China calls out ‘looney’ move

U.S. officials have been critical of Trudeau’s approval of Chinese statebacked purchases of Canadian technology companies in the past, including the 2017 purchase of Norsat International Inc. by Chinese firm Hytera Communications Corp., Ltd., a privately held company 52percent owned by Chinese billionaire Chen Qingzhou.

Norsat had contracts with the U.S. Department of Defence, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, aircraft manufacturer Boeing, NATO, Ireland’s Department of Defence, and others.

Trudeau also approved the takeover of Montrealbased ITF Technologies, a fibrelaser technology company, by Hong Kong based ONet Communications in March 2017, reversing a decision by the former prime minister to block the deal.

U.S. officials were less critical of the Aecon acquisition by CCCC, but had suggested a fullscale review was necessary. Aecon has several contracts to install and maintain various telecommunications lines with Bell Canada, some of which traverse the CanadaU.S. border.

“We do have shared infrastructure that needs to be looked at,” said Micheal Wessel, the commissioner of the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission, who said he was not speaking on behalf of the government body.

Chinese Ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye had said Canada is being too “sensitive” about Chinese capital flows into Canada, and likened the national security review to “looney” behaviour by Canadian officials.

Lu has said in past interviews that China would accept a rejection of the deal, but said it would expect from Canada a detailed rationale for the decision. The country has long argued that China unfairly faces a deeper level of scrutiny in foreign takeovers than its peers.

“We just hope the Canadian side could adopt the same standard for Chinese companies compared with other foreign companies,” Lu said.

Trudeau failed to kick off official trade talks with China during a recent trip to Beijing, after trying to include various social, environmental and genderbased stipulations in the talks. China rejected those clauses outright and suggested Canada stick with economic and tradebased discussions.

Shares of Aecon, which helped build Toronto’s iconic CN Tower, declined in recent weeks to the lowest since the deal was announced in October on concern that it would be blocked.

Aecon closed at $17.34 in Toronto trading Wednesday, 14 per cent below the $20.27ashare offer from CCCC International Holding Ltd. to acquire the construction firm.

Before the recent declines, there was widespread speculation in Canada that the deal might be approved as Trudeau sought warmer ties with China.