Calling on Western countries to "work together" to better counter these pressures, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that China was playing on the divisions of democracies.

In an interview with Global television, Trudeau said today, "We must do better to stand up to China and prevent it from playing on our divisions against each other."

Trudeau continued: "We compete against each other and China cleverly manipulates us in an open market," calling instead on Western countries to "show a united front."

Following the example of the United States, Britain and Australia, on 8 December, Justin Trudeau announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The relationship between Ottawa and Beijing was strained, most notably by the unprecedented diplomatic crisis, which resulted from the arrest in December 2018 in Canada of the founder of the Chinese communications group Huawei.