It's very lucrative.
China is a market with 1.4 billion consumers and now a middle class, despite the current economic challenges. It's a fast-growing country, so it needs a lot in the way of basic materials, and Canada is a major supplier of those materials.
The Chinese market is attractive to investors. A number of observers, however, are noting a slowdown in China's growth for two reasons. First, China has a rapidly aging population. This week, we learned that India would soon surpass China as the most populous country. Second, China is caught in what's called the middle income trap. It is too expensive for low-skill sectors but isn't technologically advanced enough to compete with high-tech sectors in the west. As a result, we could see the relocation—an exodus even—of low-skill manufacturers to countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, where really cheap labour is still plentiful. If that were to happen, China might lose some of its allure, but in the short term, its huge market still holds tremendous opportunity. That's why companies continue to do business there.