Harper poised for possible state visit to China: experts
Canada now seen as lower priority for Chinese than several years ago
Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears set to make another state visit to China in the fall, at a time when some Sino-Canadian experts say Canada is tumbling down the priority list for the Chinese.
It’s believed Harper is planning an official state visit to China in November that would piggyback on the APEC leaders meeting being held in Beijing that month. It will be followed by the G20 summit in Australia a few days later.
The prime minister last visited China in February 2012, although Gov. Gen. David Johnston made a state visit to the country in October 2013, when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. More than two years after Xi ducked an invitation from Harper to visit Canada, the Chinese president still has not visited the country.
Harper is one of few G8 leaders not to have held an official bilateral meeting with Xi since he became president early last year, although they’ve held brief chats on the sidelines of meetings of international leaders, including the Nuclear Se- curity Summit in March.
“The Canada-China relationship is not, at this stage, seen as a particularly special relationship. That has diminished,” said Paul Evans, a professor of international relations at the University of British Columbia specializing in Canada-China relations. “While some elements of the Canada-China relationship are important to the Chinese, the overall strategic significance of Canada is not what it was a decade ago,” he said.
Canada’s diminishing importance to China, relative to other countries, is shaping the relationship as much as any issue, Evans said. The reason Canada has now tumbled into what he says is a tier3 status to the Chinese — behind major superpowers, but also behind countries such as South Korea and Australia — is because the Conservative government has focused the bilateral relationship almost exclusively on economic terms, when security, environment and cultural issues are also important.
Evans, who authored a recently released book on Canada-China relations titled “Engaging China,” has been to the country a few times over the past couple of months and said both sides appear to be gearing up for state visit by Harper.
“It was pretty clear on the Chinese side and some of the noises around the (Canadian) embassy was they were looking forward to a prime ministerial visit,” Evans added. “Everybody was gearing up for something bigger than just a flyby visit on the edge of the APEC
The Canada-China relationship is not, at this stage, seen as a particularly special relationship. That has diminished.
meeting.”
Canada-Sino experts have noted that a few irritants in the bilateral relationship could also be contributing to the holdup in Harper conducting official talks with Xi and the Chinese leadership visiting Canada. Specifically, Canada’s delay in officially enacting the controversial Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with China is causing some friction. The Conservative government signed the FIPA with China in September 2012, then tabled it for the required 21 sitting days.
The Chinese government has already ratified the deal. In Canada, the agreement can become law once the government issues a cabinet order. However, the Conservatives have been holding off on adopting it while a B.C. First Nation’s legal challenge on the agreement winds its way through the courts. “We are committed to bringing the Canada-China FIPA into force,” said Rudy Husny, spokesman for International Trade Minister Ed Fast. The government’s decision to implement new barriers to foreign investment by state-owned companies also has irked China, as have delays in constructing new pipelines to get Canadian oil and gas to the West Coast for shipment to Asia.
Even the federal Conservative cabinet has been divided over what sort of partnership Canada should have with China and how it should proceed on issues such as trade and foreign investment, at a time public opinion polls have shown growing Canadian negativity toward closer relations with China.
“What it points to is the divisions, the fissure in the Conservative caucus and in the Conservative party on how to deal with China,” Evans said.