Strengthening Canada–China Relations Through Sport – Backgrounder

The Canada–China Memorandum of Understanding on Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Cooperation

In September 2016, the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Li Keqiang, made his first official visit to Canada. During this visit, he and the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, announced bilateral initiatives aimed at expanding Canada–China relations, such as strengthening cooperation in winter sports ahead of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. This commitment led to the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the governments of Canada and China on Olympic and Paralympic Games cooperation, signed on July 13, 2017.

Other sport-specific benefits of establishing the MOU could include:

• opportunities for Canadian coaches and athletes to train in China in advance of the 2022 Winter Games, providing an increased familiarization with Games environment;
• opportunities for the Canadian host city, as well as host governments to learn from the 2022 Games, in the event of a Canadian bid to host the 2026 Winter Games; and
• opportunities for identifying and undertaking additional knowledge-building activities to address specific sport-related knowledge and expertise gaps for the Canadian government and sport organizations.

The People’s Republic of China has developed a five-year plan (2016–2020) to increase public fitness, with extra attention paid to winter sports. The Government of China has publicly pledged to leverage the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to increase participation in winter sports by 300 million people.