It's That Simple

Nelson Ching/Bloomberg Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister, foreground left, attends a welcoming ceremony with Wen Jiabao, China's premier, foreground right, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China.

There, it's said and done. Not quite done, but on the way. The message is neither coy nor offensively direct; merely obvious. No one will ever be certain what was said when Prime Minister Stephen Harper met directly with China's elite, during his sessions with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Whether all was sweetness and light, with mere hinted observations respecting universal human rights obligations.

It is entirely possible that Chinese authorities have become somewhat less sensitive to their potential and celebrated feelings of being slighted on the world stage as a result of their well-known failures in observing human rights. With respect to Tibet, to their own rural populations, to the Muslim Uighurs, to Falun Gong, and forced labour camps, along with credible allegations of prisoners' organs being harvested for transplants.

Of course, it's doubtful that any of these issues were plucked from their collective basket of concerns to be directly and pointedly discussed. Rather, a vague and generalized reference to international norms and expectations dropped into the conversation. Certainly that's what was done, unequivocally, in one of China's largest cities of Guangzhou, when Prime Minister Harper addressed an audience of 600 comprised of Chinese and Canadian business elite.

Canada is prepared, and eager, to do business with China. But not at the expense of utterly surrendering its human rights values and supports. "Canada does not - and cannot - disconnect our trading relationship from fundamental national values", Mr. Harper stressed, with no room for doubt about the determination to firmly address the issue. It is not as though this was a closed-room session where what was said would be confined to those present.

"Therefore, in relations between China and Canada, you should expect us to continue to raise issues of fundamental freedoms and human rights and to be a vocal advocate for these, just as we will be an effective partner in our growing and mutually beneficial economic relationship."

That declaration was balanced, in good part, by other declarations, such as another one that delineated another aspect of the concerns that brought Canada to China on a goodwill mission of trade opportunities meant to be of benefit to both countries. "We have abundant supplies of virtually every form of energy. And you know, we want to sell our energy to people who want to buy our energy. It's that simple."

Where the former concern may not have elicited wild applause, the latter most certainly did. Those present representing Chinese interests would have taken to applauding the oblique reference to their greatest world competitor for power, prestige and economic titan status, the United States. If Canada's neighbour did not want the country's energy resources, why Canada would simply look elsewhere.

Didn't we?