By Mike Blanchfield
Thubten Samdup always knew it would be tough to persuade former prime minister Jean Chretien to challenge China on its dubious human rights record in Tibet.
“With Jean Chretien’s administration it was very difficult,” says Mr. Samdup, president of the Canada Tibet Committee. “No matter how hard we tried, people said, ‘you know what, Chretien is so connected with his family business interests, with the Desmarais and all of them, when it comes to China, you have no hope.’ ”
And while Prime Minister Paul Martin will meet the Dalai Lama this week, they will discuss religion, not politics.
Still, Mr. Samdup, who for the past decade has campaigned tirelessly to put human rights on the Liberals’ political agenda with China, is hopeful their discussion will go beyond the stated purpose.
Amnesty International urged Mr. Martin in a letter last month to make a “public statement of your concern about the violation of basic human rights in China, including Tibet.” Amnesty told Mr. Martin this includes the “cruel, inhuman and degrading” detention of about 100 Buddhist monks and nuns, who have also been subjected to torture.
But human rights advocates still have a steep climb when it comes to China, Canada’s third-largest trading partner, and a country where 400 Canadian companies are currently doing business. Mr. Martin’s business connections to China — and those of the Liberal government — run as deep as Mr. Chretien’s.
“The degree to which you speak out about human rights is directly proportional to the economic links. It’s an inverse relationship. You speak out more forcefully when there are less economic relations. When there are more economic relations, you downplay it,” says John Tackaberry, spokesman for Amnesty International Canada.
In the decade since Mr. Chretien began his vigorous attempt to cultivate new Canadian business opportunities with China, trade — not human rights — has been the signature of Liberal government relations with the world’s fastest growing economy.
Canada’s economic links with China are entrenched in the formidable Quebec-based Power Corp. of Canada, a company to which both Mr. Chretien and Mr. Martin have strong ties.
Mr. Chretien’s daughter, France, is married to Power’s chief executive officer, Andre Desmarais. Mr. Chretien’s first act as a private citizen was to visit China earlier this year, less than two months after stepping down as prime minister, with an entourage of Power executives.
Mr. Martin began his legendary business career at Power in the 1960s working for Maurice Strong, the company’s president. Power’s patriarch, Paul Desmarais, eventually gave Mr. Martin the presidency of its subsidiary, Canada Steamship Lines, which Mr. Martin purchased, making his fortune.
Four years ago, Canadian Steamship Lines International, a subsidiary of the Martin-owned CSL, entered into a deal with Shanghai-based Jiangnan Shipyard to build two bulk cargo vessels at $45 million per ship.
Mr. Martin must also take notice of the influential Canada China Business Council, a powerful organization that represents 232 corporations in their bid to boost business between the two countries.
Power Corp. was one of the council’s founding members in the late 1970s, along with some of Canada’s most powerful business entities.
These include: Bombardier Inc., Nortel Networks Corp., Sun Life Financial, Manulife Financial, BMO Bank of Montreal and Barrick Gold Corp. Mr. Strong, a Martin confidant, is listed as an “honorary director” of the council.
Several of the donors to Mr. Martin’s leadership campaign are members of the Canada China Business Council, including Bombardier and Sun Life. Another key Martin donor and business council member is the law firm of McCarthy Tetrault, which contributed $149,000 in “in-kind” donations to Mr. Martin’s leadership campaign.
Those in-kind services consisted of paying the salary of lawyer Tim Murphy, a key Martin leadership strategist, who is now the prime minister’s chief of staff.
Bombardier and Power Corp. are partners in a massive project with China National Railway to deliver 300 inter-city rail cars to China. The two companies have invested $110 million to build a manufacturing plant, while Bombardier could earn $550 million if China opts for 200 additional cars.
The Crown corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., is also among the council’s founding members. AECL has sold $4 billion worth of nuclear reactors to China and wants to sell more.
Canada wants to double the $20-billion worth of annual trade it conducts with China by 2010, a commitment Mr. Chretien wrung out of Beijing on his last official visit to China in October — his sixth trip in 10 years as prime minister.
Beijing didn’t have to make direct reference to these economic realities last week when it told Mr. Martin how disappointed it was over his “mistake” to meet the Dalai Lama — something no other sitting Canadian prime minister has done.
“We hope the Canadian government will act from the overall interests of Sino-Canadian relations, rectify its mistake and cancel the visit,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told reporters at a briefing in Beijing last week.
With so much commerce at stake, the Canada China Business Council doesn’t appear to want to rock the boat. While the Chinese government is screaming at Mr. Martin to snub the Dalai Lama, the council’s silence on this topic is deafening.
“The council doesn’t comment on this,” said Eldwin Thay, the council’s director of membership services.
Why?
“It just doesn’t.”
Amnesty International has much to say on the topic. In a March 17 letter, Amnesty’s Canadian secretary general, Alex Neve, urged Mr. Martin to meet with the Dalai Lama to raise the cause of human rights in Tibet. (Mr. Martin agreed to meet the Dalai Lama one month later after the Chinese government told him not to.)
When the Dalai Lama arrived in Vancouver last weekend, he said he wouldn’t be the first one to raise human rights in his meeting with the prime minister — but he’d be happy to discuss it if Mr. Martin brings it up first.
Despite the decade of China courting by the Chretien government, Mr. Samdup, of the Canada Tibet Committee, says he still has faith that Mr. Martin will rise to the occasion and have a frank discussion about human rights with the Dalai Lama.
A truly powerful voice: 9,000 tickets for lecture already sold out.
