I want to thank former Ambassador Wright and the former ambassador and former colleague of mine in the House of Commons, Mr. McCallum, for joining us tonight. I think we overlapped from 2008 to 2015, most of which time I was the defence critic for the NDP. We had many conversations.
Mr. Wright, may I start by asking you about your time? I think it's important to try to understand a little bit about what the relationship was and what the expectations might have been about China and China's future at that time. I'm guessing—maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Wright—that since you had been a deputy minister of international trade, you would have been appointed to this role partly due to your ability to deal with trade matters and presumably with Canadian investment issues in China, which I gather were fairly robust at the time.
The issues in Hong Kong we've heard a lot about over the last couple of years. Hong Kong was partway through the early stages after the handover. Could you describe the sense of what Hong Kong was doing and what the expectations were for China?