Dharamsala, December 2 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has arrived in China for a four-day visit that Chinese analysts describe as a “fence-mending trip to repair ties damaged by Ottawa.”
The Canada Tibet Committee (CTC) has made an appeal yesterday to the Prime Minister “to look beyond the gloom and doom scenarios painted by Canadian business leaders regarding Canada’s trading relationship with China.”
CTC executive director Dermod Travis said Prime Minister Harper has no reason to shy away from a frank exchange with Chinese leaders over China’s dismal human rights record because of trade. “When it comes to waving trade as a stick, the record shows that China is all bluster and no bite.”
Relations between Canada and China have soured over a series of disagreements – especially since Harper’s Conservative government took office nearly four years ago with a harder line on China’s human rights record. The trip, which is Harper’s first to China, analysts say, is aimed at overcoming negative sentiment on both sides.
Harper will meet with both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao for discussions on strengthening trade and overall ties.
Harper has also been criticized by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien for being one of a handful of leaders from major trading partners who skipped the opening ceremonies of last year’s Beijing Olympics.
China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States, with bilateral trade rising from $23 billion in 2006 to about $35 billion in 2008, according to statistics from China’s Customs Administration.
