CANADA CARES ABOUT RIGHTS
Addressing China’s issues is not a ploy, writes David Wright.
Lu Shaye, China’s ham-handed ambassador to Canada since early March, has told the federal government to stop “bowing down to Canadian journalists,” to ignore their probing inquiries into China’s human rights issues and to get down to the business of negotiating a freetrade agreement between the two countries.
The Canadian government wants respect for human rights in China to be included in any free trade agreement and China objects. Lu states that the people and media of Canada are “confused” about human rights and democracy in China and blames them, rather than his government, for Canadians’ largely negative view of China.
Such irresponsible and intemperate comments are, of course, the very negation of cultural finesse, the gentle art of persuasion and diplomatic tact. Lu seems to assume that since he and his government and party cannot even imagine taking human rights concerns seriously, no one else really does either and, instead, are using it as a means to thwart China’s international ascendance.
But Canada’s concern for human rights worldwide is a matter of deep and sincere conviction. It is not some gossamer phantom or random and evanescent fancy maintained and foisted on the Canadian public by a highly influential media. It is insulting and demeaning to Prime Minister Trudeau and to the Canadian people to maintain that preoccupation with human rights arises only or mainly from a creative minority of media elites.
In addition to being wrongheaded and wrong-hearted, this Trump-esque critique of Canadian media displays Lu’s ignorance of fundamental Canadian realities and values.
Unlike China’s state-con- trolled media, the Canadian media are independent and legitimate entities free to report on the news as they see it and are not government propaganda outlets. As a result, there is, as in any authentically free and democratic country, a variety of opinions and ideologies regarding news coverage. The Canadian media marketplace responds to this diversity and caters to it from liberal, centrist and conservative perspectives. There is no government or party line for Canadian journalists to toe.
Canada can expect more of Lu’s type of abrasive bullying if it concludes a free-trade agreement with China. (People who doubt this should inform themselves about how the Chinese government now behaves toward Australia.) Canada must not cave in, and Prime Minister Trudeau and his government must stand firm in their stance linking free trade with human rights and not capitulate in the face of brusque and inartful pressure tactics.
Will Canadian-style concern for human rights ever take hold in China? Yes, eventually. The change will be slow and incremental, but it will happen. In China today, support for human rights is likely much more extensive than Lu believes or wants to believe, especially among educated youth. I got my own little glimpse of this in May of 2009 when I taught a course on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to a joint class of University of Calgary and mainland Chinese students at Shantou University in Shantou, Guangdong province. The 15 or so Chinese students absorbed the class material eagerly, did well on their final exams (I required them to memorize the UDHR), and put on delightfully sardonic and biting skits about human rights abuses.
They and their generation are the leaven for change that will eventually transform China into a country that respects and abides by international norms of human rights.
China’s government and diplomatic corps would do well to be more diplomatic and to stand on the right side of history. Instead of hurling brickbats at the Canadian media and the government and people supposedly under their spell, Chinese diplomats would best concentrate on understanding the hearts and minds of the people of their host countries and winning them over through concrete action, not half-baked rhetoric.
Will Canadian-style concern for human rights ever take hold in China? Yes, eventually. Canada’s concern for human rights worldwide is a matter of deep and sincere conviction. It is not some gossamer phantom or random and evanescent fancy maintained and foisted on the Canadian public by a highly influential media. David Wright