Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cordial meeting with the Dalai Lama last October left the Chinese embassy in Ottawa fizzing with irritation.
But now David Emerson, Canada’s trade minister, is in Beijing on a five-day trade mission that will also take him to Mongolia and Hong Kong. China’s bluster seems to have melted away.
In fact, Emerson had some interesting figures to report: Canadian exports to China are rising sharply – by 27 per cent according to new preliminary figures. Canada has a trade deficit with China, as does every country: In 2006 we sold about $7.66 billion worth of goods and services to China – wood pulp, chemicals, nickel, ores and machinery, mainly – but imported four-and-a-half times as much.
Look again at that list of our exports. China isn’t importing any of that for pleasure; these are materials that China’s fast-developing economy needs. A spat with Canada over the Dalai Lama reflects the sterile politics of a repressive one-party state, while the trade growth reveals something quite different – a dynamic and bustling economy. Trade, unlike the government’s rhetoric, is not fully controlled from the centre, and so better reflects reality.
Emerson says that he has heard no threats about commercial repercussions from the Dalai Lama’s visit. “I do not believe that it will fundamentally derail the relationship.”
One meeting of a working group on bilateral relations was cancelled by China after the Dalai Lama visited, but on the other hand Emerson took part in Beijing in the formal opening of a new commercial annex at the Canadian embassy. Agreements on tourism and air transport remain hung up, but they were stalled before the Dalai Lama’s visit. Emerson says he hopes for progress on those matters, too.
Meanwhile last week Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen imprisoned in China for life after a shoddy “trial” on terrorism charges in 2006, was allowed to see his sister Meryem. Nobody can say what this means but it’s pretty clearly not a sign of Chinese intransigence.
China’s campaign to portray the Dalai Lama as an outlaw to be kept in political isolation has failed. Angela Merkel of Germany and George W. Bush also met him last fall; he is respected, even revered, around the world.
Chinese claims that that the Dalai Lama is the front man for “the separatist Tibet independence forces” was a clear signal to the government of Canada, a place where “separatist” is a word full of meaning. But Harper, to his credit, rejected China’s claim, and declared that he would not turn his back on human rights for the sake of the “almighty dollar.”
That was posturing. The real Canadian position is, or should be, that there is no either-or choice here. Canada can and should speak plainly and loudly about human rights matters, but can also leave companies free to pursue contracts.
Slowly, we believe, the Chinese government will come to see that respect for rights and eagerness to trade do not have to be mutually exclusive.
