The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on November 16 that China will resume bilateral meetings with Canada, after canceling the meeting between Head of the State Hu Jintao and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which was scheduled to be held during the annual APEC conference. China had initially proposed the meeting.
Experts say the Chinese regime's concession represents a major breakthrough for Harper's principled diplomatic policy. The Harper government may set an example of confronting the Chinese evasion of human rights issues in international relations. Since 1989, the Chinese regime has effectively eased international pressure on human rights by insisting on discussing human rights behind closed doors with individual countries.
Sources say that Harper has been briefed on the issue of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, as well as on a number of other issues regarding human rights.
China Fears Exposure of Human Rights Record
According to the Globe and Mail, it was China that proposed the bilateral meeting with Canada. The paper quoted the Prime Minister's spokesperson Sandra Buckler, who said late on November 14 that "China approached us about a meeting. We said yes. We have since learned that the meeting offer has now been declined."
An analyst close to the situation said the main reason China cancelled the meeting is fear that Prime Minster Harper will bring up the issue of human rights, which may involve Falun Gong and may include discussion of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. Organ harvesting in China has recently aroused considerable attention in Canada.
Regardless of whether Harper plans to mention organ harvesting, analysts believe that the Communist regime is particularly concerned about further exposure of the issue. This fear may have led to China's cancellation of the meeting between Hu and Harper.
Analysts further believe that Harper's persistence in raising human rights made Beijing realize that the Chinese regime's snub may make Canada even more persistent. If the incident becomes enlarged on the international scene, the issue of organ harvesting may receive even more attention. In the end the Chinese side realized it had to resume the meeting.
Whether Harper will formally bring up Falun Gong and organ harvesting when he meets with Hu has yet to be confirmed by the Canadian government.
Evading International Pressure
After the bloody suppression of the student movement on June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adopted a strategy of discussing human rights issues only with individual countries in private meetings in order to evade public criticism and sanctions by Western democratic countries. Each year China allows Western countries to make comments behind closed doors, and this method has been used to alleviate international pressures on China's human rights violations.
As for the comments that have been made, the Chinese regime has never taken them seriously and made real improvements. Year after year China has shirked off international criticisms using this method. Some Western countries know clearly the CCP's strategy, but they play the game anyway. By doing so they attempt to placate their own citizens who condemn the Chinese regime's human rights violations. Take as examples, the human rights violations of those who appeal for the correction of injustices and the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and underground Christians. Western nations protest to Beijing each year, but the abuses continue.
Shi Cangshan, a China expert in Washington D.C., comments that Chinese regime's concession in meeting with Canada represents a welcome victory of principled diplomacy in Western society. This may set an example of the international community openly criticizing China's human rights violations.
Not Selling Out
Since the Conservative Party took office in Canada early this January, the Harper administration has persistently maintained certain moral principles in its conduct of foreign relations. In its policy toward China, the Canadian government has consistently criticized China's human rights record.
Upon hearing China had cancelled the meeting, Harper said, "I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that, but I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values—our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights," Harper continued, "They don't want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar."
As China resumed the meeting with Canada, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a warning: "We oppose any foreign country using human rights as an excuse to make irresponsible remarks on China's internal affairs."
Harper said recently, "We are going to be very frank about those things [which include human rights] and we will not accept any conditions on having discussions."
Greater Concern for Rights
The Harper government's expressions of concern over Chinese human rights issues in the past months have far surpassed those of the previous Liberal Party administration. In September of this year, the Canadian Parliament passed unanimously a decision to give the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan exile government, the status of honorary citizen, despite the CCP's protest that this will hurt trade relations between the two countries.
In addition to this incident involving the Dalai Lama, Beijing is also very annoyed at the fact that numerous parliament members have openly criticized the Chinese regime's persecution of Falun Gong and supported Falun Gong practitioners appeals for human rights.
In May of this year, when the Canadian independent investigators David Matas and David Kilgour started their investigation of the CCP's organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, Rahim Jaffer, chair of the Conservative caucus, attended and spoke to show his support at the news conference of the investigation—a news conference held inside the Canadian Parliament building.
According to a staff member of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), some Canadian parliament members volunteered to join the coalition. They hoped their action would help bring to a stop the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong, so that those guilty of crimes against humanity will be punished soon.
Two high profile Chinese defectors—the former diplomat Chen Yonglin and the former police officer Hao Fengjun—have said that the CCP has installed over a thousand spies in Canada. The Canadian media reported an investigation done by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that confirms the existence of many spies, some of whom are engaged in stealing advanced technology from Canada. Peter Mackay, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has also publicly condemned China's spying.
Recently, Canada refused the visa renewal application of Wang Pengfei, the assistant secretary of the education department at the Chinese Embassy in Canada. Wang was forced to return to China on October 25. Sources reveal that the rejection of Wang's visa renewal had to do with his acting as a spy rather than a diplomat—collecting information on Falun Gong practitioners and other illegal activities related to opposing Falun Gong in Canada.
China Needs Canadian Trade
According to trade data from the Canadian Statistical Bureau, Canada's trade deficit with China increased from $1.2 billion in 1995 to $22.4 billion in 2005, a more than 18 fold increase in 10 years.
Although China is Canada's second largest trade partner, the most important country for Canadian trade is the U.S. Of the total Canadian exports, exports to China account for only 1.6 percent, including mainly forest products and raw metals.
Experts say that maintaining a good bilateral relationship is more important for China. China not only sells large amounts of products to Canada, but Canada's rich mineral resources can also help meet China's critical needs. Therefore, for economic reasons, China must not damage its relationship with Canada casually.
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