Tag: Mark Carney

China is Building a Community With a Shared Future for Mankind: Is the West Joining?

Posted on By Joshua Kingdom

When President Donald Trump of the United States withdrew the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to his “Board of Peace” on January 22nd 2026, in a Truth Social post, the incident continued a pattern of spiraling tensions between the two North American states that might well produce more moments of antagonism in the near future. By no means though is this a one-off situation. The current administration in Washington has placed its boot on the necks of almost every one of their traditional allies so much so that many are being forced to rethink their stance on China.

No recent occasion has brought this reality to light more vividly than this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Convening at a time that the US had not yet recalled its decision to takeover Greenland, the leaders there minced no words on the matter or Trump’s other unpopular foreign policy tropes. The Belgian Premier Bart De Wever for instance, rallied his colleagues to “unite and… say to Donald Trump … ‘You’re crossing red lines here.’” As for the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, she remarked that the shift in times had forced a European consensus to move away from doing business as usual.

China comes in the picture because reduced reliance on the United States of America means that the EU, Australia, England etc. have to hedge themselves against the cost that comes with losing access to what has been their biggest market destination going back decades. Indeed, the Asian economic household has been host to back-to-back high level delegations from countries like Ireland, Finland, South Korea, France, and most recently the United Kingdom. It is the case too that more are expected to follow including Germany.

Importantly, these countries are not merely making stopovers. Very concrete agreements have been struck between them and Beijing thereby showing the extent to which a new world order is being forged. Inside the Great Hall of the People thus, the British renown pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca committed to an investment of $15bn into China in the coming four years. This was during Keir Starmer’s Beijing mission. Octopus Energy Chief Executive Officer Greg Jackson also announced a partnership with China’s Pacific Century Group marking the company’s first entry in Beijing. Other resolutions revolved around visa free travel for short visits and tariffs reduction for commodities already being exported between the two nations.

Interestingly, this new approach fits well with Xi Jinping’s longstanding proposal for inter-state affairs dubbed Building a Community With a Shared Future for Humanity (BCWSFH). Working with countries from all corners of the world through fora such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, BRICS, China-Arab States Summit et.al, the statesman has sought to forge a new way of thinking on the international scene rooted in the notion that because the planet is our shared home, if push comes to shove, the problems ailing one state will at least inadvertently derail her neighbors too. Furthermore, BCWSFH has been adopted in multiple General Assembly resolutions at the United Nations.

When the British PM told journalists that framing his China state visit as a move to abandon Washington for Beijing was a false dichotomy thus, he was (knowingly or otherwise) espousing one of the core tenets of BCWSFH i.e. that because the future of the human race is the same no matter where one lives, our fundamental interests are similar and that therefore, we should not seek to divide ourselves in camps. Of course, some (like the members of the press that Sir Kir Stamer was addressing) still view things in an us vs. them lens but things do not have to stay that way.

BCWSFH’s emphasis on multilateralism equally acts to counterbalance the winds presently blowing from Washington. Rather than place the bargain of sovereignty at the mercy of the strongest among nations as USA has decided, this agenda flips things making it a “special responsibility” for the said countries to encourage cooperation among all peoples of the world as well as maintaining global stability. In insisting that Europe was not going to bend to the laws of the jungle during his Davos address hence, President Emmanuel Macron of France was keeping with the stipulation that he together with President Xi spelled out when they met at the end of last year. Therein, the world leaders affirmed that to be on the right side of history, they each had to spearhead dialogue and openness among members of the global community.

Countries in the West thus stand at unique point in time. Should they keep up with the present trajectory of joining with the forces that are reimaging the future, the project’s success could force the US to equally revise its misguided course down the road.

Joshua Kingdom is a Research Fellow at the Development Watch Centre.

 

 

Inside the China-Canada Trade Deal

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, is currently one of my favorite leaders in the West. His speech at the recently concluded World Economic Forum was a breath of fresh air, rarely breathed from a Western leader. The essence of his message was that “middle powers” should unite against economic coercion by great powers. Profound! Without mincing words, he called out American hegemony, denounced the weaponization of economic integration, and the exploitation of the vulnerabilities of supply chains. Whereas these ideas were not new, they were unanticipated coming from a Western leader. Carney had just visited China between January 13th -17th where he met Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and Chairman Zhao Leji of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The last time a Canadian Prime Minister had been to Beijing was nine years ago in 2017.

Carney took opportunity of the visit to commend the exemplary leadership of Xi, noting that the partnership between their two countries “sets us up well for the new world order.” His proposition to the Chinese leader had a list of key items for strategic partnership. Carney sought to partner with China on energy, finance, agriculture, security, and multilateralism.

China is a major trade partner of Canada. It consumes $30 billion worth of Canadian exports annually. This translates into 400,000 jobs for Canadians. The relations between the two countries had been strained in the past. The former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had brushed China the wrong way on a number of occasions, including such incidents as the arrest of the Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, in 2018. These are the scratches that Carney now meant to mend.

Prime Minister Carney has a clear understanding of the world his country finds itself in today. Unlike most Western leaders, he seems undeluded by prejudices about China which are centered on the ideological disparities between the East and West. His narrative has been consistent about highlighting the fact that the world has changed, and China is now a key partner in setting up Canada for the new world order.

Unlike the USA, China has a stable political leadership under the Chinese Communist Party, which has been in power since 1949 and is consistent about its principles, both domestically and abroad. Carney understands, and notes that China offers a more predictable relationship with Canada as opposed to Donald Trump’s America. With China, what you see is what you get.

Canada has not had an easy time with its historical partner, USA, ever since Trump started his second term. Upon coming to office, Trump imposed tariffs on Canada’s key sectors like metals and automotives. He then moved to arbitrarily end a longstanding North American free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico.

While Trump is rendering America’s trade agreements with Canada irrelevant and their future uncertain, China is moving to drastically reduce tariffs on Canadian goods, such as canola seed from 84% to around 15% by the beginning of March. It is also removing tariffs on Canadian lobsters, crabs and peas. On the other hand, Canada is also removing tariffs from Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) from 100% to 6.1% for the first 49,000 vehicles imported each year. Carney also promised that this quota could rise up to 70,000 in half a decade. This is a significant step for China, which is the world’s largest producer of EVs, accounting for 70% of global production.

It is obvious what these developments spell for the US, politically and economically. Whereas Trump had initially been indifferent towards the recalibration of the Canada-China relationship by Carney, in the wake of signing these trade deals, he has stood up and threatened to hit Canada with 100% levies on all goods and products going to the USA. This only confirms the case Carney has been making about the weaponization of economic integration by the US and the need for middle powers to rise up against the hegemonic coercion they suffer from big powers. But it is latently clear to Carney that in order to build a stronger Canadian economy, he needs to diversify his trade partnerships throughout the world, and escape the hostage of Trump’s America.

With America threatening a trade war against multiple allies, Carney is spot on about the risks involved in relying highly on USA a s a trade and security partner. Renewing and improving the China-Canada relationship is therefore important in guarding against unforeseen reactions from an unhinged Trump administration.

Carney understands well that largely due to American hegemony, the rules-based world order is fading and the era of great power rivalry is here. The rules-based order was celebrated for its principles and predictability, neither of which can be spoken about today. It is a fiction that lost its power of collective faith, and now the world comes to a rupture from that order, instead of a transition.

The writer is a senior research fellow, Development Watch Center.