"China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing and Canada are committed to advancing bilateral relations during a regular press briefing on Thursday, following the first meeting of the countries’ foreign ministers since a diplomatic fallout in 2018. "I believe we should pay more attention to the fact that both China and Canada are committed to advancing bilateral relations, ensuring they remain stable, progress steadily, and develop well under new circumstances," Mao told journalists. "We are both committed to fostering positive expectations for the development of bilateral relations and injecting greater confidence into this process,” she added. The renewed engagement follows years of strained relations after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, at Vancouver airport in December 2018, at the request of the United States. Meng, who is also the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was detained while serving as the company’s board deputy chair. Her arrest marked the start of a prolonged diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Ottawa. US prosecutors claimed that Meng had misled financial institutions, specifically HSBC, about Huawei's relationship with Skycom Tech, a company doing business in Iran, causing the banks to inadvertently violate US sanctions against Iran. Meng’s legal team maintained that the charges were politically motivated and denied wrongdoing. Shortly afterwards, Chinese authorities detained two Canadian nationals, Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat and analyst with the International Crisis Group, and another Canadian consultant who had worked in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Both were detained on espionage charges. The US eventually dismissed all charges and released Meng in 2021. Within hours of Meng’s departure, the Chinese government released both Canadians. The diplomatic reset comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney undertakes a four-day visit to China aimed at diversifying Canada’s economy and reducing reliance on the United States, which currently receives nearly 80 percent of Canadian exports."