China said Tuesday it was open to improving ties with Canada, after Prime Minister Mark Carney won the country’s election to lead his Liberal Party to another term in power.
“China is willing to develop China-Canada relations on the basis of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
The results in Canada are an extraordinary comeback for the Liberals, who at the start of the year looked headed for an electoral wipeout.
Beijing on Tuesday stopped short of congratulating Carney, but said: “China’s position on China-Canada relations is consistent and clear.”
Ties between Beijing and Ottawa have been tense in recent years.
The arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in Vancouver in December 2018 and Beijing’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges plunged relations into a deep freeze.
Ties were strained further over allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021, charges Beijing has denied.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly expelled a Chinese diplomat in 2023 accused of targeting a Canadian opposition lawmaker who has been a vocal critic of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing, as well as his family.
Ottawa has also criticised a security crackdown in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
And last month, Joly told reporters in Ottawa that China had executed four Canadian citizens in recent weeks, defying pleas from Canada for leniency.
China insisted it had acted “in accordance with the law” in carrying out the executions.
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