Economic engagement with China does not amount to strategic realignment.
Founding director of the China Institute and Mactaggart Research Chair Emeritus at the University of Alberta.
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A parade of Western leaders to Beijing, including French President Emmanuel Macron in December, and more recently, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz planning a visit later this month, might suggest a great geopolitical realignment in the making. But to interpret these visits as a strategic defection from the United States is to mistake tactical adaptation for fundamental realignment. What we are witnessing is the pursuit of economic pragmatism alongside enduring security alliances, a balancing act that China’s charm offensive has not fundamentally disrupted.
