Canada wants to look at joint ventures and investments with Chinese companies within the next three years to build a Canadian electric vehicle with Chinese knowledge, according to a senior Canadian official.
The official, who spoke on the condition they not be named, said the goal is for Canada to become the first country in North America to build this type of EV.
It’s a fundamental error, the official said, to think that U.S. President Donald Trump will not allow Chinese electric vehicles into the United States.
The official also said that Canada kept the Trump administration in the loop and gave it advance warning of its decision on Friday to allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the Canadian market each year at a 6.1 per cent tariff — down from a 100 per cent tariff imposed in 2024.
The federal government is working on an auto policy, expected to be released in February, that it hopes could help grow Canada’s 125,000-worker auto industry and eventually “leapfrog” over the U.S.
It this is Canada’s goal, a collaboration with China is the wrong decision. Chinese carmakers may built cars in Canada, but they will bring their own (Chinese migrant) workforce, and all parts will be delivered by Chinese suppliers. The entire supply chain is a closed shop.
The workers in these companies are subject to devastating conditions, one more recent example that made it to public awareness was Chinese carmaker’s BYD factory in Brazil. In May 2025, Brazilian prosecutors were suing Chinese electric vehicle company BYD and two of its contractors, saying they were responsible for human trafficking and conditions “analogous to slavery”:
… Authorities halted construction of the plant late … after workers were found living in cramped accommodation with “minimum comfort and hygiene conditions” … Some workers slept on beds without mattresses and one toilet was shared by 31 people …
… construction site staff had their passports confiscated and were working under “employment contracts with illegal clauses, exhausting work hours and no weekly rest” … workers had up to 70% of their salaries withheld and faced high costs to terminate their contracts.
“Slavery-like conditions”, as defined by Brazilian law, include debt bondage and work that violates human dignity …
[Edit to correct typo.]
Presumably the politicians accounted for this in their negotiations. They may have some high level engineers from China, but I can’t imagine they’ll be allowed to bring in a whole migrant workforce, especially with the current climate around immigration in Canada.
China is doing that everywhere, and it has nothing to do with the host country’s ‘climate around immigration.’ Incoming migrant workers are usually accommodated in separate building near the industrial sites, and they likely have little contact with the local population as it’s the case in Hungary, for example (or in Brazil, just read the linked article above).
Just last summer, Chinese migrant workers have blocked the entrance to BYD’s factory in Hungary over workers’ rights violations, and the local Hungarian population protested against the BYD plant over environmental concerns. Both with little success, Hungary PM Orbán is a fan of China … (you’ll find ample evidence for this across the web).
There might be a few Canadian managers that will act as a ‘face’ to the Canadian public, but the majority of workers come from China. And so will the the suppliers as the entire Chinese supply chain is a closed shop.
Please colonize me CCP daddy.
(Ain’t judging, Canada’s last boyfriend is face down in the gutter hugging a woman who looks like a blow up doll, you gotta dance with someone if you got no nukes)
Explain how Canada having nukes would improve her economic position.
It would certainly reduce the amount of coercion the us can casually use against Canada in negotiations.
“We might just abduct Carney”/“we’ll airstrike Toronto why not?”/“we’ll send little green men into Alberta” is a very real thing Canada is currently facing.
Countries with nukes don’t have to worry about that stuff as much.
That’s not economic action that’s military action. I’m not suggesting one doesn’t drive the other, but having nuclear weapons doesn’t meaningfully change economic strategy. It affects military strategy.
There are economic nuclear weapons though. Canada has quite a few aimed directly at the US (potash, oil, aluminum, nickel, US assets in Canada, IP / patents particularly pharmaceutical, hydroelectric power, TBonds and US dollar reserves).
Pretty funny considering the role Canadian company Manga has played designing and ghost kitchen building EV’s for Chinese companies in China. Want an EV company of your own. Call Magna.