On Harper and China: What Exactly Is Wrong With Raising Human Rights?

The opposition attacks on Prime Minister Harper's China stance should be levelled at the repressers, say activists

By Matthew Little
Epoch Times Parliament Hill Reporter
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, visit with students at the Canadian International School of Beijing. (PMO photo by Jill Propp)

OTTAWA— Chinese leader Wen Jiabao's public scolding of the Canadian prime minister this week was a rarely seen diplomatic breach. But it was the reaction from some Canadian media and opposition politicians that has irked Chinese rights defenders, as well as a source in the prime minister's office who spoke with The Epoch Times.

The admonition is now famous. At an official welcoming for the Canadian leader in Beijing on Thursday, Wen introduced Stephen Harper by saying he had waited too long to come to China and that he deserved the reams of criticism he'd received in the Chinese state-run press for his apparent neglect.

Within hours, Canadian pundits and opposition politicians lined up to blame the prime minister for the incident, and for having upset the Chinese rulers by raising human rights concerns publicly since taking office in 2006.

Fewer seemed to mind Mr. Wen's conduct.

"I think that does Canada no good and does not reinforce our relationship with China when you kowtow to China and don't back your prime minister up,” says Chuck Kwan, chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.

"We are not only not backing our own leaders, we are tearing our own leaders down and propping up China. I find that very disgusting.”

Kwan believes the criticisms had less to do with perceived faults in Mr. Harper's policy and more with opportunism.

“Obviously those with commercial interests have their own special agenda; they would rather we do not talk at all about human rights and just concentrate on trade. Our [opposition] politicians of course are making partisan attacks on Harper without any basis on our national interest. So I am very concerned about the fact that we seem to be kowtowing too much to China.”

Mr. Harper's government was seen as having cooled relations with the Chinese regime when it raised concerns about the regime's human-rights abuses in 2006, including the case of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen imprisoned in China on charges that human rights groups say are suspect.

A source in the Prime Minister's Office who spoke with The Epoch Times Friday evening railed against the criticisms from opposition politicians, who called Mr. Harper among other things “ignorant” for his approach to China.

“What exactly are they opposing? Do they oppose a principled stance on human rights abroad? Do they oppose bringing up specific human rights cases? Do they oppose honourary citizenship for the Dalai Lama?” the source said.

The source went on to say that the opposition was politicizing the issue.

Mr. Harper, for his part, seemed to deflect Mr. Wen's censure at the time, but continued to raise the issue of human rights in a major speech the next day.

He told a business crowd in Shanghai that Canada would remain “a vocal advocate and an effective partner for human rights reform.”

On Friday, the Prime Minister's Office confirmed to The Epoch Times that Harper had raised the case of Mr. Celil in meetings with the Chinese, while also raising other human rights issues.

And on the trade front, Mr. Harper announced the opening of four new trade offices in China, an agreement that would reopen Chinese borders to Canadian pork, and a long-sought-after pact that would allow Chinese to more easily travel to Canada as visitors, boosting Canada's tourism industry. The last two items are potentially worth $150 million a year in total.

In fact, Mr. Harper's insistence on raising Canadian values like human rights and the rule of law may have helped Canada's negotiating position at the business table, says Sheng Xue, an award-winning Chinese journalist and activist living in exile in Canada.

Ms. Sheng contrasted Harper's approach to that of U.S. President Barack Obama who recently travelled to China making clear that human rights would not be a key issue on the agenda. Sheng says Beijing saw this as weakness and Mr. Obama came back empty handed. She believes that Harper was able to come away with the approved-destination status that Liberal governments had sought after unsuccessfully for seven years because he stood his ground on human rights.

"When you decide to give up what you should adhere to, you may not get what you think you will get. When Harper insisted on what he should adhere to, he did not lose what people thought he would lose. This is great teaching material," she said.

She went further to say that concerns over human rights talk imperilling trade opportunities with China are unfounded.

“Criticizing the Chinese government on human rights has never caused trade barriers or obstacles. There are many examples, and Canada is a good example. Trade has grown.”

Ms. Sheng thinks Mr. Harper has understood that engaging China means more than engaging the unelected leaders of its communist government. “Insisting on human-rights is standing on the side of Chinese people, and it's done for the interests of the Chinese people.”