Carney plans to raise foreign interference in meeting with China's Xi

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he will tell Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet privately week that foreigners shouldn’t interfere in Canadian affairs.

He made the on Tuesday as he prepares for a meeting with Mr. Xi week at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen. It will be Mr. Carney’s second visit to China since taking office.

“The advantage of these meetings is you ​can raise issues directly and frankly. And I will be ‌raising ⁠the importance with which we attach to the non-interference in our affairs by China and other countries,” the Prime Minister told journalists during a press conference in Montreal.

Mr. Carney was asked during a press conference in Montreal whether this budding partnership with China – after years of a deep freeze in diplomatic relations – could make Canada more vulnerable to espionage.

He said the security risks that other countries including the United States face from China are worse than the risk the Asian country poses to Canada.

“We’ll the security situation around the world. We’ll our economic partnership, which is something that is deepening but has clear guardrails in terms of the areas in which we’re involved,” Mr. Carney said of the bilateral talks with Mr. Xi and Canada’s relations with China.

“But I’ll add this: In terms of the security risks of our partnership, they are much, much, much less than the security risks, for example, of the United States,” he said, referring to China.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Prime Minister Mark Carney said the security risks from Canada’s economic partnership with the U.S. were greater than Ottawa’s expansion of ties with China. The Prime Minister said the security risks that countries such as the United States face with China were greater than those faced by Canada.