Thirty-three years ago, Justin Trudeau visited China along with his father Pierre Trudeau, then Prime Minister (PM) of Canada. Thirty-three years later, on the afternoon of November 7th local time, Justin Trudeau, as the present PM, visited Pan Miaofei, Honary President of Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations (CACA). And he was served with some featured and special Wenzhou food in Pan’s house, such as fish cake, fish ball soup and special shrimp meat.

Over 80 Friends Attended the Dinner

Pan invited over 80 friends to the dinner. His daughters Pan Yao and Pan Mai presented flowers to Justin Trudeau.

Pan presented to Justin gifts like a Justin-named seal, a portrait of Justin and an Ou Embroidery panda, all designed after G20 by Ye Jianmin, from Zhejiang Art Exchange Association, Yu Hui, from Xiling Seal Club and Zhu Miaogen. And Mrs. Pan also presented her Christmas gifts to Mrs. Trudeau.

Justin Trudeau also presented flowers to Pan and his family.

At the end of the dinner, Justin and Pan, along with all the guests, took a group photo to mark this occasion.

Pan, Friend of Two Canadian PMs

Pan Miaofei was born in Ouhai, Wenzhou in 1959. He went into business in 1993 and established Wenzhou LianJian Real Estate Development Company and OuLong Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. In 2006, Mr. Pan immigrated into Canada and became the president of CACA in 2012.

Pan has engaged himself in real estate investment since he went to Canada. He started from individual real estate investment, then to the establishment of real estate development company in Canada in 2008, and to now the launch of the first “residence plus business plus parking” program.

Pan takes an active part in the work of Chinese associations, and acts as a civil public diplomatic messenger for China and Canada. In September 2011, Stephen Harper, then PM of Canada, met with Pan, president of Wenzhou Friendship Society (WFS) in a senator’s house. Harper encouraged more contribution to China-Canada friendship from WFS.

Five years later, Pan invited the present PM Justin Trudeau to his home for dinner.

At the dinner, Justin appreciated what Pan and his group had done for the China-Canada friendship.

Father-and-Son PMs Promote China-Canada Relations

Actually, the Trudeaus are closely related with China.

According to Xinhua News Agency, China established diplomatic relations with Canada on October 13th, 1970. In October 1973, then PM Pierre Trudeau visited China, which marked the first visit of Canadian PM to China after the establishment of diplomatic ties.

In the autumn of 1983, Pierre, together with his son Justin Trudeau, visited China. It is proved that the visit has not only promoted the China-Canada political and economic relations, but has sowed a significant seed, which was the first time for China to step into the Trudeau world.

The seed has convinced Justin that China and Canada need to found a solid and sound friendship. He once said that what we chose to do now was not only to meet the expectation of our predecessors but also to be appreciated by the generations to come. His words conforms to a Chinese idiom “Ji Wang Kai Lai”, which means “continue with the past and open up the future”. The two PMs has perfectly interpreted the inheritance of a friendly China-Canada relationship with their friendly way to China.

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Son of Chinese People’s Old Friend

Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin Trudeau, has served two consecutive terms during 1968 to 1984. They are the first father-and-son PMs in the history of Canada.

In 1970, when Pierre Trudeau was in power, Canada established formal diplomatic relations with China. He was known as an old friend of Chinese people for he had ever promoted the establishment and development of China-Canada diplomatic relations regardless of the outside obstructions.

Justin has a firm confidence in the future of China-Canada friendship. At the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Canada, he said in an interview that China-Canada friendship had lasted longer than 40 years. Ten years before the establishment of diplomatic relations indeed, the grain trade had already begun between China and Canada, while Norman Bethune had before that brought Canadian people’s friendship to Chinese people.