Beijing propaganda arm warns Guilbeault against 'condescending' to China in climate meetings

As Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault visits China for a climate conference, Chinese propaganda outlets are heralding the significance of the trip while warning Guilbeault not to take a “condescending tone” with his Chinese counterparts.
On Sunday, Global Times, published by the Chinese Communist Party’s central committee, heralded the visit as an opportunity “to ease the strained China-Canada relations.” However, it quoted a source warning that if Guilbeault “demands” that China become more aggressive on carbon emissions “in a condescending tone” the result could be “counterproductive.”
“Even before the meeting starts, they’re giving us our marching orders,” said Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a board member with the China Strategic Risks Institute. “Don’t push the envelope. Don’t push China to do more. And frankly, the minister (Guilbeault) himself said he was going to have an open and frank conversation. Good for him.”
At the time that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was first elected in 2015, there was considerable enthusiasm in official Ottawa for the idea of broadening relations and trade with China, to the extent that the Liberal government was working on a free-trade deal and an extradition treaty with Beijing.
But, relations have since deteriorated.
The Global Times blames this on Canada’s 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a Huawei executive wanted in the United States for bank fraud. A few days later, in a move that was widely seen as retaliation, China arrested two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, which frosted over the two countries’ relations until the two men were released and returned to Canada in September 2021.
More recent revelations that China attempted to interfere in recent Canadian elections, an allegation Chinese diplomates in Canada have denied, have not helped improve things. In May, Canada expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after it was alleged he involved in intimidating a Conservative MP. China then responded by expelling a Canadian diplomat, Jennifer Lynn Lalonde.
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