Cautious approach
China seeks to ease human rights worries amid ‘new opportunity’ with Trudeau
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set to embark on his first official visit to China, the Chinese government is trying to ease concerns about its human rights record as a way to encourage a deeper business relationship with Canada.
The economic superpower sees last year’s election of Trudeau’s Liberal government as a “new opportunity” to strengthen business ties between the two countries, China’s ambassador to Canada told The Canadian Press.
For both sides, the expectations around Trudeau’s weeklong trip are high.
Trudeau, who leaves for China today, will focus on building the economic connection between the two countries. On Friday, he described the trip as something of a “reset” in the relationship.
The prime minister, however, has also vowed to continue Canada’s practice of voicing its concerns at the highest levels of the Chinese leadership over the country’s record on human rights, democracy and governance.
While China has championed the need for the two countries to pursue a freetrade deal, the Trudeau government has taken a morecautious approach amid public worries over human rights.
Ahead of Trudeau’s visit, the Chinese government made an attempt to calm those fears.
Ambassador Luo Zhaohui raised the matter of human rights himself last week during an interview at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.
“You say you’re concerned about human rights issues? I think this is understandable,” Luo said. “Every country has their own problems with human rights issues. No country thinks that their human rights situation is perfect.
“(In) China, we’ve got a long way to go to improve the human rights situation, but at the same time we have also made a lot of progress in the past many years.”
The Chinese government has had renewed optimism – and “high expectations”– about its relationship with Canada, particularly since Trudeau’s Liberals came to power, Luo said.
Through 10 years of working with the Conservative government, he said Canada-China relations made some progress, but noted that sometimes the “pace and priorities” were “quite different.”
Canada’s relationship with China under the Harper government was at times inconsistent, many experts say. Historically, Luo acknowledged China has had warmer connections with Canada’s Liberal-led governments.