Canada is entering a “new era of relations” with China, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared Thursday, adding the stage is set for talks about areas where the two countries can be “strategic partners.”
The prime minister made the comments when he was welcomed in Beijing by the second and third most powerful figures in China’s political system: Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress.
While most of the talks took place in secret, media were allowed into the room to hear the opening remarks of some of the meetings and a signing ceremony for a number of memorandums of understanding.
"From energy to agriculture to people-to-people ties to multilateralism, to issues on security, we believe that the spirit and the substance of these discussions, and these agreements, will provide great benefit to each of our peoples," Carney said at the outset of one of his meetings.
Carney added Ottawa hopes such a renewal will become an "example to the world of co-operation amidst a time globally of division and disorder."
China’s Premier Li Qiang hailed a “turnaround” in bilateral ties with Canada, calling it a "new starting point" for the two countries.
Li also said Carney’s meeting with President Xi Jinping Friday will pave the way for “upward growth” in the relationship, according to the live translation provided by the Chinese government.
Carney said Thursday he is "heartened by the leadership of President Xi" and the "speed with which our relationship has progressed in recent months."
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, whose province is smarting from Chinese tariffs on canola products, sat at Carney's right side during that meeting, alongside a spate of Liberal ministers and senior federal bureaucrats.
In an earlier meeting with Carney, Zhao said China looks forward to “new strategic guidance” from Ottawa to put the relationship on a trajectory of “healthy, steady and sustainable development.”
It's a marked change in tone from nearly a year ago, when during the spring election Carney described China as being the biggest threat to Canada on the world stage.
But the Carney government is seeking to double non-U. S. exports in the next decade amid the unstable geopolitical and trading environments ushered in by the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Carney was also in and out of a marathon of closed-door meetings with businesses throughout Thursday.
He met with top officials from firms such as Alibaba, China National Petroleum, the EV battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology, Primavera Capital Group, and China’s state-owned commercial bank, ICBC.
It all signals that economic doors are starting to open between the two countries after nearly a decade of friction on trade, security and diplomacy.
The MOUs signed Thursday included provisions for sanitary oversight of pet food and animal health — areas where Canada has long complained about trade irritants.
Since February 2022, exports of heat-treated dry pet food with poultry has been halted due to China's avian flu trade restrictions. One case of atypical BSE also led to a suspension of beef exports to China in 2021.
Ottawa had been frustrated by limited willingness on the part of Chinese officials to engage on those files, which stymied some agricultural exports.
Canadian officials were not made available Thursday to explain what they hope to accomplish through the animal-related MOUs.
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson described one MOU he signed as something that would lead to more Canadian wood getting used in Chinese construction — and said this is just the beginning of Ottawa's efforts for deeper economic integration.
"This is not a one-and-done. We will be back here more, looking for more ways to get Canadian products into this country so more Canadians have good-paying jobs."
He also touted that he heard in his meetings with Chinese officials there's appetite for more Canadian energy products, as the country seeks "reliable" trading partners that "don't use energy partners for coercion."
The biggest trade sticking points have not yet been sorted: Canada's electric vehicle tariffs, and China's duties on Canadian canola and agriculture products.
The Liberals are under pressure to convince Beijing to repeal or lower agricultural tariffs that are hurting Atlantic and western provinces.
But that would involve some sort of trade-off with Canada’s levies on Chinese electric vehicles.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford maintains those are essential to protecting domestic jobs.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand met early Thursday with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
Wang said the renewed diplomatic efforts between the two countries will create new prospects amid unprecedented and complex changes taking place in the world.
Anand had said a day earlier that Canada's relationship with China is currently being "recalibrated."
But she stopped short of calling it a reset, and did not directly answer a pointed question about whether Canada still sees China as a disruptive power.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2026.
