Mr. Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his leadership on this issue. I will go in reverse order through his questions.
Yes, I was dismayed, but not surprised. We raised these issues last week when the government initially made its statements and we raised these issues on the weekend. However, the government has refused to condemn this abusive international law of fundamental human rights. It was not a surprise question from the Leader of the Opposition, and yet the Prime Minister was still unwilling to condemn these terrible actions.
The member is right to point out that we see a hardening of the system under Xi Jinping. There were maybe hopes for the possibility of gradual reform and maybe those hopes were misplaced, maybe they were too optimistic, but well-intentioned people hoped that some reform was possible. However, it is clear that under Xi Jinping things are moving dramatically in the opposite direction.
Finally, the member spoke well about the great error of this cultural argument for authoritarianism. There are some, the moral relativists, who want to use this cultural argument to justify authoritarianism. It is always wrong, because the people of any of these countries that are under authoritarianism always want freedom.