China reacts to Trudeau's 'playing' western nations remark, says 'we don't coerce anyone'

China's Foreign Minister Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday reacted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's remarks that Beijing has been “playing” Western states against each other and that the like-minded countries should show a united front against China’s “coercive diplomacy”. At a press briefing, Lijian stressed that the remarks made by the Canadian leader "do not square with facts and are full of misunderstanding and miscalculation with regard to China." The Chinese foreign minister further stated that China is "committed to the path of peaceful development and seeks peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation with all countries, which we believe are all equal regardless of size." 

"We [China] aspire to build a community with a shared future for mankind. China’s diplomacy is totally above board. We never play countries off one another or coerce anyone," said Lijian. "China is a victim of the coercive diplomacy of the US and other Western countries," he continued, adding that a "handful of countries" led by the US unscrupulously interfere in China’s internal affairs on issues related to Hong Kong and Xinjiang in the name of democracy and human rights, trying to impose their “rules” on China.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused China of “playing” Western states and urged world democracies to have a “united front” against the Chinese human rights abuses and belligerence. “There’s been a bit of competition amongst friends because we’re capitalist democracies trying to do well, especially given the extraordinary economic opportunity of the rise in the Chinese middle class,” Trudeau said in an interview with Global News that was aired on Saturday. The Canadian leader went on to add that the Western nations have been competing, and “China has been from time to time very cleverly playing us off each other in an open-market, competitive way.”

“We need to do a better job of working together and standing strong so that China can’t play the angles and divide us one against the other,” Canadian leader Justin Trudeau on December 27 said. 

China-Canada ties fraught over range of issues

Bilateral ties between China and Canada have been fraught since 2018 when Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was detained by Canada on the US extradition warrant and Beijing retaliated by detaining at least two Canadians shortly afterwards over espionage. After the US prosecutors reached a deal in September, the two Canadians were released. Canada’s repeated accusations against China’s human rights breach on the Uyghur minority community had thwarted the relations between the two countries. Canada also joined the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing to be held in February. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that it will not "come as a surprise to China” that Ottawa will not send government officials to the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics. According to Canadian public broadcaster CBC, Trudeau in his speech on Parliament Hill said that the government is "extremely concerned" by the "repeated human rights violations carried out by the Chinese government.” Asked whether he is expecting a retaliatory blow from China, which condemned the United States for its representative withdrawal from games, Trudeau said that it has been "for several months, we have been coordinating and discussing the issue with our allies.” 

Canadian MPs, senators, and civil society groups had pushed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration to hold China accountable for its crackdowns and human rights abuses in autonomous city of Hong Kong, and the genocide on Uyghurs. They passed a motion in the parliament to recognise the violence and ethnic cleansing of the Uyghur minorities as a ‘genocide’.