Canada PM Trudeau to mount charm offensive in China: officials

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, pictured on October 20, 2015, will travel to Hangzhou for the
AFP

Ottawa (AFP) – Canadian Prime Minister will tour the Great Wall, shoot hoops with retired basketball star Yao Ming and host a roundtable of women entrepreneurs when he travels to China next week to bolster trade and diplomatic ties, his office said Friday.

There will be bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior government officials during the August 30 to September 6 trip, which includes stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Trudeau also will travel to Hangzhou for the summit of leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers on September 4 and 5.

But average Chinese citizens can also expect to see the playful political leader pose for selfies with locals, and reach out to them directly through social media — as he has done everywhere he has gone since being elected to Canada’s highest office last year.

“The prime minister has a WeChat and Weibo account and we will be using these during the trip,” a senior government official said.

The trip is being made at the invitation of Premier Li Keqiang, but comes amid a handful of trade irritants and other stresses in the relationship.

These include Chinese plans to impose new rules on canola imports to protect against crop disease that risks Can$2 billion worth of annual Canadian oilseed sales to China.

Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who will be accompanying Trudeau, said this week that the bilateral relationship could not improve until the matter is resolved.

The detention of Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt in 2014 on espionage charges also looms over the visit. He had run a Christian-themed coffee shop near the North Korean border.

“This trip is an important moment in Canada-China relations. We’ve had an ad hoc relationship until now… (and) this is really about creating a longterm, more stable relationship,” a senior government official said at a news briefing.

“Canada’s future prosperity is increasingly tied to China,” the official said. “To grow its economy… it’s imperative that Canada renew its relationship with China.”

Trudeau will also seek cooperation with China on climate change and other global issues, press for increased tourism from China, and in a speech to Chinese business leaders call for investment in Canada.

He will meet privately with managers of the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, which purchased a minority stake in Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil last year.

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