Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada’s new and improved relationship with China allows him to have it both ways: he was able to bolster economic links with Canada’s second-largest trading partner on the same day that he nudged Beijing about its human-rights record.
Mr. Harper and Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday oversaw the signing of a statement of intent to bolster protection for Canadians investing in China. The two sides now have a draft Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement – after 18 years of negotiations – that Mr. Harper says will make a “practical difference” to Canadians doing business in this often-capricious market.
“We have for the first time a comprehensive economic agreement with China,” Mr. Harper told a news conference here. Details of the deal won’t be made public until legal reviews are carried out in both countries, but Trade Minister Ed Fast said it would include a dispute-resolution mechanism that would provide third-party judgments in cases where an investor from one country feels unfairly treated in the other.
Mr. Harper, according to Bloomberg News, also urged his Chinese counterpart to approve proposed investments by Manulife Financial Corp. and Bank of Nova Scotia.
The tentative investment deal was signed at the end of an hour-long meeting in the Great Hall of the People, during which Canadian officials say Mr. Harper spoke to Mr. Wen about Beijing’s problematic human-rights record. He also raised Canada’s disappointment over China’s move to support Russia in vetoing a proposed UN Security Council resolution censuring the Syrian government over its bloody crackdown of an uprising there.
“I raised in very clear and strong terms Canada’s position on this issue,” Mr. Harper said. “We would hope to see in the future action from the Security Council on this matter.”
Critics say Mr. Harper – who once promised to put “Canadian values” ahead of the “almighty dollar” in relations with China – has since quieted his condemnations of Beijing as the economic relationship has expanded.
The Prime Minister said Wednesday that rather than a change in the Canadian approach, it’s the Chinese side that has “gotten more comfortable” with him and his government. The two sides are now able to hold “pretty frank discussions on issues where we do not agree,” he said.
If the body language was any indication, Mr. Harper and his entourage thought they were having a good day. The Prime Minister chatted and joked with Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird throughout the signing ceremony held on the edge of Tiananmen Square, while Mr. Wen – standing to Mr. Harper’s immediate left – silently stared straight ahead.
Those inside the room when Mr. Harper and Mr. Wen had their tête-à-tête said the mood was warmer than during Mr. Harper’s only previous trip to Beijing, in December, 2009. Then, Mr. Wen rebuked Mr. Harper for not having visited during his first three years in office, a time when relations between Ottawa and Beijing fell to their coldest point in more than a decade as a newly elected Mr. Harper irked the Communist Party leadership by making the Dalai Lama an honorary Canadian citizen and staying away from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
A Canadian official who attended the meeting said that Mr. Harper spent only half of the session with Mr. Wen discussing trade-related issues. The other half, the official said, broached China’s human-rights record and the case of Husseyin Celil, a Canadian of Uighur descent who was arrested while travelling in Uzbekistan six years ago and deported to China where he was wanted on charges of “terrorism.” Despite his dual Chinese and Canadian citizenship, Canadian consular officials have never been granted access to him.
