THE LATEST | CANADANational Post: You’ve referred to Canada’s new China deal as pragmatic but risky. Is the risk of a partnership with China worth the lifted trade barriers?
If I had to give a one-word answer, it would be “no.” But it’s hard to give a categorical answer because there are still many uncertainties and pieces in play, and it depends on how Canada manages the two sides of the deal, and how China and the U.S. react. It might work out favourably, it might not.
One essential premise to understand is that the Chinese Communist Party is a strategic and systemic rival to Western countries. It actively seeks to undermine them and gain advantage over them, and to increase other countries’ dependence on China while reducing and diversifying its own dependence on others. Any deal the CCP agrees to, it presumably considers advantageous. So why make any deals with China that benefit the CCP, unless the assessment is that the net benefit to Canada is greater? Otherwise, you’re just selling them more of the rope they want to hang you with…