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Articles by Michael Kovrig
Trump and Xi: Strongmen at the Temple of Thymos
The ego-driven fragility of a world run by Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. U.S. President Donald Trump tours the Temple of Heaven in Beijing with China’s President Xi Jinping, May 14, 2026.
Why Chinese state financiers have come to Canada’s investment summit
Montage from Toronto’s financial district to Beijing’s CBD | Photos - Shutterstock Toronto this week is the site of Canada’s Investment Summit, where Prime Minister Mark Carney and all 13 Premiers will showcase more than 160 projects to CEOs and senior executives from 11 countries. Carney has set the goal of attracting $1 trillion in total investment to Canada over the next five years, and the Summit is a major part of that ambition.
Trump and Xi: from summit to summit or peak to trough?
September’s here, bringing another Trump-Xi encounter onto the agenda. The White House has confirmed China’s chairman will meet again with America’s president this month, with Xi Jinping expected to arrive in Washington Sep. 23 and depart Sep. 25. Between now and then, Xi has multiple foreign trips scheduled to build momentum. Prediction markets are wondering, “will Trump and Xi announce a trade deal, cut tariffs, make progress on artificial intelligence, or discuss semiconductor controls?
China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth
This time we have a guest post by Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science at the University of Alberta, about a chilling new development in PRC lawfare that a wider audience needs to notice, and to which policymakers and legislators should respond. The article was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under Creative Commons license.
China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth
This time we have a guest post by Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science at the University of Alberta, about a chilling new development in PRC lawfare that a wider audience needs to notice, and to which policymakers and legislators should respond. The article was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under Creative Commons license.
What Will China’s EV Invasion Actually Bring Canada?
Canada’s hope of producing electric cars once seemed within reach. At a Honda plant in Alliston, an Ontario town of 20,000 near Lake Simcoe that had built Civics for a generation, former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford walked the assembly line. Joined by the Japanese automaker’s chief executive, Toshihiro Mibe, they announced the largest single investment in the sector’s storied history: $15 billion to build the country’s first electric vehicle supply chain. That was April 2024.
Michael Kovrig | The Walrus
How Beijing uses the death penalty as diplomatic leverage
Trump’s China Trap
In January, after weeks of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to annex Canada as the “51st state,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, radiating cordiality toward the leaders of a country he had called Canada’s greatest geopolitical threat less than a year earlier.
Opinion | Howard Lutnick’s right. Canada needs to limit EV trade with China Original
Was Prime Minister Mark Carney “nuts” to make a deal to import electric vehicles from China? That’s what Howard Lutnick says. “Carney has a problem with us,” the U.S. Commerce Secretary told a conference audience April 17. “He gets on a plane and he goes to China. Does he think the Chinese economy’s gonna buy his stuff? China is entirely an export-driven economy!” Lutnick’s style was crude, his attitude abrasive.
Opinion | Howard Lutnick’s right. Canada needs to limit EV trade with China
Was Prime Minister Mark Carney “nuts” to make a deal to import electric vehicles from China? That’s what Howard Lutnick says. “Carney has a problem with us,” the U.S. Commerce Secretary told a conference audience April 17. “He gets on a plane and he goes to China. Does he think the Chinese economy’s gonna buy his stuff? China is entirely an export-driven economy!” Lutnick’s style was crude, his attitude abrasive.
Countering state-perpetrated arbitrary detention: a strategic framework for democratic response
ABSTRACT State-perpetrated arbitrary detention has evolved from isolated diplomatic incidents into a systematic tool of coercion that threatens international order. Existing responses have proven to be insufficient deterrence against state hostage-taking and related forms of coercion.
Michael Kovrig: Carney's in big trouble with even a little China Original
Trying to hedge an unreasonable Washington by doing deals with Beijing will only make things worse Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Jan. 16.
The Carney Doctrine Can Be More Than a Davos Speech
The Carney Doctrine Can Be More Than a Davos Speech Middle powers need real institutions to resist superpower gravity. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, Canadian Prime …
Mark Carney's Davos Vision of a World of Middle Powers Can Be Real
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a strategic emancipation proclamation. The international order is rupturing, he candidly assessed, forcing small and midsize countries to make hard and undignified choices as they struggle to survive in a world of bullying great powers.
Mark Carney is playing a dangerous game with China. I should know: I was detained by them for years
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s landmark visit to China, followed by his stunning speech in Davos, made for a transformative moment in Canadian foreign policy. But it also made for an exceptionally risky one with implications that are still unfolding.
The Pacific Islands Challenge
In America’s Tug of War With China, Oceanic Democracy Is Caught in the Middle
The Pacific Islands Challenge
As the strategic rivalry between China and the United States intensifies across the Indo-Pacific, the Taiwan Strait is often seen as the key flash point. Yet whether the regional balance holds or tips into conflict will also be shaped by choices made in, by, and about the Pacific Islands—the 12 sovereign states and several territories whose archipelagos stretch across the vast ocean between the Philippines and Hawaii.
A "Correct" Perception of China
China’s officials are sweet-talking Canadians. Its Ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, has given smiling interviews calling for the two countries to “have a correct perception of each other.” His other catchphrases include “mutual respect,” “win-win cooperation,” and “positive energy.” Appearing October 12 on CTV’s Question Period, he assured that trade disputes would disappear if only Canada would drop its tariffs.
A "Correct" Perception of China
China’s officials are sweet-talking Canadians. Its Ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, has given smiling interviews calling for the two countries to “have a correct perception of each other.” His other catchphrases include “mutual respect,” “win-win cooperation,” and “positive energy.” Appearing October 12 on CTV’s Question Period, he assured that trade disputes would disappear if only Canada would drop its tariffs.
Michael Kovrig: Don't buy the gaslighting, China's intentions towards Canada are hostile
Opinion Special to National Post | Michael Kovrig Wed, October 15, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. UTC 5 min read China’s officials are sweet-talking Canadians.
Michael Kovrig: Don't buy the gaslighting, China's intentions towards Canada are hostile
Advertisement 1 Article content China’s officials are sweet-talking Canadians. Its Ambassador, Wang Di, has given smiling interviews calling for the two countries to “have a correct perception of each other.” His other catchphrases include “mutual respect,” “win-win cooperation,” and “positive energy.” Appearing recently on CTV’s Question Period, he assured that current trade disputes would disappear if only Canada would drop its tariffs.
Michael Kovrig: Don't buy the gaslighting, China's intentions towards Canada are hostile
China's Ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, speaks to a reporter from The Canadian Press through an interpreter at the Embassy of People's Republic of China in Ottawa, on Monday, April 21, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby China’s officials are sweet-talking Canadians.
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Is it Safe to Visit China? A Former Detainee’s Warning Original
Police and paramilitary officers stand guard around Tiananmen Square near the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, China, March 8, 2025. Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images For alert foreigners who visit or live in China, this summer has been particularly stressful. A Beijing court sentenced a Japanese Astellas Pharma executive to prison for espionage. Wells Fargo & Co. suspended staff travel after one of its Chinese-American managing directors visited and discovered she couldn’t leave.
China Secretly Executed Four Canadians. I Could Have Been One of Them
F or over a thousand days, starting in December 2018, China’s government held me hostage in an attempt to blackmail Canada into releasing Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese telecom executive arrested on American criminal charges. During hundreds of hours of interrogation and false accusations, my captors threatened me with sentences that could extend to life in prison and potentially death.
China-Canada Relations: High Tariffs and Low Trust
In recent articles, Chinese analysts write that US President Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and tariffs against Canada should prompt Ottawa to be less judgmental of China. The underlying implication is that Canada is weakened and should embrace doing more business with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They also reckon that new Prime Minister Mark Carney will prioritise resolving disputes with Trump while encouraging Canadian businesses to diversify to other markets.
Five years of freedom, and the PRC is still taking hostages
Five years ago this week, I left China after its Communist Party finally agreed to a negotiated end to my wrongful detention there. I’d been a political hostage in its ruthless effort to coerce Canada into releasing a Chinese telecom executive. For the anniversary of my liberation, this post collects most of what I’ve said publicly about the ordeal and its implications. You’ll have to wait a while longer to read the full account of what happened. The story has many layers, and it’s still not over.
China’s abductions of foreign nationals should carry costs and consequences
Michael Kovrig is a former Canadian foreign service officer who previously served as a diplomat in China and at the United Nations. He’s now an analyst, advocate, writer and consultant on international issues. In 2018, I was arbitrarily detained in the People’s Republic of China and held as a human bargaining chip for 1,019 days. Negotiations finally secured my release in Sept. 2021.
China Expands its Peace and Security Footprint in Africa
This rising role in security undergirds Beijing's economic statecraft and commercial interests in Africa, helps professionalise China's military and protect its citizens there, and furthers its ambitions to be a major power with global influence. The rapid pace of change is taking Chinese security policy practitioners into new territory.
China’s expanding military footprint in Africa
China’s growing engagement with African countries got a publicity boost on 3-4 September with the latest Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The triennial event brought leaders and officials from 53 African countries and the African Union (AU) to Beijing for meetings that culminated in a resolution to continue strengthening ties and a renewed pledge of billions of dollars in Chinese loans, grants and investments.
With an Influx of Blue Helmets and Cash, China’s Role in African Security Grows More Pervasive
China’s growing engagement with African countries got a publicity boost on September 3 and 4 with the latest Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. The triennial event brought leaders and officials from 53 African countries and the African Union (A.U.) to Beijing for meetings that culminated in a resolution to continue strengthening ties and a renewed pledge of billions of dollars in Chinese loans, grants, and investments.
What Would a U.S. War-or Peace-with Iran mean for China?
In an unprecedentedly aggressive tweet on July 22, Donald Trump warned Iran that if it threatens the United States again, it “will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before.” The following day, Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has repeatedly argued for bombing Iran before he took office in April 2018, also issued a statement claiming that Trump told him “if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few...
National Ambitions Meet Local Opposition Along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
In the run-up to Pakistan’s general election on July 25, most political parties stand united in their belief that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will transform Pakistan’s ailing economy.
North East Asia Summit Signals Return to Cooperation
Facing uncertain times in U.S. policy and a pivot to diplomacy from North Korea, leaders of China, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo on May 9 to downplay historical grievances and show their support for denuclearization, trade and better relations. But underlying disputes could still resurface. What’s the significance of the 7th China-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Summit? The main purpose of the meeting was simply to showcase good vibes among the three leaders.
Why China should help solve Venezuela’s deepening crisis
Venezuela is a panorama of misery. Each month tens of thousands flee across borders from spiraling inflation, grinding poverty, rising crime and rapidly spreading disease. The deeper Venezuela sinks into turmoil, the more leverage China acquires over the government of President Nicolás Maduro. But rather than nudge Caracas toward an exit from political and economic crisis, Beijing has opted to watch and wait.
Kim Jong-un Visits Beijing
After two days of rumors, on Wednesday March 28, the official news agencies of China and North Korea announced that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un had just completed a visit to Beijing. The “unofficial visit,” as Xinhua put it, was Kim’s first international trip since assuming power and an apparent surprise to much of the world.
What Will China Do if the U.S. Attacks North Korea?
China’s immediate priorities would be evacuating its citizens from affected areas, defending its border, preventing an inflow of refugees, and safeguarding North Korea’s nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons stockpiles. Locating and securing weapons of mass destruction would likely be a shared objective for China and all other governments involved, and could offer scope for cooperation, eventually under U.N. auspices.
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