Canada committed to deepening ties with China, Anand tells Chinese minister

OTTAWA — Just days after a Canadian warship passed through the Taiwan Strait — defying Beijing’s warning that such transits undermine the bilateral relationship — Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand welcomed her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to Ottawa on Friday for the first such visit in a decade.

Canada aims to increase exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030 while safeguarding Canada’s economic and national security interests and values, Anand said as she sat down with Wang and his entourage.

Echoing a trade target set by Prime Minister Mark Carney following his visit to Beijing earlier this year, Anand said the leaders of Canada and China have set out a clear and ambitious vision for the countries’ “recalibrated relationship.”

“It includes elevated engagement and co-operation on trade and investment, energy, finance, public security and safety, and people-to-people ties,” she said alongside Wang and his delegation at the Global Affairs Canada headquarters in Ottawa.

“At the same time, each of our countries must address critical issues and priorities to ensure the safety and security of our peoples.”

Wang’s visit to Ottawa is the first by a Chinese foreign minister in 10 years.

Anand said Canada is focused on growing its economy and diversifying its trading relationships and will address the Canada-China relationship “responsibly.”

A readout from Global Affairs Canada distributed after the meeting said Anand and Wang discussed a wide range of topics, including consular issues, foreign interference and forced labour and human rights.

The ministers also reportedly discussed progress on trade relations and the implementation of the updated Canada-China Strategic Partnership. They reiterated their commitment to deeper co-operation on the environment and climate, said the readout.

“The ministers welcomed Canada and China’s constructive engagement at APEC and agreed to remain in close contact ahead of Prime Minister Carney’s participation in the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November in Shenzhen, China,” the readout said.

In his remarks, Wang said Canada could surpass its trade goal and even double exports to China if the relationship is maintained.

He said China will soon become the largest market in the world and that market is open to Canada.

Wang also met with Carney on Friday, though media access was limited.

The Prime Minister’s Office initially restricted access to the room where the meeting was taking place to two pool photographers. After pushback from the Parliamentary Press Gallery, a broadcast camera and pool reporter were permitted in for about 30 seconds before being ushered out of the room.

After the prime minister visited China in January and met with President Xi Jinping, Canada and China reached a preliminary trade deal. Beijing agreed to lower or eliminate some tariffs on Canadian agriculture products, while Canada agreed to reduce tariffs on some Chinese electric vehicles.

On Thursday, Carney said the meetings in China were important because diplomatic relations had broken down, trade had been undermined by a series of tariffs and the relationship was “in need of a reset.”

Hundreds of Falun Gong protesters gathered in Ottawa on Friday across the street from the Global Affairs Canada headquarters and on Parliament Hill. They held signs calling on the Chinese Communist Party to stop the repression of the spiritual movement in China.

At a press conference on Friday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was asked if Carney was likely to bring up human rights abuses with the foreign minister.

“Of course not,” he said. “He won’t do anything to make Beijing unhappy.”

Poilievre said Canada should be willing to talk and trade with China but “we have to do so with our eyes open.”

“This is a dictatorship that Mr. Carney himself acknowledged was the biggest threat to Canada only a year ago, and our interests in Canada are in being sovereign, self-reliant and standing on our own two feet, ensuring that we have full control over our technology, our economy and our minerals so never will we be vulnerable to the to the aggressive instincts of a foreign dictatorship,” he said.

Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe said in an email statement that by preventing the media from asking questions at the meeting between Anand and Wang, the Liberals essentially shielded China from potentially embarrassing questions about human rights.

“Canada has once again bowed to Xi Jinping’s regime,” he said in French.

Relations between the Canadian and Chinese governments deteriorated after the detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou by Canada in 2018 and the subsequent detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in China.

Beijing’s envoy recently told The Globe and Mail that while he was optimistic about warming relations between Canada and China, official visits by Canadian lawmakers to Taiwan — which China claims as part of its territory — and transits of Canadian military vessels through the Taiwan Strait would risk setting back that progress.

Despite the warning, National Defence spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin told The Canadian Press this week that the HMCS Charlottetown conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait between May 22 and May 23.

Conservative MP Michael Chong met with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te earlier this month. He said the meeting was meant to assert Canadian sovereignty in the face of Beijing’s warnings to Canadian lawmakers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2026.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press