China’s FM visits Canada this week, major breakthrough in relation
Yang Jiechi met with Canadian FM Lawrence Cannon in May 2009 in Beijing.
CIV – There are finally signs that China is responding to recent efforts of the Canadian government to thaw the frozen bilateral relationship since the Tories took office in 2006.
China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) will be in Ottawa on Sunday (June 21, 2009) meeting with Canadian officials to hammer out a plan for PM Stephen Harper to visit China in the fall.
Former Chinese ambassador to Canada Mei Ping (梅平), a man China counts on to understand Canada, has been working for months to finding ways to break the ice between the Conservative government and China.
| READ ALSO: |
Mei talked to the media last Wednesday about the “secondary channel” of diplomacy he’s been combing since last September. Ever since Harper formed the minority government, not only has the long, prosperous relationship between China and Canada dropped to an all-time low, but it has remained low for a prolonged period of time. The Chinese Canadian community has been deeply worried about this. Harper was asked about his China policy during the election campaign in last October.
Mei disclosed that he was in Canada in September and October and met with Canadian businesses, think tanks, research organizations, the media and opposition parties. He has been shuttling between eight cities. His mission was to look for answers why China-Canada relationship could deteriorate to such a low point and to seek solutions.
According to Mei’s analysis, the major problems include:
- Harper and his team have been in the opposition for too long that they aren’t familiar with real governing;
- The fact that the Harper government was a minority, his goal then was to win a majority. Hence, his focus has been on domestic issues, not foreign affairs;
- Canadian businesses told Mei that Harper then was only interested in dealing with two countries: USA and France;
- Harper tried to be looked strong on issues like human rights and Tibet.
According to Mei, the world has changed much after the economic meltdown. Western countries under the leadership of the United States have been very keen in making good relationship with China. Harper finally realized the importance for the Canadian economy to maintain a good relationship with China. The icy bilateral relationship has hurt trades between China and Canada. Canada used to be China’s No.9 or No.10 top trading partner between Harper became PM, in 2007 Canada’s rank fell to No. 11 and it fell further to No. 12 in 2008.
A Chinese diplomatic group led by Mei Ping is in Canada till June 25 visiting various cities including Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary. The group arrived in Toronto last Wednesday and began their diplomatic activities right away. They met with business organizations, The Globe and Mail, as well as Harper’s consultant on foreign affairs.
Other members of the diplomatic group include former Chinese consul generals to Toronto Chen Wenzhao (陳文照) and Zhou Xingbao (周興寶).
On the other hand, the health ministers of China and Canada signed a “Plan of Action” last week in Ottawa. They promised to work together on issues such as the H1N1 swine flu and safety of TCM.
Tags: Canada-China, diplomacyRelated posts
Short URL: http://www.chineseinvancouver.ca/?p=9708
i don’t think there is any breakthru the prc just wants to buy cdn resource companies to divest themselves of US dollars. harper does not want to warm up to china nor does he know how to nor does he care to learn how to. there is not a single person in the conservative cabinet who understands china or how to deal with china in terms of building closer relationships
if a thing is worth doing,it is worth doing well.harper is not stupid.his minority government presided over one of the worst economic declines in canada history.if there is a very good chance for canada to tide over the worst of the recession by the improvement of diplomatic relations between the two countries,there is no earthly reason why the conservative cabinet shouldn’t work out.i hope to see everything is developing to the good direction in terms of close cooperation between china and canada.
lw, you’re ABSOLUTELY right that the harper government has no one who knows how to build a better canada-china relationship. and you’re damn right too that harper does not want to warm up but rather forced to by the canadian businessees. i don’t care about intention, at least it’s good to see them doing some facial thing
hehe,to throw a spat in order to catch a herring ( i mean 抛砖引玉:))
it is a common sense that common people like me only care the results more than the means or intentions.this is so-called all that ends well is well.if harper has a good brain,he should know that currently he has no choice but to prevent canadian economy from plunging deeper into the recession or to manage to buck the trend of the recession.he must do as he can to strengthen his position, poor guy!