HALIFAX—Nova Scotia is continuing its bid for an amiable trade relationship with China, with plans for a promotional website built specifically to fit the country’s strict internet censorship laws.

Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI) — the agency responsible for developing the province’s business interests — put a call out Friday morning for web developers to create a Chinese website to launch by the start of November 2019.

In its tender document, NSBI says it wants to establish a web presence in the country to attract investment opportunities, find potential sales opportunities for Nova Scotian exporters and build “brand equity.”

The tender says the developer must have “the expertise to navigate China’s digital restrictions,” in order to create a website that’s “100% China-friendly.”

The Chinese government controls public access to the internet and suppresses information by blocking some websites, including those of many Western news organizations and social media platforms.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Guardian, NBC News, the Globe and Mail and, as of recently, the Toronto Star are all unreachable in China.

The censorship can extend beyond the country’s own geographic borders, too, as some Chinese immigrants in Canada noticed after the Nov. 2018 arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Before Meng was released on bail, Chinese expatriates reported seeing red dots blocking coverage of her arrest on the social media app WeChat.

Nova Scotia’s Liberal government under Stephen McNeil has made a priority of promoting and protecting provincial trade partnerships with China, including the export of lobster and other seafood, which topped $500 million last year, even as Ottawa-Beijing relations have been crumbling.

McNeil returned from his seventh trade mission to China in May just one day after Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were formally arrested on espionage-related charges.

The detentions of the two Canadians have been widely viewed as retaliation for the December arrest of Meng in Vancouver. Meng remains in Canada, awaiting extradition to the U.S. to face allegations of fraud in violating Iran sanctions.

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While the federal government has been pressing the Chinese to release Spavor and Kovrig, McNeil said in May that he was in the country to have “a different conversation.”

Later that month, McNeil hosted then-Chinese ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye in Halifax. Each man offered brief remarks to media during a photo opportunity, with Lu calling McNeil a great friend. They both glazed over their countries’ rising tensions.

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