Human Rights Improving In China?

In the Globe and Mail this morning there was a short article about how our foreign minister Lawrence Cannon said that China “has made progress” on human rights.

Cannon does tell the G & M what that progress is, on what he thinks China has improved or on what time frame he is basing this statement because if you read the Amnesty International report for China 2007 and 2008, there are no marked improvements.

Cannon also said: “You're much better working on the inside with the Chinese leadership to get things done, than to be outside and criticizing.” Which I might be inclined to agree with, being inside and having a dialogue beats the heck out of throwing rocks at the from Vancouver Island and hope they reach Beijing.

We must all remember that when Stephen Harper was asked about China he had said "I don’t think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values. They don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar."

The bottom line is going to have to be whether we prefer China's money and influence or we prefer to hold on to our Canadian values.

Muchacho Enfermo