Canada launched its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy on Sunday, outlining spending of C$2.3 billion ($1.7 billion) to boost military and cyber security in the region and vowed to deal with a "disruptive" China while working with it on climate change and trade.
The plan, detailed in a 26-page document, said Canada would tighten foreign investment rules to protect intellectual property and prevent Chinese state-owned enterprises from snapping up critical mineral supplies.
Canada seeks to deepen ties with a fast-growing Indo-Pacific region of 40 countries accounting for almost C$50 trillion in economic activity. But the focus is on China, which is mentioned more than 50 times, at a moment when two-way ties are frosty.
Four cabinet ministers at a news conference in Vancouver took turns detailing the new plan, saying the strategy was crucial for Canada's national security and climate as well as its economic goals.
"We will engage in diplomacy because we think diplomacy is a strength, at the same time we'll be firm and that's why we have now a very transparent plan to engage with China," said Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.
In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said Canada's new strategy was "full of ideological bias, exaggerating and speculating the so-called China threat, and making groundless accusations and attacks against China".
"China is strongly dissatisfied with this, resolutely opposes it and has already made stern representations to the Canadian side," the spokesman, Zhao Lijian, added.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government wants to diversify trade and economic ties that are overwhelmingly reliant on the United States. Official data for September show two-way trade with China made up less than 7% of the total, versus 68% for the United States.
Canada's outreach to Asian allies also comes as Washington has shown signs of becoming increasingly leery of free trade in recent years.
The document underscored Canada's dilemma in forging ties with China, which offers significant opportunities for Canadian exporters, even as Beijing looks to shape the international order into a more "permissive environment for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours," it added.
