Top 7 China blunders by Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Trudeau has had a rocky relationship with China. After becoming Prime Minister in October 2015, Trudeau had a decent relationship with the country. Since then, a lot has happened and some of his decisions have been called into question by the media and ordinary Canadians.

Trudeau declined to answer questions about China’s coronavirus numbers

When China’s death toll was drastically revised in April, many critics were not surprised by the increased recorded deaths. Trudeau seemed indifferent to the changing numbers.

When Trudeau was asked about China concealing the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, he dodged the question and instead quickly changed the subject, saying that he’s only worried about focusing on making sure Canadians receive “protection” and “support.”

Trudeau waited to ban travel from China to Canada following Wuhan outbreak

Trudeau waited to ban travel from China to Canada until airlines began to do it themselves. As the outbreak escalated and countries began to close borders, Trudeau was slow to make any decision. He eventually banned entry to non-Canadian citizens in mid-March.

“We’re going to stay focused on doing the things that actually matter: on empowering Canadians to make the right decisions for their own health, for their families’ health, listening to experts, working to coordinate with health authorities across the country, including in all provinces and territories and ensuring that our response is active and up to date every step of the way.” Trudeau said.

Trudeau mistakenly referred to Japan as 'China' during a visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Trudeau underestimated China’s response to arrest of Huawei CFO

Trudeau mistakenly underestimated the harsh response from China after Canada's arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Dec. 2018. This came as relations with China were already shaky following his visit in 2017.

After a briefing on the arrest, the Liberals had time to make a plan to reduce the severity of the action or reach out to the Chinese government but they failed to do so.

After the arrest, two Canadians—Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor—were detained.

Trudeau failed to bring home Michael Spavor and Michael Korvig

Michael Spavor and Michael Korvig were detained on charges of endangering state security in December 2018. They were arrested shortly after Canada detained Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou.

The two will see their 500th day of detention next week.

They were last visited by Canadian officials on January 13 and 14. The were seeing monthly consular which have since stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trudeau attended cash-for-access fundraiser involving Chinese billionaires

Trudeau attended a fundraiser that was held at a wealthy Chinese-Canadian businessman’s mansion in May. A guest at the event was a donor looking for Ottawa’s approval to start operations on a bank targeting the Chinese community in Canada.

Also in attendance was Zhang Bin, a Chinese businessman who, along with a partner, made a $1 million donation to the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation along with the University of Montreal Faculty of Law only weeks after the event.

This seems to breach the ethical rules Trudeau laid down after taking office. The rules state “there should be no preferential access, or appearance of preferential access" in exchange for political donations.

The fundraiser also seems to go against the Liberal Party guidelines requiring party officials not to allow people with direct business interests with the government, to attend those type of events.

Trudeau said he admires China's 'basic dictatorship'

In 2013 Trudeau received backlash after he said he admires China’s “basic dictatorship” when speaking at a fundraising event in Toronto.

Trudeau said: “There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say, ‘We need to go green … we need to start investing in solar.’”