Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau urges capitalist democracies to unite against China

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling on democratic nations to "show a united front" against China to prevent the Communist nation from "playing us off each other."

Capitalist democracies compete against each other in a free market economy, but Trudeau states that “We’ve 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, you know, play the angles and divide us one against the other," he told Canada's Global News during an end-of-the-year interview. 

He urged capitalist countries to stand together against Beijing and say, "No, coercive diplomacy is not alright."

Canadian-Chinese relations have been at an all-time low since 2018, when Canada arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the United States. 

China retaliated shortly thereafter by arresting two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, on espionage charges. 

Canada also joined the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Lithuania and Japan in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games over China's human rights abuses.

The Liberal Party prime minister told the Global News, "These two Canadians were stuck in terrible conditions, totally arbitrarily, and there was at least a theoretical way of me taking shortcuts and backroom deals to get them home. But I knew and I felt that you had to do the right thing and we stayed the course on the right thing." 

He had previously advocated for better Canadian-Chinese relations, but that experience made him see the Communist nation differently.

“There are things we’re going to continue to challenge China on – human rights, democracy in Hong Kong, supports for journalists, you know, non-interference in the goings-on of, you know, independent countries in Asia,” he said, the New York Post reported.

However, he admitted Canada will still have to work with China on things like climate change and trade.

China, the world's second-largest economy, is the top emitter of greenhouse gases and mercury. Their pollution has killed more than 30 million people since 2000, according to a study cited by the U.S. State Department.