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The results come amid increasing hostilities between Ottawa and China’s communist government following Canada’s December 2018 arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was charged at the request of U.S. authorities on allegations tied to the company’s dealings in Iran.

The Chinese government responded with threatening calls for Ottawa to release Meng, who is the daughter of company founder and Chinese billionaire Ren Zhengfei. Chinese officials have detained two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and have targeted imports of various Canadian agricultural products as a way to retaliate against Canada.

“In the last year, Canadians have been very aware that their country and their citizens have been on the receiving end of what is an increasingly fraught diplomatic crisis with China,” said Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute.

Some observers have called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take a harder stance on China, after his initial attempts to sign a free trade agreement with the country came to an abrupt end.

Canadians’ wariness toward China stretches back decades, Kurl said, stemming from the need to strike a difficult balance between the country’s immense economic opportunity and its dismal human rights record. But polls show that that wariness has intensified since last December.

“What has been different in the last year is the very tangible impact of China’s actions as a result of the Meng arrest,” she said.