Madam Speaker, I am really pleased that I was given the chance to be the substitute for my friend, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, so I can be one of the first, or at least one of the first who has now heard, to congratulate the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes and Amanda on the birth of Nathan.
I wish both of them a really hardy mazel tov. It is wonderful news. The member is one away from being equal to the Brady bunch at this point. Best of luck, and I hope the grandparents are really close to help babysit.
Allow me to start by challenging the member's misperception that nothing has changed in the government's approach to China. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs has said a number of times, the China of 2020 is not the China of 2016. In light of that, we are taking a corresponding approach to it.
Some aspects of our engagement with China have not changed. Let me highlight a few elements of this continuity. First, we will continue to speak out against the arbitrary detention of our citizens. In this regard, allow me to reprise the strong principled position, which my colleague the Minister of International Trade conveyed clearly to the CCBC audience. As she said, it remains an absolute priority to secure the immediate release of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and to secure clemency for Canadians facing the death penalty in China, including Robert Schellenberg.
Second, we will continue to work with like-minded countries to find ways to resist China's coercive diplomacy by insisting on mutual respect, reciprocity, and adherence to rules and principles, including human rights. For example, we joined with other countries and voiced our serious concerns over Beijing's imposition and implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong. Further, Canada has led by taking a number of actions, including suspending the Canada-Hong Kong extradition treaty, restricting exports of sensitive items to Hong Kong, and updating our travel advice and advisories for Hong Kong.
Third, notwithstanding difficult bilateral and global circumstances, we will continue to develop a commercial relationship with China, the world's second-largest economy and an important consumer of Canadian commodities, agri-food and other products. We will continue to boost much-needed jobs for Canadians by supporting our exporters, including firms that export to and do business with China. China is an important market for many Canadian companies across a wide variety of sectors. It is important that we push China to abide by its international obligations under trade agreements so as to ensure a level playing field for our businesses.
Standing up for our values and our interests requires us to listen to our stakeholders, including the members of the CCBC, while at the same time communicating our resolve to support our citizens abroad, including Messrs. Kovrig, Spavor and Schellenberg, standing up for human rights and making sure that those abuses by the Chinese government are well noted.