Friday, January 11, 2008

Comment on Mr. Emerson's Speech to the Canada-China Business Council

This morning the Globe and Mail has an article by about the speech by David Emerson, Canadian Minister of International Trade to the Canada-China Trade Council on January 10. It is entitled: "Emerson opts not to 'lecture' on rights to Chinese." "The Globe's Beijing correspondent, Geoff York, writes: "A year after pledging to carry "Canadian values" to China, a senior federal cabinet minister says he omitted any mention of human rights from his latest speech in Beijing because he didn't want to 'lecture' his audience" (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcfd6fxz_346crr64qc8).

It will be interesting to see if this return to "quiet diplomacy" with China on human rights is rewarded by granting Canada "Approved Destination Status" which would allow Chinese tourists to visit Canada, or by the release of Huseyin Celil.

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