I’m not sure if Team Trudeau was told they would start trade talks on their official visit to China or assumed they would and then arrived in China to a frosty reality that China ain’t buying his charm.

It’s useful to remember that, back then, he was the front-runner in a race to be the leader of the third party in Parliament. The NDP was the Official Opposition. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives were the government.

It might not be just traditional commodities that the Chinese government is after.