To your question, I don't think we have much of a choice, to be honest. China is a great power and it is not going away. We need to find ways to be able to deal and live with that reality.
That said, Canada has a good record when it comes to engaging in informal mechanisms of diplomacy, through expert diplomacy, for instance, and other channels that might be used to find areas where our interests might converge. Clearly, we're not going to agree on a number of different things. In some domains, our interests and preferences are clearly going to clash. That's something we will need to be aware of and make China aware of.
In my opinion, it doesn't mean we cannot also use informal and formal diplomatic channels to be able to find some convergence of interests in certain domains.