Ben O’Hara-Byrne,
BEIJING — Canada and China have agreed to “engage” over the often thorny issue of human rights, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Tuesday.
The agreement came following a day of meetings between Cannon and Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing on Monday.
“What’s important here is that both parties have decided to look at these issues as we move forward” Cannon said “so our people will engage with officials in the Chinese government in the very near future”
The Conservatives suspended the formal human rights talks between the two countries in 2006 after heavily criticizing the former Liberal government’s centrepiece of policy engagement with China as being ineffective.
But Mr. Cannon insists this is not a resurrection of the Liberal program launched in 1997.
“I don’t like using the word human rights dialogue” he said “I want to propose a mechanism whereby everybody will feel comfortable as we move forward.”
The agreement comes as the Conservatives push to improve strained relations with the rising global powerhouse.
China was none too pleased with Canada’s overt criticism of its record on human rights and Tibet, culminating in the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s absence at the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics.
But this spring has seen a sudden spurt in ministerial visits with Mr. Cannon’s four-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai coming one month after International Trade Minister Stockwell Day spent a full week in China.
Mr. Cannon acknowledged the rocky relationship his government has had with China during a speech Tuesday at Beijing’s Foreign Affairs University.
“Canada and China have a long-standing relationship and, as is bound to happen with every long-term relationship, it has gone through ups and downs” Mr. Cannon told a roomful of students, adding that Canada is committed to a “frank, friendly and forward-looking relationship.”
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae was brought into the room shortly after Mr. Cannon began his speech. Rae told reporters he was pleased with the message Mr. Cannon came to deliver.
“It’s a coming to maturity of the Harper government” he said “I think frankly things will improve as result of what we’ve seen in the past several months”
The prime minister once said he wouldn’t sacrifice Canada’s values for the almighty dollar, but when asked by Chinese reporters about the change in his government’s approach to China, Mr. Cannon said it in fact grew out of recent a meeting about money between Mr. Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao
“They sat down at a meeting a few months ago to discuss the world economic crisis and the challenges that lay ahead and I got the distinct feeling from the leadership that meeting went off very well’
Mr. Cannon also expressed Canada’s sympathies for the victims and survivors of the Sichuan earthquake.
“Remembering last year’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan, I also expressed my deepest sympathy to the Chinese people on behalf of all Canadians. ”
Mr. Cannon said Canadians were the second largest contributor to the response effort handing over $72-million in humanitarian assistance.
The Chinese government extended an invitation to Mr. Harper to visit China for the first time since he came to power more than three years ago. He is expected to be in the region for the annual APEC summit in Singapore this November.
