Harper, Chinese leader both complain of too lengthy absence
PM's boyhood dream to visit China
BY DAVID AKIN, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE DECEMBER 3, 2009 1:40 PM
STORYPHOTOS ( 4 )VIDEO ( 2 )
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen pose as they tour the Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing December 3, 2009.
Photograph by: Jason Lee, Reuters
BEIJING — China's most popular politician publicly rebuked Prime Minister Stephen Harper for long ignoring China while Harper privately challenged China's top leaders on their human rights record.
But after discussions that Harper described as "frank and respectful," the leaders of both countries issued a joint statement that they say heralds "a significant new era" in relations between China and Canada.
As a tangible sign of renewed goodwill towards Canada, China announced it will open a new consulate in Montreal and it gave Canada approved destination status, something Ottawa had been seeking for more than a decade, that will make it easier for Chinese tourists to visit Canada.
That decision alone could mean more than $100 million annually in new business for Canada's ailing tourism industry and is particularly timely ahead of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
"The public rebuke shows that there's work to do on Canada's part," said NDP Leader Jack Layton. "The new tourist designation and the consulate in Montreal are an important gesture by the Chinese, now it's our turn."
Liberal MP Bob Rae, his party's foreign affairs critic, says a tourism deal is long overdue.
"We've paid a price," Rae told reporters outside the House of Commons. "The fact is we've paid a price for four years of not just living on the margins but actually deliberately disregarding china. This was not benign neglect.
"This was a deliberate decision on (Harper's) part to ignore the relationship and to assert that it had no particular importance for him."
More than 134 countries already have China's approved destination status and are reaping the Chinese tourism windfall because of it. Tourism industry associations estimate that by 2020, there will be more than 100 million international Chinese tourists. Only 159,000 Chinese tourists visited Canada in 2008.
But that decision surprised some observers here who believed that Harper's visit to China — the first by a Canadian prime minister since Paul Martin's in 2005 — would only be a first step towards an agreement on approved destination status.
Martin initialed exactly the same ADS agreement with China during a visit to Beijing in 2005 and also trumpeted it to the media travelling with him, but political problems ensued and it was never implemented. Canada is the last major western nation to be granted ADS.
The Chinese government, through the state-controlled media here, ran articles and editorials as Harper arrived noting with disapproval that, although he was elected in 2006, he had never visited China and was the last G8 leader to do so.
Indeed, that sore spot was Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's starting point for his hour-long meeting with Harper.
"This is your first trip to China and this is the first meeting between the Chinese premier and the Canadian prime minister in almost five years. Five years is too long a time for China-Canada relations and that is why there are comments in the media that your visit is one that should have taken place earlier," said Wen, who is the country's second most powerful politician after President Hu Jintao.
The premier's words were unusually strong for the man who is considered to be the "nice guy" in the Chinese government and is often referred to as Grandfather Wen.
Both the state-owned media in China, as well as independent media in Canada, had criticized Harper for waiting until he was nearly four years into his term before visiting Canada's second-largest trading partner after the United States.
But Harper replied that no Chinese leader has visited Canada in five years, either.
Harper did say he has enjoyed his brief time in China.
"I've been wanting to visit China since I was a small boy," Harper told Hu.
Before his meetings with Hu and Wen, Harper and his wife Laureen visited the Great Wall, an experience he said was "unbelievable."
In separate private talks with both Wen and Hu, Harper pressed the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Uyghur imam of dual Chinese and Canadian citizenship, Canwest News Service has learned.
Celil was arrested in 2006 while visiting Uzbekistan and subsequently deported to China, where he had been convicted in absentia of terrorism and sentenced to life in prison. Canadian officials believe that, not only did he not receive a fair trial but that the Chinese have mistaken him for someone else and that he should be returned to Canada.
No Canadian consular official has yet been able to visit Celil.
"I brought up some of our more general concerns, also our specific cases as well," Harper told reporters after his meetings. "We always make sure that when we bring up these matters — whether they refer to particular cases you're aware of that have been discussed from time to time or whether they are broader questions such as the situation in Tibet, we always bring these up in a way that is frank and is at the same time respectful of Chinese sovereignty."
The joint 14-point statement issued by both countries included a section on human rights.
"Both sides acknowledged that differing histories and national conditions can create some distinct points of view on issues such as human rights," the statement said. "The two sides agreed to increased dialogue and exchanges on human rights, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to promote and protect human rights consistent with international human rights instruments."
A top issue for China is the repatriation of its "most wanted man," Lai Changxing, who is currently living in Vancouver. Lai became implicated in a smuggling and corruption scandal in the late 1990s, although he maintains he is innocent.
Some of those convicted in China in connection with the same scandal have been executed.
China has promised not to execute Lai if he is deported.
"The government of Canada has been seeking his extradition," Harper said. "I know this has been an irritant in some circles of the Chinese government but, of course, we do have an independent court system and the courts so far have not been accepting of our desire to have him extradited but both we and the government would like to see Mr. Lai extradited and we will keep up our efforts in that regard."
In the joint statement, both countries "reaffirmed their intention to strengthen co-operation on combating transnational crime and repatriating fugitives in accordance with their respective laws."
Harper and Hu also agreed to being a series of meetings between high-level bureaucrats — deputy ministers in Canada — to discuss a broad range of topics including trade and investment, energy and environment, health and governance.
On Friday, Harper will visit the Forbidden City here before flying to Shanghai where he is scheduled to deliver a major speech to a business audience there.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
2/3 Canadians urge PM to focus on China’s human rights, not trade: poll
2/3 Canadians urge PM to focus on China’s human rights, not trade: poll
Posted on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 · 2 Comments
PMO release
Sigh… what can I say? Sometimes I really don’t understand my fellow Canadians. Why are Canadians always one step behind the rest of the world? Is it because our country is too cold so our people don’t travel outside of North America to see the rest of the world?
With an obvious shift of western media obsession on the “China threat” theory and the retrieve of the once mainstream China-bashing rhetoric, I can only hope that over time, Canadians will slowly come to understand the modern China better-informedly.
Canadians Urge for Focus on Human Rights as Prime Minister Visits China
Angus Reid release – Two-thirds of respondents think Canada should not seek free trade agreements with countries that have dubious human rights records.
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives in China for a four-day visit, a large majority of Canadians believe the federal government should concentrate on human rights when it comes to bilateral ties, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,006 Canadian adults, 63% of respondents believe Canada should put more emphasis on human rights and minority rights, regardless of the economic implications.
Just over a third of respondents (37%) believe Canada’s long-term policy with China should focus on the trading relationship, regardless of the human rights situation in China.
While those concerned primarily with human rights in China continue to outnumber the proponents of trade, this month’s survey does show a 13-point shift towards trade since an Angus Reid poll conducted in April 2007, when the trial and sentence of Chinese Canadian Huseyin Celil dominated the airwaves.
Two-thirds of Canadians (68%) believe Canada should not seek free trade agreements with developing countries that have dubious human rights records. The level of agreement with this notion has dropped by five points since July 2007, when Canada was discussing a free trade agreement with Colombia.
The prospect of a free trade deal with China is not an overwhelmingly popular idea for Canadians, with 42% perceiving this possibility as a threat to the Canadian economy from foreign imports, and 37% believing it would be an opportunity for economic growth through increased Canadian exports.
Albertans are more likely to perceive free trade with China as an opportunity (52%) while Quebecers (48%) are more likely to regard it as a threat.
Analysis
While trade with China has become a more important issue in the past two years, a majority of Canadians continue to advocate for an emphasis on human rights. China, at this point, is seen as more of a threat in the field of international commerce, a perception that is very different from the perceived benefits a free trade deal with India would bring to Canada.
Harper says human rights remain a concern with China
Harper says human rights remain a concern with China
(CP) – 2 hours ago
BEIJING — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he is not backing off on human rights while in China, although he insists the relationship between the two countries is sound.
Making his first visit in four years as prime minister, Harper arrived in China late Wednesday afternoon confronted with a front-page headline and story in an official newspaper declaring the relationship was in urgent need of repair.
The English-language China Daily carried a second story that bluntly declares the behaviour of the Harper government since being elected in 2006 as causing the political trust between the two governments to "hit rock bottom, adversely affecting the development of bilateral ties. "
The article lists a series of what the Chinese regard as provocations, including the tardiness of the visit, Harper's failure to attend the Beijing Olympics in 2008, as well his party making a "big fuss" over "the Falun Gong, the Taiwan question, the Tibet issue, "China's espionage threat" and "China's investment threat."
In his first year in office, the prime minister famously declared that he would not sacrifice human rights for "the almighty dollar."
An editorial in the Global Times, an organ of the Communist party, accused Harper of "appeasing his electoral base" and having turned "a cold shoulder to China."
The papers, however, cited the visit as a golden opportunity to set the relationship back on track.
In a meeting with reporters shortly after landing, Harper said he wanted to strengthen relations between the two countries and particularly expand trade and business opportunities.
But he said he believes he can achieve the goal while still staying true to what he called Canadian values.
"Canadian values are part and parcel of who we are," he said.
"Those are the things we live by, those are the things that give us the prosperity and peaceful and pluralistic society that we enjoy. So we never check those things at the door."
He added that Canada has a "good and frank" relationship with China and believes the trip will be productive.
Several human rights organizations in Canada have called on Harper to not back off on human rights while in China.
David Kilgour, a former Liberal minister for Asia-Pacific and a leading critic of China's human rights record, said in an earlier interview that the record shows that even after Harper's "almighty dollar" remark, trade between the two countries did not suffer.
In fact, it has growth to the point that it is now Canada's second largest trading relationship with a value of $53 billion.
It remains to be seen, however, how high on the agenda human rights will come during Harper's private meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Given China's growing important to Canada as an economic counter-balance to the struggling U.S., as well as emergence as a political power, many believe Harper will tread lighter than in the past on tweaking the giant's nose on human rights.
"We need the Chinese more than we needed then five or six years ago," said Robert Bothwell, an historian with the international section at the University of Toronto.
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
(CP) – 2 hours ago
BEIJING — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he is not backing off on human rights while in China, although he insists the relationship between the two countries is sound.
Making his first visit in four years as prime minister, Harper arrived in China late Wednesday afternoon confronted with a front-page headline and story in an official newspaper declaring the relationship was in urgent need of repair.
The English-language China Daily carried a second story that bluntly declares the behaviour of the Harper government since being elected in 2006 as causing the political trust between the two governments to "hit rock bottom, adversely affecting the development of bilateral ties. "
The article lists a series of what the Chinese regard as provocations, including the tardiness of the visit, Harper's failure to attend the Beijing Olympics in 2008, as well his party making a "big fuss" over "the Falun Gong, the Taiwan question, the Tibet issue, "China's espionage threat" and "China's investment threat."
In his first year in office, the prime minister famously declared that he would not sacrifice human rights for "the almighty dollar."
An editorial in the Global Times, an organ of the Communist party, accused Harper of "appeasing his electoral base" and having turned "a cold shoulder to China."
The papers, however, cited the visit as a golden opportunity to set the relationship back on track.
In a meeting with reporters shortly after landing, Harper said he wanted to strengthen relations between the two countries and particularly expand trade and business opportunities.
But he said he believes he can achieve the goal while still staying true to what he called Canadian values.
"Canadian values are part and parcel of who we are," he said.
"Those are the things we live by, those are the things that give us the prosperity and peaceful and pluralistic society that we enjoy. So we never check those things at the door."
He added that Canada has a "good and frank" relationship with China and believes the trip will be productive.
Several human rights organizations in Canada have called on Harper to not back off on human rights while in China.
David Kilgour, a former Liberal minister for Asia-Pacific and a leading critic of China's human rights record, said in an earlier interview that the record shows that even after Harper's "almighty dollar" remark, trade between the two countries did not suffer.
In fact, it has growth to the point that it is now Canada's second largest trading relationship with a value of $53 billion.
It remains to be seen, however, how high on the agenda human rights will come during Harper's private meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Given China's growing important to Canada as an economic counter-balance to the struggling U.S., as well as emergence as a political power, many believe Harper will tread lighter than in the past on tweaking the giant's nose on human rights.
"We need the Chinese more than we needed then five or six years ago," said Robert Bothwell, an historian with the international section at the University of Toronto.
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Harper stance on human rights scrutinized as China visit begins
Harper stance on human rights scrutinized as China visit begins
BY DAVID AKIN, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEDECEMBER 1, 2009 7:02 PM
STORYPHOTOS ( 1 )
Stephen Harper is in China. He'll meet all the top Chinese leaders. Is he going to 'vocally and publicly' stand up for human rights? A coalition of Canadian human rights groups on Tuesday pressed Harper to do just that.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen
ABOARD CANADIAN FORCES FLIGHT 01 — As Prime Minister Stephen Harper jets his way to his first official visit in China, many in Canada wonder if Harper will talk as tough on human rights once he's there as he did upon winning office three years ago.
For Harper and for many of the Conservatives he grew up with during the years of the Reform party and the Canadian Alliance, China once was to be given no quarter for jailing dissidents, persecuting Christians and dealing harshly with Tibet. For Conservatives, human rights trumped trade and Harper said so himself in 2007.
"There are those in the Opposition who will say, you know, China is an important country, so we shouldn't really protest these things . . . so maybe someday we'll be able to sell more goods there. I think that's irresponsible," Harper, then prime minister, said in 2007. "I think the government of Canada, when a Canadian citizen is ill-treated and when the rights of a Canadian citizen need to be defended, I think it's always the obligation of the government of Canada to vocally and publicly stand up for that Canadian citizen. That is what we will continue to do."
Well, here he is in China. He'll meet all the top Chinese leaders. Is he going to "vocally and publicly" stand up for human rights?
A coalition of Canadian human rights groups on Tuesday pressed Harper to do just that. The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China, which includes Amnesty International, PEN Canada, the Canada Tibet Committee and others, sent a letter to Harper on the eve of his trip East, saying: "We urge you, as prime minister, to take the opportunity of your upcoming dialogue with Chinese leaders to show that Canada, along with the rest of the Western democracies, views human rights as a central plank of its relationship with China.
"We entreat you to speak out, confident that your personal intervention will give hope and strength not only to political and human rights activists in prison in China, but to all Canadians who share our belief that freedom of expression is both a sign of strength and a human right that cannot be compromised."
Dimitri Soudas, now Harper's chief spokesman but also one of Harper's longest-serving advisers, conceded to reporters Monday that while human rights may have once trumped other issues, it is now part of the broader mix of issues on this week's agenda.
"One issue doesn't trump the other while having frank, respectful and positive discussions on certain issues . . . that doesn't prevent one to express concern on others," Soudas said.
"So I would simply say that since taking office, the position of the prime minister and of this government has been consistent. It has sometimes been interpreted differently, but it has been very consistent since the beginning."
It doesn't seem that way to outside observers.
"More recently, that (early rhetoric) seems much more muted," said Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. "I think there's a perception that the criticism has faded and this concern about paying primary attention to the trading relationship once again seems to have become dominant."
The Canadian that Harper was referring to in that 2007 statement was Huseyincan Celil, a Uyghur imam of dual Chinese and Canadian citizenship. In 2006, while visiting Uzbekistan, he was arrested and subsequently deported to China, where he had been convicted in absentia of terrorism and sentenced to life in prison. Canadian officials believe that, at the very least, the Chinese have mistaken him for someone else and that he should be returned to Canada.
Celil, in fact, arrived in Canada first in 2001 as a refugee from China where he stood accused of murders and terrorist acts Chinese authorities alleged he committed beginning in 1994. But in 2006, Celil returned to China to try to get his three of his children out of the country. It was a terrible miscalculation and he now sits in jail.
No one thinks Harper is going to come home with Celil or effect the release of any other political prisoners during his three days here.
But many are hopeful that Harper's visit is the beginning of a rebalancing of the Canada-China relationship.
"The Chinese are very concerned about stability," said Liberal MP Bob Rae, who first visited China more than 25 years ago. "They're very concerned about order. They're very concerned about a billion people. They're fearful of the consequences of losing that kind of control. Seems to me we just have to keep on trying to persuade them that liberty is the better way. It's something we believe in and something we should share with them."
"What we need," says Amnesty's Neve, "is an approach to human rights that takes account of the entirety of that relationship and doesn't relegate it to a file that one or two mid-level diplomats at Foreign Affairs are supposed to think about from time to time but makes it a paramount consideration in all aspects of how we have dealing with China."
A good first step for Amnesty and others is an insistence that independent human rights workers be allowed into China to conduct their research and monitoring with no government interference. Neither Amnesty International nor any other human rights group has ever been allowed into the country do any monitoring or research.
"We've repeatedly said to the Canadian government, amongst others, that's one indicator amongst many others of the state of human rights in China, that they remain so defiant on that," Neve said. "They remain absolutely defiant about granting that kind of access for on-the-ground, independent, fact-finding."
Chinese leaders are not unprepared for these demands from Western politicians, says Rae, who dealt with them while he was Ontario's premier.
"They're not unused to this discussion," Rae said. "They're not afraid of it. There's no reason for us to be afraid of it. It's part of an ongoing engagement not only with the Chinese leadership but Chinese society generally about how a freer economy — in . . . our entire historical experience — generally leads to a freer society and that freer society generally leads to a freer politics."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Harper urged to talk human rights with China
Harper urged to talk human rights with China
PM set to discuss trade in 1st visit to economic superpower
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 | 12:21 PM ET
CBC News
Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Summit in Singapore on Nov. 15. Harper will arrive in China for the first time on Wednesday in the hopes of improving trade. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Improving trade relations will be high on the agenda for Stephen Harper as he makes his first visit to China on Wednesday, but activists said Tuesday they want the Prime Minister to continue to address human rights issues.
Harper, who will arrive Wednesday and depart on Dec. 6, is hoping to use the trip to promote stronger economic ties with China.
Canada-China relations have been frosty since Harper formed his first government in 2006, particularly because of his past comments on China's human rights record.
But the Harper government has backed off in the last year from publicly chiding China, opting instead for more quiet diplomacy.
Harper said over the weekend that much of the visit to China will be spent discussing ways to improve investment between the two countries.
"Obviously we'll want to emphasize we're both advocates of opening up markets and that always has to be a two-way street," he said from a Commonwealth conference in Trinidad and Tobago.
Amnesty International spokeswoman Lindsay Mossman expressed concern, however, that the government is no longer making human rights a priority.
"We are concerned that the Canadian government has made fewer and weaker statements on human rights in China than they were perhaps making a few years ago," she said.
Coalition concerned over softened stance
The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China issued a statement on Tuesday urging Harper to publicly push for improvement to China's human rights record.
"We need to see a mixture that includes closed-door diplomacy, but it is also vital to make public comments," Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, said at a press conference in Ottawa. Amnesty is one of the 10 organizations in the coalition.
Harper set the tone for a tough stance on China in 2006, first when Parliament unanimously adopted a motion giving honorary Canadian citizenship to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader that has been living in exile since China annexed the region in 1958.
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Harper in China: What issues should he raise?
Join the discussion.
Later in 2006 Harper also famously stated that he did not believe Canadians wanted him to sell out human rights beliefs "to the almighty dollar."
Chinese President Hu Jintao threatened to call off a meeting between the two leaders in Vietnam in 2006 after Harper criticized China over a case involving Huseyin Celil, a Canadian activist jailed in China for alleged terrorist links. Beijing continues to refuse to allow Canadian consular visits to Celil.
The coalition said Tuesday that thousands of Chinese, Uighur and Tibetan activists and human rights lawyers face arbitrary detention, harassment and imprisonment after unfair trials, and point out that China continues to carry out the death penalty, executing more people annually than the rest of the world's governments combined.
Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China said Harper's comments in 2006 "echoed around the world" but that his comments of late have been less encouraging. While Harper was one of the few world leaders who did not attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kwan said it wasn't clear the decision was a public criticism of China's rights policies.
Trade relations have suffered
Other observers, however, say Harper's tough stance has done little to improve relations with China.
Jeremy Paltiel, a visiting political science professor from Carleton University in Ottawa, said the consensus is that Canada has ignored China and done little to foster better relations, even as China's economy was growing.
Victor Gao, a Beijing-based expert on international relations, said Canada stands to gain from engagement with China.
"If Prime Minister Harper applies appropriate importance to the relations of our two countries, then Canadian exports to China is positioned to double, triple, or even quadruple in the coming five to 10 years," he said.
In 2008, Canada exported $10.3 billion worth of goods to China. Canada, however, imported four times that amount from China.
The human rights coalition said Tuesday that speaking out does not necessarily hurt economic relations.
The group said that in 1997, the year Canada abandoned public criticism of human rights violations in China, Canada had a share of 1.41 per cent of total imports to China. That share dropped to .97 per cent in 2006 and only recently has bounced back, coincidentally around the time Canada began to more openly criticize China's human rights record.
Harper said in advance of his trip that he would bring up China's human rights record.
The timing to address those issues is awkward, however, after recent accusations that Canada turned over prisoners to Afghan authorities for what was almost certain torture.
The story of diplomat Richard Colvin's testimony was carried in some Chinese newspapers, and was further complicated by the allegation that David Mulroney tried to muzzle Colvin's reports. Mulroney is Canada's current ambassador to China.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/12/01/harper-china-visit.html
Edwards: PM's Beijing trip — more hype than hope
Edwards: PM's Beijing trip — more hype than hope
Fred Edwards
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and China's President Hu Jintao chat at the APEC leaders summit in Singapore Nov. 15, 2009.
ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
Now that Stephen Harper is China bound, it is tempting to believe that this country's recently troubled relationship with the Middle Kingdom will revert to the coziness of the past.
That prospect may well be mistaken, and perhaps even undesirable.
First of all, is Canada well equipped to take advantage of warmer relations with China? A report earlier this year by professor Charles Burton of Brock University, who has twice served as a councillor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, suggests it is not.
Burton's report, A Reassessment of Canada's Interests in China and Options for Renewal of Canada's China Policy, was sharply critical of the competence of Canadian diplomatic personnel: "Our diplomats typically lack fluency in Chinese, and therefore lack the capacity to establish informal contacts with influential policy-makers in the Chinese system."
Instead, they engage China primarily through the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the "international offices" of other ministries. But these tend to be weak players in the Chinese power structure – senior Chinese Communists have been known to dismiss foreign affairs officials as mere "interpreters."
Burton's report called for wider engagement with influential Chinese decision-makers in the state council (cabinet), Communist party, and provincial and local governments. That's good advice, but following it will be difficult given Canada's relatively shallow talent pool of China experts.
Our government's failings have been mirrored in the business community. Canadian business leaders – Jim Balsillie of RIM is an example – have been critical of the Harper government's coolness toward China, but Canadian companies have not been particularly aggressive in the Chinese market. China accounts for only 6 per cent of Canada's merchandise trade and only 2 per cent of Canadian exports – almost 80 per cent of our exports go to the United States. The story is the same for investment: almost 44 per cent of Canada's international investments in 2007 were made in the United States and only 0.3 per cent in China.
Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada China Business Council, put her finger on the problem: "It's so easy to come back and export to the U.S," she said last month at a Fraser Institute function. "We really need to convince more Canadian firms to include China in their strategies while welcoming more Chinese investment to Canada."
Yet is that a realistic prospect given the continental integration of the North American economy? Can the Canadian business class, so accustomed to operating in a familiar milieu as low-dollar exporters, display the creativity and flexibility required to break into the highly competitive Chinese market?
Canada's economic orientation toward the United States raises another question, and that is whether Harper's government has the skill or even the desire to find manoeuvring room between Washington and Beijing. Liberal leaders Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin all sought to expand the focus of Canadian foreign policy beyond its traditional North Atlantic orientation. Chrétien, in particular, aggressively promoted Sino-Canadian trade and was bold enough to criticize America's "cowboy-style attitude" during the 2001 Hainan Island incident, when a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter collided off the coast of China.
After coming to power in 2006, Harper pointedly rejected the Liberals' emphasis on multilateralism and reinforced the Washington link by following the U.S. lead across a wide policy front.
From economic stimulus and the bailout of the North American auto industry to a future continental cap-and-carbon trading system and perhaps a continental approach to border security, Canada has looked to Washington for leadership. At the same time, some prominent Canadians are promoting a new bilateral trade deal with the United States that would exclude Mexico and bind the American and Canadian economies even closer together. The subject of currency union has been raised, as well as a common Canada-U.S. policy on Arctic territorial waters. The end result could well be that future Canadian prime ministers will find it much more difficult to balance Washington and Beijing the way Chrétien did.
And how can China be expected to view the Canadian-U.S. relationship? Canada's resource-based economy would seem a natural fit for China's burgeoning manufacturing sector but will Beijing be comfortable relying on a strong U.S. ally for strategic minerals or energy? Better to deal with outcasts like Sudan or Venezuela, or non-aligned states in Africa.
Finally, there is the troublesome issue of human rights. The onset of the Sino-Canadian chill can be dated to Ottawa's criticism of China's jailing of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen who belongs to China's Uighur Muslim minority, in the summer of 2006. Later that year, and referring explicitly to the Sino-Canadian relationship, Harper famously said: "I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that. But I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values. They don't want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar."
This was a refreshing change from the days when Chrétien had clowned around with Li Peng, one of the architects of the Tiananmen massacre. Now, however, Harper appears to have come around to the view that the dollar is almighty after all. Is this progress?
Perhaps the Prime Minister will surprise us in Beijing and articulate a balanced, constructive policy that offers realistic economic goals without losing sight of democratic values. More likely, though, we will have a photo-op that allows Harper to close the politically troublesome China file while leaving Canada both uncompetitive in the Chinese market and ever more silent on human rights and democracy.
Fred Edwards is a member of the Star's editorial board and a former editor at Beijing Review, a news magazine published by the Chinese government.
Fred Edwards
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and China's President Hu Jintao chat at the APEC leaders summit in Singapore Nov. 15, 2009.
ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
Now that Stephen Harper is China bound, it is tempting to believe that this country's recently troubled relationship with the Middle Kingdom will revert to the coziness of the past.
That prospect may well be mistaken, and perhaps even undesirable.
First of all, is Canada well equipped to take advantage of warmer relations with China? A report earlier this year by professor Charles Burton of Brock University, who has twice served as a councillor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, suggests it is not.
Burton's report, A Reassessment of Canada's Interests in China and Options for Renewal of Canada's China Policy, was sharply critical of the competence of Canadian diplomatic personnel: "Our diplomats typically lack fluency in Chinese, and therefore lack the capacity to establish informal contacts with influential policy-makers in the Chinese system."
Instead, they engage China primarily through the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the "international offices" of other ministries. But these tend to be weak players in the Chinese power structure – senior Chinese Communists have been known to dismiss foreign affairs officials as mere "interpreters."
Burton's report called for wider engagement with influential Chinese decision-makers in the state council (cabinet), Communist party, and provincial and local governments. That's good advice, but following it will be difficult given Canada's relatively shallow talent pool of China experts.
Our government's failings have been mirrored in the business community. Canadian business leaders – Jim Balsillie of RIM is an example – have been critical of the Harper government's coolness toward China, but Canadian companies have not been particularly aggressive in the Chinese market. China accounts for only 6 per cent of Canada's merchandise trade and only 2 per cent of Canadian exports – almost 80 per cent of our exports go to the United States. The story is the same for investment: almost 44 per cent of Canada's international investments in 2007 were made in the United States and only 0.3 per cent in China.
Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada China Business Council, put her finger on the problem: "It's so easy to come back and export to the U.S," she said last month at a Fraser Institute function. "We really need to convince more Canadian firms to include China in their strategies while welcoming more Chinese investment to Canada."
Yet is that a realistic prospect given the continental integration of the North American economy? Can the Canadian business class, so accustomed to operating in a familiar milieu as low-dollar exporters, display the creativity and flexibility required to break into the highly competitive Chinese market?
Canada's economic orientation toward the United States raises another question, and that is whether Harper's government has the skill or even the desire to find manoeuvring room between Washington and Beijing. Liberal leaders Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin all sought to expand the focus of Canadian foreign policy beyond its traditional North Atlantic orientation. Chrétien, in particular, aggressively promoted Sino-Canadian trade and was bold enough to criticize America's "cowboy-style attitude" during the 2001 Hainan Island incident, when a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter collided off the coast of China.
After coming to power in 2006, Harper pointedly rejected the Liberals' emphasis on multilateralism and reinforced the Washington link by following the U.S. lead across a wide policy front.
From economic stimulus and the bailout of the North American auto industry to a future continental cap-and-carbon trading system and perhaps a continental approach to border security, Canada has looked to Washington for leadership. At the same time, some prominent Canadians are promoting a new bilateral trade deal with the United States that would exclude Mexico and bind the American and Canadian economies even closer together. The subject of currency union has been raised, as well as a common Canada-U.S. policy on Arctic territorial waters. The end result could well be that future Canadian prime ministers will find it much more difficult to balance Washington and Beijing the way Chrétien did.
And how can China be expected to view the Canadian-U.S. relationship? Canada's resource-based economy would seem a natural fit for China's burgeoning manufacturing sector but will Beijing be comfortable relying on a strong U.S. ally for strategic minerals or energy? Better to deal with outcasts like Sudan or Venezuela, or non-aligned states in Africa.
Finally, there is the troublesome issue of human rights. The onset of the Sino-Canadian chill can be dated to Ottawa's criticism of China's jailing of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen who belongs to China's Uighur Muslim minority, in the summer of 2006. Later that year, and referring explicitly to the Sino-Canadian relationship, Harper famously said: "I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that. But I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values. They don't want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar."
This was a refreshing change from the days when Chrétien had clowned around with Li Peng, one of the architects of the Tiananmen massacre. Now, however, Harper appears to have come around to the view that the dollar is almighty after all. Is this progress?
Perhaps the Prime Minister will surprise us in Beijing and articulate a balanced, constructive policy that offers realistic economic goals without losing sight of democratic values. More likely, though, we will have a photo-op that allows Harper to close the politically troublesome China file while leaving Canada both uncompetitive in the Chinese market and ever more silent on human rights and democracy.
Fred Edwards is a member of the Star's editorial board and a former editor at Beijing Review, a news magazine published by the Chinese government.
Parliamentary Group Urges PM to Talk Human Rights on China trip
Parliamentary Group Urges PM to Talk Human Rights on China trip
Parliamentarians’ letter to Harper seeks release of prisoners with Canadian ties
By Cindy Chan
Epoch Times Dec 1, 2009Last Updated: Dec 1, 2009
OTTAWA—As Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to China on Tuesday, the recently formed Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong (PFOFG) is asking him to raise the issue of human rights and specifically the Falun Gong persecution with Chinese authorities.
“We urge you on your upcoming China trip to ask your Chinese counterparts about their commitment to human rights and religious freedom. We also urge you to specifically raise the situation of Falun Gong practitioners in China and to call for the release of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and an end to their persecution,” said the PFOFG letter.
“We think that the least the prime minister can do is raise that as one of the concerns that Canadians have in our relationship with China,” said MP Bill Siksay, chair of the PFOFG.
Mr. Siksay along with vice-chairs MPs Stephen Woodworth and Borys Wrzesnewskyj signed the letter to Mr. Harper on behalf of the 20-member group comprising senators and MPs from all parties represented in Parliament.
The letter noted United Nations reports’ findings that 66 percent of alleged torture victims in China were Falun Gong practitioners and that “reports of arrest, detention, ill-treatment, torture, sexual violence, deaths, and unfair trial of Falun Gong practitioners, are increasing.”
Mr. Siksay said the group hopes Mr. Harper will raise specific cases such as 14 Falun Gong prisoners of conscience who have close relatives in Canada. The letter attached a list of their names. Some have been sentenced to terms of 12 years.
The group’s concerns reflect the severity and extent of the persecution against Falun Gong as documented by the U.N., government bodies, human rights groups, and independent investigators worldwide.
Prominent among them is a Canadian report documenting evidence that the Chinese regime has killed tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners to extract organs for lucrative transplant surgeries.
“Bloody Harvest” was co-authored by Order of Canada international human rights lawyer David Matas, and former crown prosecutor and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour.
Noting that “[China] persecutes the Falun Gong more than any other group,” Mr. Matas and Mr. Kilgour wrote: “Unravel the repression against the Falun Gong and all other victim groups will benefit.”
MP Keith Martin, a PFOFG member, also wrote to Mr. Harper asking him to request the release of the 14 imprisoned practitioners as well as an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and human rights activists.
On Tuesday morning the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China will hold a press conference on Parliament Hill to urge Mr. Harper to put human rights as a priority during his trip.
Speakers will include Alex Neve, Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada, English Branch; Cheuk Kwan, Chair, Toronto Association for Democracy in China; and Tenzin Wangkhang, National Director, Students for a Free Tibet (Canada).
They will share trade statistics that counter the argument that raising human rights impairs trade, according to a news release.
Other coalition groups include Uyghur Canadian Society, Canada Tibet Committee, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Canadian Labour Congress, Falun Dafa Association of Canada, PEN Canada, Rights & Democracy, ARC International, Federation for a Democratic China, and Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement in China.
The groups and supporters will also hold a rally on the hill.
The coalition has submitted to Mr. Harper’s office a list of names of 11 political prisoners.
At a Monday briefing by senior government officials on the prime minister’s China visit, journalists also raised the issue of Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur-Canadian serving life imprisonment in China.
Mr. Celil, an advocate of the rights of Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, was arrested in Uzbekistan while visiting family in March 2006 and deported to China.
In 2006 and 2007 Mr. Harper had made Mr. Celil’s case a key issue in talks with the Chinese.
Parliamentarians’ letter to Harper seeks release of prisoners with Canadian ties
By Cindy Chan
Epoch Times Dec 1, 2009Last Updated: Dec 1, 2009
OTTAWA—As Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to China on Tuesday, the recently formed Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong (PFOFG) is asking him to raise the issue of human rights and specifically the Falun Gong persecution with Chinese authorities.
“We urge you on your upcoming China trip to ask your Chinese counterparts about their commitment to human rights and religious freedom. We also urge you to specifically raise the situation of Falun Gong practitioners in China and to call for the release of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and an end to their persecution,” said the PFOFG letter.
“We think that the least the prime minister can do is raise that as one of the concerns that Canadians have in our relationship with China,” said MP Bill Siksay, chair of the PFOFG.
Mr. Siksay along with vice-chairs MPs Stephen Woodworth and Borys Wrzesnewskyj signed the letter to Mr. Harper on behalf of the 20-member group comprising senators and MPs from all parties represented in Parliament.
The letter noted United Nations reports’ findings that 66 percent of alleged torture victims in China were Falun Gong practitioners and that “reports of arrest, detention, ill-treatment, torture, sexual violence, deaths, and unfair trial of Falun Gong practitioners, are increasing.”
Mr. Siksay said the group hopes Mr. Harper will raise specific cases such as 14 Falun Gong prisoners of conscience who have close relatives in Canada. The letter attached a list of their names. Some have been sentenced to terms of 12 years.
The group’s concerns reflect the severity and extent of the persecution against Falun Gong as documented by the U.N., government bodies, human rights groups, and independent investigators worldwide.
Prominent among them is a Canadian report documenting evidence that the Chinese regime has killed tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners to extract organs for lucrative transplant surgeries.
“Bloody Harvest” was co-authored by Order of Canada international human rights lawyer David Matas, and former crown prosecutor and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour.
Noting that “[China] persecutes the Falun Gong more than any other group,” Mr. Matas and Mr. Kilgour wrote: “Unravel the repression against the Falun Gong and all other victim groups will benefit.”
MP Keith Martin, a PFOFG member, also wrote to Mr. Harper asking him to request the release of the 14 imprisoned practitioners as well as an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and human rights activists.
On Tuesday morning the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China will hold a press conference on Parliament Hill to urge Mr. Harper to put human rights as a priority during his trip.
Speakers will include Alex Neve, Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada, English Branch; Cheuk Kwan, Chair, Toronto Association for Democracy in China; and Tenzin Wangkhang, National Director, Students for a Free Tibet (Canada).
They will share trade statistics that counter the argument that raising human rights impairs trade, according to a news release.
Other coalition groups include Uyghur Canadian Society, Canada Tibet Committee, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Canadian Labour Congress, Falun Dafa Association of Canada, PEN Canada, Rights & Democracy, ARC International, Federation for a Democratic China, and Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement in China.
The groups and supporters will also hold a rally on the hill.
The coalition has submitted to Mr. Harper’s office a list of names of 11 political prisoners.
At a Monday briefing by senior government officials on the prime minister’s China visit, journalists also raised the issue of Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur-Canadian serving life imprisonment in China.
Mr. Celil, an advocate of the rights of Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, was arrested in Uzbekistan while visiting family in March 2006 and deported to China.
In 2006 and 2007 Mr. Harper had made Mr. Celil’s case a key issue in talks with the Chinese.
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