China calls on Canada to use “rationality” and “mutual respect” to guide relations

BEIJING, JANUARY 12 (EFE).- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone conversation last night with his Canadian counterpart, Mélanie Joly, where he asked her for “reasonability” and “mutual respect” to guide the tense bilateral relations.

“There are no historical disputes or conflicts of interest between us. The difficult situation in bilateral relations is neither something China wants, nor is it something caused by China. But Canada must understand China in the right way,” Wang said during the conversation. Foreign Affairs in its statement.

Wang called on Canada to “respect each other” and be “objective and rational” in resolving differences between the two countries.

Wang said during the call, according to the statement, that “China is open to dialogue, as long as it is on an “equal footing” and with the aim of “enhancing confidence and dispelling doubts.”

According to the memorandum, Jolie stressed that Canada wants to adopt a more “open, practical and constructive” stance towards direct bilateral relations, as well as enhance exchanges, deepen economic cooperation and work to protect the environment.

The latest diplomatic crisis between Canada and China began at the end of 2022, when the North American country's media began leaking documents from the Canadian Intelligence Services (CSIS) that accused Beijing of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 general elections.

This led to the expulsion of Chinese diplomat in Ottawa Zhao Wei in March on charges of interfering in the North American country's internal affairs, to which Beijing responded by doing the same to the Canadian consul in Shanghai.

Ottawa and Beijing also suffered a serious diplomatic crisis in 2018 due to the case of Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, who was detained in Vancouver (Canada) at the request of the United States, and Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were arrested in 2018. China. .

In 2023, China filed an official protest in response to the incursion of a Canadian military plane into its airspace near the island called the Asian giant Qiyue, belonging to the Senkaku Archipelago (Diaoyu for Beijing).