Canada-China Relations Committee on Nov. 29th, 2022

[Aileen Calverley]

I wanted to talk about that, because I think that in China or in Hong Kong, if you're trying to tell the truth about it and how actually there's no return in investing in China or that the economy is actually not good, you will be persecuted. You could be arrested. You're not allowed to say things like that. I think that often you don't hear the truth. I think that's the big problem.

Right now, I'm starting to see some articles talking about how actually there's zero return when you invest in China. I think that if you look at investment in Chinese stocks for the last 10 years, it's actually losing money, but somehow, I think, in the world, the CCP is very good at propaganda, at telling us a wonderful story to invest in China, to build your company in China or to invest in China so you get huge returns because there's a huge market.

People have that kind of impression, but when you look at the result and you look at the charts, it tells the other story. A lot of economists and others are afraid to tell the truth. They don't want to write something bad about China because they could be in trouble.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken Hardie]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bergeron.

We'll now go to Mr. Boulerice for the final two and half minutes.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

In response to a previous question on Canada's new Indo-Pacific strategy, Ms. Calverley mentioned that she would like to know more about comparative interests, but I am not sure I understood her meaning correctly.

Ms. Calverley, what are your thoughts on the federal government's new policy on our strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region?

[Aileen Calverley]

I think, especially on China, it's very progressive. It's more progressive than I expected. It mentioned defending human rights and Canadian values, but just saying that is not enough. You need to have a strategy and a plan for how to protect our national interests.

I think it said it wants to protect our national interests, but how will it do that? When we look at all of the pension funds, we're talking about billions of dollars. We have huge investments in China.

The strategy talked about Taiwan. What happens if there are some conflicts or blockages in Taiwan? What's our plan? Is there any contingency plan? Is there any preparation for such a confrontation?

For example, even if there's a crackdown on protests and Canada joins other like-minded countries to sanction China, but then when they sanction China, Chinese stocks go down. Our pensions would go down. That means our policy is hurting our own pensions. We don't want that action to stop. If we're worried about our own pensions and, therefore, no, we are not going to sanction China, that's not a very good situation to be in.

That's why I think in the Indo-Pacific strategy, especially in the China section, there should be a country risk analysis to estimate the cost of loss when there are conflicts.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken Hardie]

Thank you very much, Mr. Boulerice.

Ms. Calverley, this is a quick question from the chair. You've been very outspoken tonight. Do you expect to hear something from China as a result of what you've said here?

[Aileen Calverley]

I don't know. I don't mind if they want to make comments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken Hardie]

With that, I'll say thank you to both of our witnesses and to our members here tonight.

I want to thank our interpreters, the analysts, the clerk, that technical staff and MPs' staff who have been with us this evening. We will see you all again next Tuesday evening.

This meeting is adjourned.