Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
About three weeks ago, I was in Beijing and attended a meeting convened with Mr. He Yafei, an official with the Chinese government. It was a meeting attended by members of the Canada-China Legislative Association who were also touring in China at the time.
At that meeting, He Yafei said something really quite startling. He was referring to what had most recently occurred with respect to our recognition of the Dalai Lama. He also brought up the issue of the number of MPs travelling from our Parliament and from the Senate to Taiwan. He came out with a very startling comment. He said they were wondering why their Canadian friends were doing this to them. Those were his exact words, and it rather took me and the rest of the Canadian delegation back a little bit.
Taking a look at the fact that I would suspect there is a tremendous amount of empathy for the positions you have enunciated in this hearing today, we're coming from very much the same point of view, as it were. I guess the question is, in practical terms, in your best judgment, with the experience that you've had with the Chinese, was Mr. He actually expressing where they were coming from?
I should underline that the people in the embassy also relayed to me that people who have been conversing with them have been saying China's relationship with Canada is at an all-time low. That's what the people in the Canadian embassy were telling me, and this was part of that, as a continuum. Do you think he was actually expressing where the Chinese are coming from?
Number two, and more importantly, Canadians as a society have very strong feelings about human rights. It's distinctive of being Canadian. How can we, in practical terms, communicate with him or with other people in that regime to effectively change it? It's one thing for us to have a position, but in practical terms, how can we actually be working to see changes?