Already at the very beginning of the newly arrived year 2026, the leadership of the People’s Republic of China carried out several notable foreign policy activities, demonstrating that certain calendar dates do not justify “taking pauses” in behaving actively on the international stage.
The President of South Korea Visited the PRC, then Japan
Commenting on the state of trade and economic relations with the Republic of Korea as a whole, the Chinese newspaper Global Times applies the term “complementarity,” illustrating it with particular data from the outcomes of bilateral trade over the first 11 months of the previous year. Special attention is drawn to the fact that 67 percent of its total volume consists of machinery and electronics. Moreover, their share has been steadily increasing from year to year.
Successful cooperation between the PRC and the Republic of Korea in the field of advanced electronics inevitably touches upon pressing issues of international politics. Within this framework, Seoul finds itself in the position of a tightrope walker, moving quite successfully so far along a “tightly stretched rope” that connects three regional “centres of power” represented by Beijing, Washington, and Tokyo. As it was already outlined, the first out of the triangle is the most important trade and economic partner, while the second is a military and political ally whose concerns in the realms of intensifying competition in advanced electronics must be taken into account in one way or another.
As for the third “centre of power,” i.e., Japan, which President Lee visited just one week after his trip to the PRC, the visit to Tokyo attracted attention primarily for two reasons. First, it took place amidst sharp aggravation of Japanese–Chinese relations, and there are no signs of President Lee playing the role of a mediator aiming at resolving the tensions. On the contrary, this factor only complicated the negotiating process between the South Korean president and each of the parties to the conflict.
Second, the Republic of Korea itself has many long-standing and serious problems in its relations with Japan. It appears that these difficulties also manifested themselves during the second meeting between Prime Minister S. Takaichi and the South Korean president who had arrived in Japan. Even despite the fact that their first meeting had taken place only two months earlier in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, on the sidelines of the latest APEC Summit. In the PRC, the results of the most recent Japanese–South Korean summit were evaluated with skepticism. The author of the Reuters commentary, which was accompanied by an ambiguous illustrative photograph, appears to belong to the very same skeptics’ camp.
Did the Prime Minister of Canada Represent Europe in the PRC as Well?
Primarily due to the rapidly developing “global context,” attention was also attracted to the visit of Canadian Prime Minister M. Carney to the PRC from January 14 to 17. By all accounts, the country is now taking seriously the public antics of the 47th President of the United States, which until recently were almost a subject of mockery. After Venezuela, Iran and Greenland have become the current focus of the American President, but in Ottawa, for sure, they have not forgotten that at one time D. Trump also showed a peculiar interest towards Canada. This is of particular significance given that his recent actions on the international stage fully correspond to the recently adopted US National Security Strategy. Thus, it did not come as a surprise that the media has recently started speculating on the possibility of a US–Canadian armed conflict.
Within Canada per se, a source of potential turbulence is also forming in the form of a transition to practical actions by supporters of independence in the province of Alberta, which borders the United States. At the end of the last year, they obtained the right to collect the required number of signatures from residents of the province, followed by holding a referendum on the issue.
Therefore, the desire of the country’s leadership to try and find support in the face of the main geopolitical opponent of the United States appears natural. However, of course, this will not happen unless Canada refrains from provocative actions, such as, for example, Canadian Navy ships demonstratively passing through the Taiwan Strait, as they have been doing so far.
It should be noted that on the eve of M. Carney’s visit to the PRC, several Canadian parliamentarians were sent to Taiwan with a generalised message: “No worries, guys, everything between you and us will continue being alright on the night.” This raises doubts, because the “price of the issue” in the game into which Canada is being drawn, most likely not of its own free will, is becoming too high.
In a commentary by Global Times, mentioned above, on the main goals of M. Carney’s visit, in addition to the relevance of “stabilising” bilateral relations, the authors also pinpointed the intention of the guest to “gain more room for Ottawa to balance its ties with both Washington and Beijing.” In a generally accessible interpretation, this political science assessment of the main motive for the Canadian prime minister’s visit to the PRC can be reduced to a toddler complaining to his mother that “Dad (Trump) wants to spank me.” However, the problem for Canada and some European tricksters who are in solidarity with it lies in the impossibility of ruling out the existence of a certain coordination of actions between “mom” and “dad.”
A more reliable way to avoid increased attention from the current “world policeman” was found in Malaysia, whose bloggers addressed him with a message that roughly consisted of the following: “Dear Mr. Trump! We have nothing except vegetable oil, orangutans, and durian. In the evening, we light fires on the ground to drive away wild animals, and we ourselves sleep in trees. So please do not bomb us and do not kidnap the chiefs of our tribes.”
Let us also pay attention to the above-mentioned factor of Canada’s presence in the company of “some Europeans.” By now, they have also wound up facing an unenviable choice of whom to fight first: the Russians or the Americans. Or both at once? It is therefore quite possible that during his visit, M. Carney was also engaged in mediating the complex relations between European partners and the PRC, although these partners are beginning to send certain positive signals toward Beijing themselves.
The Tour of Foreign Minister Wang Yi Across African Countries
A very significant event in the PRC’s foreign policy activity at the beginning of the new year was the latest tour of Foreign Minister Wang Yi across a number of African countries, whose importance in global processes is only increasing. This is confirmed by the very fact of the foreign minister of one of the leading world powers conducting such a tour every single year for the past 36 years.
Its main instrument in the struggle with competitors for dominant positions on the continent is the world’s second-largest economy. China uses the tool to provide assistance in resolving the key problems of African countries, primarily those in the economy and transport and logistics infrastructure, education, healthcare, and the most advanced industrial technologies. In commentaries on Wang Yi’s current tour, special attention is paid to the removal of tariff burdens on exports of African goods to China back in September 2025.
In general, the PRC’s positioning at the global gaming table, the situation around which increasingly resembles a madhouse, appears both active and, at the same time, calm and confident. This is one of the reasons why other important players themselves seek contacts with Beijing.
Vladimir Terekhov, expert on Asia-Pacific issues
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