CANADA PERSPECTIVE

Canada watches the Trump-Xi summit with quiet but real unease. For Ottawa, the Beijing meeting is a moment when two of the world's three largest economies will negotiate without it — potentially redefining global trade rules to its detriment.

The Globe and Mail, which published an analysis of Taiwan's stakes, emphasizes that Trump's ambivalence toward the island sends a troubling signal to allied democracies. A US president who discusses arms sales as a commercial bargaining chip signals his conception of collective security: everything is negotiable, nothing is guaranteed.

The National Post notes that China is seeking 'more stability and certainty' in its relationship with the United States. The implicit Canadian translation: if Washington and Beijing stabilize their bilateral relationship, Canada — which has lived under Trump tariffs and Beijing's counter-measures — risks being caught between two superpowers reconciled on their own terms, not Canada's.

The American business delegation that accompanies Trump is also closely watched from Ottawa: Musk, Cook, Fink — companies that have already captured markets Canada would like to develop. If these groups obtain privileged access to the Chinese market in exchange for American tariff concessions, Canadian companies will suffer.

Canada remains discreet in its criticism — it cannot afford to simultaneously irritate Washington and Beijing — but its press translates a fundamental anxiety: being a G7 country that watches from the sidelines a summit that determines the world it will have to live in.