Ottawa’s plan to improve the Canadian public’s negative perception of the Chinese regime as the two countries look to increase bilateral relations and implement free trade deals took a step backwards with the Chinese foreign minister’s angry berating of a Canadian reporter last week.
According to media reports, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new government is in the midst of a major internal review of Canada’s relationship with China, looking to increase “human connections” with initiatives such as having 100,000 Canadian students study in China.
These “people-to-people” exchanges could reverse negative polling trends reflecting Canadian attitudes about China, according to China watchers cited by Postmedia News reported in April.
Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed to the issue while speaking to the Canada-China Business Council about a free trade deal with China.
“A trade agreement in theory would be a great thing, but we need also to have a real community behind it,” she said.
A Nanos Research survey commissioned by The Globe and Mail in February showed that a majority of Canadians hold a negative view of a trade deal with China, with 47 percent opposing or somewhat opposing the idea, and 41 percent supporting or somewhat supporting it. As for the Chinese government, the perception is overwhelmingly negative, with 76 percent having a negative or somewhat negative view of the regime, compared to only 2 percent who have a positive view and 9 percent who have a somewhat positive opinion.
The scolding last week of a Canadian reporter who asked about human rights in China by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi during his visit to Ottawa can’t have helped.
At a joint press conference by Wang and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion on June 1, Amanda Connolly of the iPolitics online news outlet asked Dion about human rights issues in China such as the disappearance of Hong Kong booksellers that publish books critical of the Chinese regime, China’s aggression in the South China Sea, and the imprisonment of the Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt on charges of espionage in China.
Connolly, who was addressing Dion, asked why Canada is pursuing closer ties with China, how Canada plans to use the relationship to improve human rights, and whether Dion had raised the case of Garratt during his talks with Wang.
After Dion answered the question, Wang jumped in with his own response. Appearing visibly angry, he said through a translator: “Your question is full of prejudice against China, and arrogance … I don’t know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable.” He added that it is the Chinese people who are “in the best position to have a say about China’s human rights situation.”
Reaction in Canada was swift. Tony Clement, the Conservative Party’s foreign affairs critic, said he was outraged that a Chinese official would berate a Canadian journalist. Other opposition MPs asked why Dion stood by quietly as Wang scolded the journalist.
Trudeau told reporters a few days later that he and Dion expressed their dissatisfaction to both Wang and the Chinese ambassador to Canada. Trudeau also said he will continue to bring up the issue of human rights when meeting with Chinese officials. Dion explained that he did not intervene because he considers “Madame Connolly as a professional with a thick skin, and she doesn’t not need me to go to her rescue.”
Former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler told the Epoch Times that contrary to what Wang said, characterizing the journalist’s question as being arrogant and irresponsible, it was the foreign minister himself that was in fact arrogant and irresponsible.
“I think in this instance, the foreign minister, rather than rebuking a Canadian journalist asking a very legitimate question, should have at the very least responded to the question, but in effect he betrayed his arrogance by characterizing what she did as arrogant,” Cotler said.
