Stephen Harper, and his wife Laureen, arrived in China this morning for a five-day visit before returning home in time for Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa, November 11th.
The Prime Minister’s third visit to the country is shorter than originally planned, and he will miss some of the upcoming APEC Summit, but domestic and international needs have to be balanced.
Here at home, the recent killings of two Canadian soldiers, one standing guard at the Canadian War Memorial, obliges the Prime Minister to attend the ceremony.
Meanwhile, the recent ratification of the Canada-China FIPA (Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement), which went into effect October 1st, must be moved forward despite some opposition in Canada.
There is division within Harper’s own caucus, with some MP’s reluctant to become more involved with China without further pressing the human rights abuses and issues.
China, however, is now Canada’s second-biggest trading partner, after the United States. This visit allows Stephen Harper his first lengthy meeting with Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
It will be an opportunity to deal with the recent tensions rising between the two governments. Canada accused China in a cyber-espionage attack against the National Research Council of Canada this past summer. And it is widely believed the Chinese retaliated by arresting a Canadian couple, Kevin and Julia Garratt, devout Christians who’d lived there and ran a cafe for thirty years. No one has seen the couple since their arrest in August. Their son Simeon is also on his way to China, hoping to advance his parents cause.
Stephen Harper began the visit today, meeting billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of Asia’s biggest e-commerce site, Alibaba.
We’ll have more on the visit tomorrow.
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