Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to visit China after years-long rift
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/07/2024 (804 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
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.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said both Kovrig and Spavor were convicted in China. In fact, no verdict was ever handed down against Kovrig.