Trudeau discussed his concerns about Chinese “interference activities” in Canada on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali, a government source told AFP. It came a day after Canadian police announced espionage charges against a battery researcher at Canada’s biggest energy producer, alleging he tried to steal trade secrets for China, and amid warnings that Beijing was trying to undermine Canada’s democracy. China’s embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the meeting or the points of discussion. The meeting followed repeated warnings from Trudeau and other officials that China had tried to undermine Canada’s democracy. Canadian intelligence officials told MPs in January that they believe China interfered in the 2019 federal election. “I have confidence in this report [intelligence officials] they give,” said David Mulroney, Canada’s former ambassador to China. “And I think they’re giving these reports with some frustration that more isn’t being done. The government has consistently been reluctant to identify China as a problem. They are very hesitant. They often say it’s China and others, or vaguely that it’s state actors behind the intervention.” Trudeau and Xi also discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea and the importance of the Cop15 biodiversity conference in December, where China and Canada will co-host the nations in an effort to “protect nature and to fight climate change,” the source said. They also talked about “the importance of continued dialogue,” the source said. The two leaders met in a packed room where they spoke for about 10 minutes, the source said. That compares with a three-and-a-half-hour closed-door meeting between US President Joe Biden and Xi on Monday. Tensions between the two countries have remained high since 2018 when Canada, at the request of US officials, arrested Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou at a Vancouver airport. Beijing retaliated, arresting two Canadians on espionage charges. While the standoff ended when all three men were released last year, relations remained sour. Ottawa announced a ban on Huawei’s 5G telecommunications infrastructure in May, citing national security concerns. Earlier this month, the industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, ordered three Chinese companies to divest from critical minerals in Canada, also on national security grounds. In early November, federal police announced they were investigating a secret network of illegal Chinese “police stations” in Toronto. Trudeau and Xi last met in June 2019 on the sidelines of another G20 in Osaka, Japan. They have met three other times in the past, once in 2015 on the sidelines of the G20 in Turkey and twice during official visits to Beijing in 2016 and 2017. Amid pressure for a more confrontational stance toward China, the federal government is poised to launch a so-called Indo-Pacific strategy that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says will challenge China on human rights while seeking cooperation with the latter greater economy for climate change and other common goals. “I am concerned that what they are promising us is an ‘Indo-Pacific strategy.’ It must be a Canadian strategy. It certainly has an Indo-Pacific dimension, of course, but the priority has to be dealing with threats in Canada,” Mulroney said. “And I see no indication that that is on the horizon for this administration.”
