- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
Canadian PM Mark Carney has vowed to reduce his country’s reliance on the US by strengthening the economy and inking trade deals with others.
Canadian PM Mark Carney has vowed to reduce his country’s reliance on the US by strengthening the economy and inking trade deals with others.
Bowing how? By using China’s tactic of trading with everyone? He had 26 foreign trips in a year and while not all resulted in trade deals there are like 10 trade deals done or in the progress of being finalized.
Being dependent on a singe country is the biggest weakness you can have as a nation and he’s trying to solve it, while still kissing US ring on the side. There are many horrible things he’s doing (like expanding surveilance systems, continuing privatization push and going all into “AI”), but this is not one of them.
This is not (only) about trade.
A year ago, during an election campaign in April 2025, Carney called China “Canada’s biggest security threat”. Now China is a “strategic partner”.
Canada called out China over forced labour practices (for which there is ample evidence), Now Carney says forced labour is a ‘global issue’ with parts of China are ‘at higher risk’. Carney and his finance minister Champagne recently avoided to address the fact that Chinese EV makers BYD has been found to use forced labour in its factories in Hungary and Brazil.
The Canadian military flew seven surveillance missions over waters near China in the past month to enforce North Korean sanctions, but the Department of National Defence is no longer confirming whether Chinese aircraft intercepted those flights, as it has in years past.
These are a few examples. It hurts Canada imho. It can soon hurt Canadians as soon as China attempts to take advantage over its new ‘partnerhips’ by coercing the Canadian government for political gains (there is ample evidence that Beijing has been doing so with other countries in the past).
You may find another term than bowing, but this is what it is imo. It’s certainly true that the US isn’t a reliable partner anymore, but this doesn’t make China better. It’s the dictatorship it has ever been, and as such it is even worse than the US.
China was never security threat to Canada, but Canada always parroted US stance on foreign policy. This is the break from it that is causing the hysteria.
I think we already had similar discussion, but China’s human rights record is far better from many other countries that Canada has trade relationship with and with many even deeper cooperation. Canada still participates in information and surveilance sharing with US which is used to commit war crimes.
Heck, Canada has no issue trading with Israel who is livestreaming a genocide, so Canada is in no moral position to lecture others.
Trade is a bilateral relationship, they can exit it at any time. The only way they could pressured by it is by putting all their eggs in one basket, which they are not doing.
You try to make it a replacement, when it’s not. What they actually are doing is stopping mirroring US foreign policy and bullding trade relationships with everyone to not have the same single point vulnerability as they had with the US.
Have to disagree with you here. US “representative” democracy has been so broken for decades and has caused so much damage to the world that China wouldn’t be able catch up even if they tried. China doesn’t invade other countries to rape and murder their people and steal their resources, they use trade deals and negotiations to get what they want.