HANOI—Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally met with Chinese leader Hu Jintao—albeit for only 15 minutes—ending a mini-controversy over whether they would meet during an Asia-Pacific summit.
The 15-minute chat occurred just before a gala dinner on Saturday for the leaders of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Hanoi.
"President Hu approached me at the reception prior to dinner last night," Harper told reporters on Sunday, although he gave few details of their "very frank" discussion.
In the runup to the summit, Canadian media had said Hu refused a request for a meeting with Harper, who has been an outspoken critic of China's human rights record.
Beijing later denied the snub.
"It was quite a brief one," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said of the pre-dinner chat, adding there had been no plans for a more formal sit-down meeting.
Since winning power in January, Harper's Conservative government has been a frequent critic of China's rights record.
Canada is concerned with the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen and human rights activist who fled China in the 1990s and who is being held in a Chinese prison for alleged terrorism links.
Liu said the case was discussed by the leaders who reiterated their positions. China considers Huseyincan a Chinese citizen.
In another potential strain to ties, Ottawa declined to renew the visa of a Chinese diplomat who was reported to have spied on followers of the Falun Gong religious sect in Canada.
In September, Canada granted honorary citizenship in September to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and a sworn enemy of Beijing for his opposition to Chinese Communist rule in the remote, mountainous territory.
China has said the move could hurt commercial relations between the two countries.
Canada ran a $19.3 billion trade deficit with China last year and Canadian exporters have complained about Ottawa's criticism of the booming Asian superpower.
But Harper refused to soften his tone.
"The fact of the matter is that neglecting human rights has not opened a lot of doors either. Obviously we don't think you get anywhere by short changing your values," he said.
Harper, 47, on his first trip to Asia since his Conservatives won a minority election victory in January, said he "had a good time" at APEC.
Edited by The Epoch Times
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