Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby China's Ambassador to Canada Wang Di is pictured at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ottawa on April 21, 2025. China's ambassador says Beijing is offering to form a partnership with Canada to push back against American "bullying," suggesting the two countries could rally other nations to stop Washington from undermining global rules. "We want to avoid the situation where humanity is brought back to a world of the law of the jungle again," Chinese Ambassador Wang Di told The Canadian Press in a wide-ranging interview. "China is Canada's opportunity, not Canada's threat," he said through the embassy's interpreter. Wang — whose office requested the interview with The Canadian Press — said that China and Canada appear to be the only countries taking "concrete and real countermeasures against the unjustified U.S. tariffs" imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. "We have taken notice that, faced with the U.S.'s unilateral bullying, Canada has not backed down," he said. "Instead, Canada is standing on the right side of the history, on the right side of international fairness and justice." He said Beijing and Ottawa should work together to convince other countries not to placate the Trump administration and to make Washington pay a price for breaking global trade rules. Roland Paris, who leads the University of Ottawa's graduate school of international affairs, said Beijing has long sought to reshape international institutions to advance its own interests — efforts that often have put China at odds with Ottawa's foreign policy. He said Canadian businesses should take a cautious approach to China, where they still face the risk of import bans and arbitrary detainment. "The mercenary use of tariffs and non-tariff barriers that we're seeing from the Trump administration has been practised for a long time by China in different forms," Paris said. "China has played its own version of hardball and abused trade rules in the past to coerce countries, including Canada, that have dared to displease Beijing." As the rivalry between the U.S. and China has intensified, Canada has generally followed Washington's lead on restricting certain types of commerce with China. Read more Have an opinion? Send it to [email protected]