Vancouver Sun
Vancouver businesspeople handed kudos to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Trade Minister David Emerson on their return from China last week.
The senior Conservatives visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to promote trade, but mainly to revive a diplomatically strained relationship between Canada and China.
"The one-two punch of these ministers coming in tandem and reinforcing each other did make an impression," said Earl Drake, a former ambassador to China and current head of the Canada China Business Council's Vancouver chapter, which hosted Flaherty at a luncheon in Beijing.
Flaherty encouraged China to invest in Canada, in particular, pitching oil and gas opportunities.
He tried to explain that a minority government situation in Ottawa had delayed engagement with Chinese counterparts, and that the delay was not a deliberate snub.
"They said all the right things," said Drake."They gave very clear and consistent messages."
The visits marked the first high-level exchange since Prime Minister Stephen Harper tussled publicly with Chinese leaders in November at the Asia-Pacific Co-operation summit in Vietnam.
Harper criticized China for its human rights policy, saying he would confront Chinese leaders for their jailing of Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil.
He emphasized that Canada would not ignore human rights in the chase for the "almighty dollar."
The trips may have been a first step in easing tension, but businesspeople are still looking for more signs of direction.
"There is still unease among Canadian businesspeople," said Drake. "And the Chinese are puzzled about Canadian policy because under this government it is notably different than it has been for a long time. Canada-China policy used to be non-partisan."
Observers had been watching the visits closely for a turn in this cold tone. The next step, say some of them, is to capitalize on positive momentum.
"It has to come direct from the prime minister and not from any minister or premier, even though these efforts add up," said Vancouver-based general manager of global transaction banking at Scotiabank Alban Lo in an e-mail. "The key rests with the PM."
"It has to come from the highest level," agreed acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta Wenren Jiang, who rejected the idea that Canada can take a two-pronged approach in dealing with China; that is, to be hot on trade and to be cold on politics.
"Canada is too small to do this and it is not in our interest to be disengaged from China," he said.
"The visits were a good effort to mend the relationship between Canada and China," said Diana Liu, founding partner of Cansbridge Capital Corp., a Vancouver-based venture-capital firm that invests Asian money into local technology companies.
As part of the trip, Emerson signed a science and technology cooperation agreement to boost collaborative research and development activities between the two countries.
"This was a good gesture," said Liu, noting, however, that "the tech industry is very different. There are no borders [anyway]. It's still up to the industry itself, not governments."
jlee-young@png.canwest.com