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[US President Donald Trump] has repeatedly made it clear that he wants vehicles built in the United States, not in Canada, even if that means unraveling long standing trade agreements like CUSMA. To Trump, Canadian auto plants are not partners in an integrated supply chain. They are competitors siphoning away American manufacturing strength.
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[China’s Xi Jinping’] position is quieter but far more consequential.
China’s global auto strategy is not about Canada specifically. It is about scale, dominance, and dependency. Beijing has poured enormous state resources into turning its automakers into export juggernauts, not just in electric vehicles but across the entire automotive spectrum. The goal is not simply to sell cars abroad. China may not say it as it thinks like—like Trump—but Beijing’s ultimate goal is to reshape who builds them at all.
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Trump’s approach is blunt force economics. Build here or lose access. His message to automakers is simple. If you want to sell to Americans, invest in American factories. Canada becomes collateral damage in a political argument framed as economic nationalism.
China’s approach is more strategic and arguably more dangerous. By flooding markets with low-cost vehicles backed by state support, it erodes domestic manufacturing ecosystems over time. Once factories close and supply chains weaken, rebuilding them becomes nearly impossible. Consumers may celebrate cheaper cars in the short term, but the long-term cost is industrial dependency.
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That is where Trump and Xi converge, intentionally or not.
Both paths lead to a future where Canada builds fewer cars. One shifts production south. The other crowds it out entirely. In either case, Canada is left choosing between integration and irrelevance. This is not just an economic debate. It is about sovereignty, employment, and technological leadership.
More than vehicles of transportation, cars are now rolling computers, data collectors, and energy platforms. Losing the ability to build them means losing influence over critical infrastructure.
The question facing Canada, and by extension North America, is not whether Chinese cars are good or affordable. Many are. The real question is whether hollowing out domestic manufacturing is a price worth paying for cheaper sheet metal and software.
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Trump says he wants the jobs. Xi wants the market. Neither wants Canada in the driver’s seat.
This is a false assumption.
If if Chinese subsidiaries in Canada would built cars (for export or the domestic markets), Canada and Canadians wouldn’t benefit much. Chinese companies bring their own migrant workers - who then work under slave-like conditions as we have seen in Brazil’s BYD plant last year, to name a recent example.
And they also have fully integrated supply chains, meaning they purchase their parts from Chinese suppliers.
The only thing it does is to create hurdles for Canada to rebuild its own car industry.