Certainly if we look at the like-minded western countries who have bilateral dialogues with the Chinese, we're all doing it for the same reasons. We have similar values and interests. We've all signed the international human rights legal framework, and we have very serious and very specific concerns. We do try to concert our messages.
If you take any group of countries, obviously there are important variations as to what a specific government will priorize. It's not always relevant, I suppose I could say, to try to come up with a short list of five messages that everyone is going to push. Depending on individual relationships with China, it's more useful for, say, Canada to take the lead on some specific issues where we might have more leverage, either because of our CIDA programming or because of our historic relationship with China.
As to overall coordination, yes, definitely--very important, very useful. Thinking back to 1996-97, when we were still involved in the resolution at the UN Commission on Human Rights, we certainly coordinated with like-minded countries on having that resolution adopted. I think amongst all of us there was a pretty general agreement by 1997 that the chances of success, of getting the resolution adopted, were becoming increasingly slimmer. That was certainly one of the reasons why it was felt that we had to look at additional options for engaging China.
Amongst all of the countries involved in bilateral dialogues, I think we certainly have independently come to the conclusion that with China it's absolutely necessary to stay engaged. After all, they're a huge country. They're a member of the UN Security Council. They're very active in UN and regional fora such as APEC.
As the honourable was saying earlier, it's extremely frustrating because progress is so slow. But really, if we want to make a difference, if we want to see China become open to human rights, norms, and standards, what option is there except to engage in some way?
On the question of benchmarks, yes, they are absolutely critical. Clearly what we're all aiming for here is an improved strength in dialogue.