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Canada-China Relations committee Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Chair. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am a career diplomat, having spent 39 years with Global Affairs Canada, including 13 years in China: 2 years in Hong Kong and 11 years in Beijing. I was an ambassador for the last four years of that
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Well, it started in a similar fashion, inasmuch as we had received a request from the U.S. to extradite Mr. Su Bin, who was a Chinese person living in Vancouver and who was wanted for spying activities. A week later, unfortunately, Kevin and Julia Garratt were arrested. We went t
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Well, with all due respect to Mr. Manthorpe, he is wrong on this, because I was closely involved in all of these discussions. Again, we were very clear with the Chinese. We agreed to discuss an extradition treaty, and again, it was in a way to try to make them improve the way the
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee There was no quid pro quo, in my view. I think it was very clear. We had many discussions with the Chinese, and we always outlined the view of Canadians that they saw the arrest of Kevin and Julia Garratt as outrageous and that this had to be resolved before the relationship coul
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Thank you for your question, Mr. Bergeron. First of all, with regard to your first question, I think we need to adopt a much stronger language with China. As soon as we discover a case of interference in Canadian affairs, we have to react. However, there is a difference between
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee I agree with Howard. I would add that in fact that's why we need a strong WTO. The problem with China is that they are expert at using non-tariff barriers, and by this I mean, for instance, phytosanitary reasons. I had to get involved many times to resolve issues related to bla
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee In fact, there has been a lot of collaboration on this. It started when I was ambassador. The RCMP liaison officer was very active on this. Every time we had the chance, we impressed on the Chinese that they had to regulate the laboratories and stop the export of fentanyl. In fac
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Well, I didn't go that far. I just said that in every aspect we should base our approach on reciprocity. By reciprocity.... You had Dominic Barton here. He has very limited access, as do the staff of the embassy. Well, then, why should we trot to the Chinese residence to have a g
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee I would say that we have to be clear on where we want to go and base our approach on reciprocity.
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Well, on this I would say we are in charge. This is our country. These are our laws, our regulations. We welcome foreign investment, but people have to comply. On that, this should be consistent for all companies. You are welcome to invest in Canada, but we won't tolerate any at
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee If I may add, you were told by a previous witness that the total amount of Chinese investment in Canada is about $16.7 billion. Well, the actual number is $90 billion. The China Institute of the University of Alberta has done a thorough review, which changed the picture: $90 bill
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Well, there could be extraterritorial applications. That's what we should be concerned about. In fact—and I've listened to some of the comments of Ren Zhengfei, the CEO of Huawei—no Chinese company can refuse a request from the Chinese government to provide information. We know t
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee I would say that consular issues kept me up at night as well. When I was the ambassador, we had two Canadians who were executed on drug charges despite all the pleas that Prime Minister Harper wrote to Xi Jinping the day before one was going to be executed, to no avail, and Gover
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee There are ways.... I would distinguish what you can do here, because we now see more and more instances of interference where we need to push back. I don't think we have been very good at reminding the Chinese of everything that Canada has done, especially through the $1-billion
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques
Canada-China Relations committee Well, I'm not aware of cases where a local school would have received money from a Chinese entity. This being said, I think that many schools and universities are struggling with, for instance, the Confucius Institute, because they don't have the resources to offer Mandarin trai
March 9th, 2020Committee meeting
Guy Saint-Jacques