As Prime Minister Mark Carney aims to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid a U.S. trade war, a former diplomat who spent more than a thousand days imprisoned in China is warning Ottawa to remember the threat China poses to Canada.

“We need our politicians and our government to be frank and transparent with Canadians about what the risks and potential rewards and the tradeoffs are,” Michael Kovrig said in an interview with CBC’s airing Saturday morning.

Kovrig told host Catherine Cullen there are “some things that Canada can usefully do with China” but everything needs to be done "with caution and guardrails and general safeguards to manage all the potential downsides of that relationship.”

The former diplomat added that as the Americans pull away from global trade, China is pivot

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