their future ties with the Asian country.
In this regard, he urged Canadian businessmen to expand their market beyond China to other Asian powers, such as Japan and South Korea, as well as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.
Canada last week ordered Chinese investors to divest from three Canadian lithium mining companies under stricter foreign investment rules in the sector. Similarly, Ottawa has also taken action against Huawei to ban 5G.
Trudeau stressed on Tuesday in connection with a series of investigations published through the Global News television network that China had allegedly been funding a clandestine network of at least a dozen candidates in the run-up to the presidential election.
He accused Beijing of «aggressively interfering» in Canadian politics. «We took significant steps to strengthen the integrity of our electoral processes and we will continue to invest in the fight against interference, against foreign interference in our democracy and institutions,» he said.
