China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, urged Ottawa on Jan. 22, 2026, to move quickly to implement the agreements signed during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing, saying both sides have 10 months — until the November APEC summit — to turn the leaders’ consensus into concrete results.
‘Lose no time’
In his first interview with The Canadian Press since Carney’s Beijing visit, Wang said the priority now is follow-through. “As long as both China and Canada have adequate sincerity, both sides will be able to translate the important outcomes into reality,” he said through his interpreter. “The most important task for both sides is to respond as soon as possible to the expectation of the two peoples and to move along the direction that has been pointed out by the leaders of our two countries.”
During the visit, President Xi Jinping and Carney agreed to resolve a tariff dispute in which Beijing imposed levies on Canadian agricultural goods in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The two sides also signed memorandums rebooting working groups and institutional mechanisms covering finance, lumber, oil, green technology and tourism.
Wang said the agreements mean government departments in both countries will be in touch more often and will move faster on priority files. Carney is expected back in China in November for the APEC summit in Shenzhen. “That requires us to lose no time and work faster to achieve more outcomes,” Wang said, so the two leaders “will be able to discuss the future development of China-Canada relations at a higher level.”
Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald, in Quebec City for the federal cabinet retreat, said Ottawa is working with stakeholders on the agreements. “We were leaning on some open doors. Those doors have opened. We need to act quickly and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.
Engagement with guardrails
The areas of agreed collaboration pointedly did not include sectors Carney has deemed sensitive to national security — artificial intelligence, critical minerals and defence. Analysts have flagged those same sectors as important to Washington, raising the risk that deeper engagement with Beijing could complicate continental trade talks with the United States.
Wang acknowledged the friction. Beijing’s approach, he said, is “seeking common ground while reserving the differences,” a motto China has used for years regarding Canada. “The character of China-Canada relationship is win-win and mutual benefit. China and Canada are also highly complementary with each other,” he said. “There is great potential and promising prospects for China and Canada to leverage our complementary advantages and realize mutual benefits. But of course, at the same time, we do not deny that there are differences between China and Canada.”
Carney has framed his approach as a “recalibration” of the relationship rather than a full reset: Ottawa still holds concerns about foreign interference, human rights and China’s actions in the South China Sea, while emphasizing potential co-operation elsewhere.
What to do with the Indo-Pacific strategy
That recalibration leaves a question mark over Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy, released in late 2022, which called Beijing a “disruptive global power.” Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said in October she had asked her department to update the strategy, saying it no longer reflected evolving relations with China and India.
Wang said a new regional strategy is Canada’s decision, but made Beijing’s view plain: “The Indo-Pacific strategy is inconsistent with this new strategic partnership, with the new era that we are in, and with the policy that the Canadian government is having.” He added that he hopes to see ties deepen when Anand welcomes Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Canada later this year.
Canadian analysts, meanwhile, urged Ottawa to be deliberate. Sergio Marchi, a Chrétien-era trade minister and former ambassador in Geneva, told an online panel held by the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy that Canada should pick its spots. “We can’t do the entire waterfront. I think we should pick our spots,” Marchi said, arguing for regular leader-level contact and trade missions of the kind former prime minister Jean Chrétien favoured. “Problems didn’t fester. They were meeting often enough that they could address those issues in real time with real success,” he said. “If there is trust, scars can heal.”
Henri-Paul Normandin, a former diplomat posted twice to China, told the same panel Canada must keep spreading its trade relationships to avoid “over-dependence on the Chinese market.” “We’re never far away from a situation where things can go off-rail,” he said.
Beijing’s own state media struck a similar note, with the Global Times reporting Wang’s view that the two countries share “broad common interests” and no fundamental conflicts. Ottawa has set a goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030.
