Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. But I would say with regard to your first question that I'm a graduate of Fudan University in the history of ancient Chinese thought program, the philosophy program. As Mr. Obhrai pointed out, Taiwan is a Chinese place; it has a democratic system. Singapore is another place

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there are. Certainly I was a big fan of the village elections when they came out 10 years ago. I thought this was going to empower people with a sense of citizenship and then they'd start electing at higher levels, and by about 2008 we'd have a democratic system in China.

Foreign Affairs committee  I used to think that as the economy developed and as you got a rising middle class who owned property, they would want to have the right to participate in political decisions affecting their property. This is a normal political science idea. But what you're seeing in China, it se

Foreign Affairs committee  In fact, yes, that's right.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd say, first of all, in terms of our diplomacy with China, we have relations with the People's Republic of China, the government in Beijing, and we recognize all the territory that they control. There's some territory that they're not in control of, such as some offshore island

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that from the Canadian point of view we hope to have results. When I was working in the Canadian embassy in 1998, I was very optimistic about these dialogues. I thought this was great, that once the Chinese knew about democracy and human rights they would want that for

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, I think the Chinese authorities would certainly like to keep human rights in a separate compartment and away from other aspects of the relationship. It is troubling when one sees recently retired members of government engaging in business with Chinese Communist business n

Foreign Affairs committee  With regard to the dialogue, if the Chinese want to continue in this way, we could say we'll consider talking about the dialogue when you allow international observers into Tibet. Louise Arbour asked to go there and was turned down. That's one thing. We do have a strategic partn

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the latter falls into economic, social, and cultural rights with regard to the responsibility of governments to provide basic conditions for their citizens through the transfer of social resources, but I agree that it's different from civil and political rights.

Foreign Affairs committee  The Chinese government has trouble with the concept of citizenship. We would regard them as citizens of the People's Republic of China, but then when our citizen Huseyin Celil attempted to get consular protection, the Chinese government wouldn't recognize citizenship. The 55 mi

Foreign Affairs committee  They don't like to use the word “citizen”. I think that's true, but I think that certainly they would say they're “Chinese (Tibetan)”, with a bracket, or “Chinese (Mongolian)”.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure.

Foreign Affairs committee  The performance of the Tibetans in the opening ceremony, I believe, is a belittling of their culture if you only identify Tibetans as singing and dancing. I've been to Tibet and I never saw anybody singing and dancing. I saw them praying. And when the Chinese government has bee

Foreign Affairs committee  If there was a self-identification...if you asked someone of Tibetan heritage in Canada who they are, very few of them would say, “I am a Chinese”; they would say, “I'm a Tibetan Canadian”.

Foreign Affairs committee  Good day. It's nice to see you again. We just met last night.