Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to China marks a pivotal moment of recalibration in China-Canada relations. As the first visit by a Canadian prime minister to China since 2017, the cooperation between both countries also signals a new stage for cross-Pacific relations amid the changing world order driven by the US-led deglobalization process featuring unprecedented unilateralism and new expansionism. Moving beyond the binary narratives that have obscured the nature of bilateral ties in recent years, the China-Canada leaders' meeting represents a triumph of realism and cooperativism over ideological rigidity. By forging a "new strategic partnership," China and Canada have demonstrated that mutual respect, sincere dialogue and developmental complementarity remain the most important factors in building trust and cooperation between countries with different systems.

The visit marks a clear shift from simple visions to concrete practice. Canada is moving away from viewing trade relations exclusively through the prism of national security. This pragmatic shift is best exemplified by the arrangement involving Chinese electric vehicles and exports of Canadian canola products. By effectively de-securitizing these sectors through a reciprocal exchange of market access and tariff relief, both countries demonstrate that economic cooperation can be decoupled from political friction.

The overriding strategic imperative for Canada is to secure stability in its external trade environment. For a country where two-thirds of the GDP relies on international trade, uncertainty is a major threat. With the US becoming increasingly impulsive and unreliable, Canada requires a diversified strategy to hedge against systemic risks. The high-level dialogues between China and Canada cement a trade partnership that safeguards Canada's trade stability, ensuring that economic cooperation remains resilient even in the face of political differences.

In the realm of political discourse, the leaders' meeting noted that while China and Canada may differ in political systems and development paths, these differences should not become obstacles to cooperation. The bedrock of this relationship remains Canada's reaffirmation of its commitment to the one-China policy, which provides the necessary political trust for China to engage more deeply. By anchoring the relationship in this mutual understanding, both sides create a stable environment in which strategic differences are managed rather than weaponized.

Building on this political foundation, the relationship transitions into a phase of participatory cooperation and shared responsibility. China-Canada new strategic partnership is anchored in a shared commitment to multilateralism. This strategic alignment extends to the UN and G20 frameworks, where both sides agree to jointly improve global governance by reforming the international financial system. Ultimately, the mutual support for the APEC meetings underscores their shared commitment to fostering win-win regional cooperation and assuming responsibility as major players capable of providing global public goods.

By selectively recalibrating its engagement with China amid American "unpredictability" and tariff hostilities, the Canadian government is executing a rational strategy of strategic hedging. This decisive recalibration demonstrates that when a traditional ally undermines the multilateral system and threatens foundational trade agreements, diversification becomes a survival imperative for middle powers.

In this situation, Canada's recalibration serves as a strategic bellwether for other Western powers, including Germany and the UK, which are similarly navigating the fallout of America's coercive unilateralism. Within the context of today's multilateral international relations, this necessitates abandoning a persistent binary trap: the fear that "de-dependency" from the US inevitably implies a new "re-dependency" on China. This zero-sum thinking is obsolete. The goal of Canada's recalibration is not to simply exchange one dependency for another, but to reclaim the autonomous capacity to define its own national interests, thereby marking the beginning of Canada's road away from dependency.

The future of the China-Canada partnership is a vital opportunity for diversification. It represents a relationship defined by autonomy, openness and equality, securing the "guardrails" and independent agency that the former unipolar order can no longer provide.

Ji Deqiang is a professor at the Canadian Media Research Center of the Academy of International and Regional Communication Studies at the Communication University of China. Liu Qianhui and Liu Na are researchers at the same center. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn