Canada: Diplomacy: Steven Harper chides / warns China on human r+ts, trade

CBC News carries an article that signals the Death of a Salesman approach and the Rise of a Statesman approach in Canada's relations with China: Jeff Sallot, "Harper chides China over economic threats" (Feb9,2k7): the article has since been updated, rewritten with more details, some earlier ones dropped, and the headline changed to use the word "warns" instead of "chides."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned China Friday not to threaten Canada with economic repercussions for bringing up the Asian country's human rights record and standing up for the rights of Canadians abroad.

"I would point out to any Chinese official that just as a matter of fact, China had a huge trade surplus with this country, so it would be in the interest of the Chinese government to make sure any dealings on trade are fair and above board," Harper told reporters Friday in Halifax.

The prime minister's comments came in response to statements from a Chinese official, who warned that Ottawa's criticism of China's human rights record could be straining relations between the two countries.

When I speak of the Death of a Sa;lesman approach, I am referring to the ousted Liberal Party leaders' approach to China, whereby the Lib leaders (Jean Chretien and Paul Martin each in turn) led large trade delegations to the world's most populous country, and saw numerous pie-in-the-sky trade agreements signed by companies subjected to the Libs' boosterism; but these Salesmen remained silent about all sorts of other Canadian interests besides making a fast buck. Most outstandingly, the Libs had deep amnesia about a principal Canadian value which this nation considers to be universal to all humankind, yes even in China -- namely, human r+ts.

The persecutions of Christians outside the small registered churches that are instruments of the Chinese state and, thus, of its Communist Party; the persecutions of Falun Gong practioners and of adherents of other religions outside, for instance, the Buddhist and Muslim registered religious organizations; and the persecutions of the Uighurs who practice Islam, don't go to registered mosques, and some of whom actively seek the independence of East Turkistan which like Tibet is presently controlled by China. East Turkistan, of course, is called by another name in the Chinese official vocabulary "Xinjiang" according to the nomenclautura of languages of China's dominant ethnicity, "the Han" people (90% of China's total population apparently). The Muslims of Xinjiang (which they call "East Turkistan") are Uighurs. The CBC report cited above centers at the moment on the case of a Canadian citizen born Uiguhr in China, a Canadian imam who ministers to Uighur Muslims in several countries as well as here, arrested in China's neibor Uzbekistan which then turned him over to the Chinese Communists, who then put him on trial in Uighurland by the Chinese govt which then claimed there is an Al-Quaeda style "terrorist org" operating among the Uighirs. The Communist Chinese chose to ignore that there is a very different kind of movement, a human-r+ts-based
movement among the vast majority of Uighurs who want independence from China. China is importing Han into Uighurland, and displacing the Muslim Uighur population. In the case of the Uighur-Canadian, Huseyincan Celil, who was in Uzbekistan travelling on a valid Canadian passport, Canada claims it should have been able to have a diplomatic observer at the trial in order to represent his r+ts as a Canadian citizen.

China seeks to descredit the entire Uighur independence movement by strained attempts to associate with a tiny Taliban-like group (shame on Wikipedia for its biased and unanalytic article!) that now seems defunct (China e-Lobby, item 3; see also item 2).

There are also many other issues at stake between China and Canada, including the use of unfair funding to purchase Canadian natural resources companies by state controlled corporations in China. And the huge number of spies China has deployed in the Canadian Chinese community to undercut support for Taiwan and many other purposes, the attempt to siphone off funds granted to the Canadian Chinese community thru Chinese Communist frontorganizations here.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Geoffrey York, Embassy lax in contacting Chelil family Readers must remember that the Canadian diplomatic service abroad is full of supporters of the Liberal foreign policy
East Turkestan Human R+ts Report