Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here this evening, gentlemen.
I'm delighted to see you again, Mr. McCallum. Just as you were leaving the House of Commons, I came back. It's a pleasure to have you with us.
We have a lot to learn from the experience of each of you. From your unique vantage point, you were able to see what was happening in the People's Republic of China. Thus far, the committee has had the privilege of meeting with and hearing from a number of your predecessors and even successors. We listened to their points of view.
I want to ask you about certain comments made by other Canadian ambassadors to China. Back in March, Howard Balloch brought to the committee's attention three premises regarding the People's Republic of China and its relationship with Canada, premises he referred to as occasionally recurrent and often fallacious. It's the third one I would like to discuss. I will read it for you: “Third is the premise that there is out there somewhere, simply waiting to be formulated, a comprehensive and coherent new ‘China Policy’ to serve as a course correction for all of Canada's involvement with the huge and enormously complex China.”
The government announced that it has a new policy for its dealings with the People's Republic of China. The government has not released the policy and, we are given to understand, may not necessarily do so. Given Mr. Balloch's third premise and your respective experiences, do you think the government is misguided to think its new policy will help it deal effectively with this new China?