By Lee Berthiaume
A Conservative senator and several opposition members have dismissed suggestions that Canada-China business relations will suffer if Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with the Dalai Lama next week.
“The Chinese are going to huff and puff as they usually do, and that’s fine, we understand that,” Conservative Senator Consiglio Di Nino, co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, said Monday during a press conference in which he confirmed Mr. Harper will meet the Tibetan spiritual leader.
“It’s not going to impact on business,” Mr. Di Nino said. “China does business with Canada because it benefits China; Canada does business with China because it benefits Canada.”
The Dalai Lama is scheduled to arrive in Ottawa this Sunday and, under the pretext of celebrating the honourary Canadian citizenship he was bestowed with last year, will spend three days in the capital and Toronto.
The 72-year-old Buddhist leader, who has been criss-crossing the globe drumming up support for Tibetan autonomy as China prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, will make a number of public appearances, including at Ottawa’s Civic Centre and Toronto’s Rogers Centre before departing Oct. 30.
Mr. Di Nino, flanked by Conservative MP David Sweet, Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, and Bloc Québécois MP Diane Bourgeois, said Monday the Prime Minister’s Office had confirmed a meeting between Mr. Harper and the Dalai Lama. He said final details have not been ironed out.
While former prime minister Paul Martin met with the monk in 2004, it was a private meeting not open to the public. Jean Chrétien refused to meet with the spiritual leader at all for fear of hurting bilateral relations.
Last year, fearing damage to Canada-China trade and investment relations, both the business community and Liberal Party criticized the Conservatives when Mr. Harper and then-foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay slammed China for the state of its democracy and human rights, and accused the country of spying on Canada.
In an interview with Embassy two weeks ago, Chinese Ambassador Lu Shumin said relations between the two countries had improved over the past year following a rocky start when the Conservatives took power in January 2006.
However, he said the Chinese government is strongly opposed to a meeting between Mr. Harper and Dalai Lama. When asked if such a meeting would hurt relations, he replied: “It certainly doesn’t help the relationship.”
Mr. Di Nino said Mr. Harper would not shy away from a public meeting.
“This prime minister has taken a very principled stand on this issue,” he said.
According to Mr. Di Nino, opposition MPs in attendance on Monday and as many as four dozens others from all four main parties, supported the meeting despite the warning that it will only serve to strain relations further.
“I think it goes with our party’s philosophy that in general circumstances, while you’re doing business and you have a connection inside the country, then you can fight for human rights,” Mr. Bagnell said.
“Commerce will continue because we are a market, because China is a market,” Ms. Bourgeois agreed.
Mr. Di Nino noted that the Dalai Lama has met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President George W. Bush in recent weeks, and that the majority of Western countries have extended a welcoming hand to the Dalai Lama
“They can’t stop doing business with the world,” Mr. Di Nino said.
lee@embassymag.ca
