Writing stuff down is almost always a bad idea. Justin Trudeau had been a candidate for the federal Liberal leadership for six weeks when he published a column in the Financial Post, in November of 2012, decrying Stephen Harper’s clumsiness on China. “The Conservatives kicked off their stewardship of the relationship with unhelpful sabre-rattling, followed by a stubborn silence,” he wrote. “Recently, they have made attempts at courtship, but China’s leadership has a long memory. Influence and trust is built through consistent, constructive engagement.”
“Further, the Conservatives have developed their approach to Asia, such as it is, behind closed doors. This is a mistake. Where is the leadership to explain to Canadians why this relationship is so important, to engage Canadians in the conversation, to make us aware of the opportunities?”
Fast forward to today, and the smoking rubble of the Canada-China relationship under Trudeau. China will be pulling its ambassador, Lu Shaye, from Ottawa, within days. The symmetry is nice, even if no other part of this situation is: Canada has had no ambassador to Beijing since John McCallum resigned in January for—misstating? Stating too plainly?—Ottawa’s view of the Meng Wanzhou imbroglio. Canada and China, two important countries with many decades of complex interaction, are reasonably close to having no diplomatic relations. The foreign minister can’t get her calls returned.
I’m not particularly in a mood to blame the Prime Minister for this turn of events. It’s easier to argue that Beijing’s disdain these days is a badge of honour. The bitter, sustained Chinese retribution for the arrest of Meng was something nobody could have foreseen a few years ago, and I’ve written before that, despite the grandly weary complacency of some old Ottawa China hands, the Trudeau government has essentially handled that stink-bomb of a file more honourably than if it had tried somehow to warn Meng away.
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