Lynette Ong, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto and the Munk School of Global Affairs, said in an interview she expects Trudeau is waiting to see what direction is taken by the Biden administration which is expected in the coming weeks to unveil its China policy.
But Ong expects Biden will “largely continue with Trump’s policies” which see China “as a strategic competitor in almost every aspect” of military, trade, and technology” which she says is not Canada’s position.
Canada and China are not in military competition, she said, and “we are not competitive in terms of trade. In fact, we are actually very complementary,” while in technology, Canada doesn’t have the equivalent of Huawei “to compete with them.”
“So I think in a way, our strategy, our China policy needs to be quite different from the U.S. even though the U.S. has been traditionally a very strong ally and our values align,” said Ong.
On issues like human rights, Ong said Canada will want to align with the U.S. and other western countries “because we want to stand up against China and be tough on China on that, but ... there’s no need to be kind of hostile and see China as a competitor, a strategic competitor and almost an enemy in every issue area.”
