Trudeau’s stance on China makes sense: analysts

While some eyebrows might have been raised by Justin Trudeau’s support for the acquisition of a Canadian oil company by a Chinese state-controlled firm, political analysts say it’s not surprising Trudeau would take such a stance.

In an opinion piece that ran in several newspapers across Canada on Tuesday, including the National Post and Calgary Herald, the federal Liberal leadership candidate said allowing CNOOC Ltd. to buy Calgary-based Nexen Inc. is good for Canada.

Trudeau argued it would “create middle-class Canadian jobs” and help “broaden and deepen our relationship with the world’s second-largest economy.”

Tom Flanagan, a political science professor at the University of Calgary and a former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said: “(Trudeau) wants to develop a reputation for actually having something to say on real issues rather than just being an attractive personality. He’ll probably be announcing stands on other issues as well; it’s a fairly common tactic for leadership contestants to do that.”

Flanagan said the position expressed by Trudeau is not controversial and is consistent with the Liberal party’s centrist views.

“The Liberals have this long history of promoting trade with China,” he said. “I remember Jean Chretien’s trade missions to China; he took a bus full of corporate executives. (Building economic relations with China) has actually been a Liberal policy for quite a while.”

Flanagan said Trudeau, who was making public appearances in Alberta on Tuesday, could perhaps be trying to lure support away from less hard-line Conservative voters – sometimes referred to as Red Tories – after recent polling data showed the Liberals under his leadership would more easily steal support from the NDP than the governing Tories.

Errol Mendes, a University of Ottawa law professor who specializes in issues such as human rights and international business, also said Trudeau’s stance does not come as a shock.

“He’s not giving the complete go-ahead to the CNOOC deal; what he’s saying is the reason why there’s been opposition to it is the secrecy surrounding it,” Mendes said.

The federal government is reviewing CNOOC’s US$15.1-billion bid for Nexen to determine whether it is of “net benefit” to Canada, as outlined under the Investment Canada Act in relation to large foreign-takeover proposals.

Mendes said Trudeau is arguing for “reciprocity” in Canada’s dealings with China, or ensuring that specific conditions advantageous to this country are won in exchange for giving China what it wants.

As for how reciprocity could be applied to something like CNOOC acquiring Nexen, Mendes said: “CNOOC is all over the world. . . What access do Canadian companies have to joint ventures with CNOOC around the world?”

Trudeau’s op-ed said little about China’s human rights record and the lack of freedom in that country. But Mendes said economic relationships with China are a way for Canada to promote greater freedoms for the Chinese, but it has to be done delicately.

“You can’t preach,” he said. “What you have to do . . . is to say – to at least the progressive elements, and there are quite a few of them in China – that it’s in China’s own interests to develop the rule of law. . . (and) in your own interest (to) allow more freedom of expression, which other countries have found is the most critical aspect of fighting corruption.”

Liberal interim leader Bob Rae told reporters in Ottawa Tuesday that a CNOOC acquisition of Nexen “can be a good deal” but, in criticising the government’s transparency on this issue, added that “we don’t know what the deal is.”

As for Trudeau’s stance, Rae said: “I’m not going to interfere in the leadership race. Mr. Trudeau is going to be presenting his own views about various issues in context of his own leadership campaign.”