How Canada got trapped in the middle of the US-China trade war

Trump’s relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been chilly at best this year. Now, with the extradition process unfolding in the next months, Trudeau risks alienating China as well.

President Donald Trump at a bilateral dinner meeting with President Xi Jinping of China during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December. (Source: The New York Times)

By Catherine Porter, Dan Bilefsky and Rick Gladstone

The United States and China are embroiled in a tense trade war that seemed headed for escalation after the United States accused a top Chinese technology executive of fraud.

Who has China lashed out at?

Canada.

Furious at the arrest in Vancouver, British Columbia, of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive at Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, China has seized at least two Canadians. Chinese social media users are clamoring for a boycott of Canada’s products. Anxious Canadians are wondering if they should scrap trips to China or urge relatives there to come home.

Canada is in a tricky spot, boxed in the middle between its two largest trading partners, and worried about having to choose sides.