Chretien's Visit to China

Dan Matza-Brown

 

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SUMMARY

On November 19, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien arrived in China. It was his third official visit to China, and the first in which he addressed the human rights issues there. He also emphasized the importance of freedom of expression when dealing with such issues. Chretien presented these ideas in a speech to students at Qinghua University in Beijing.

During the visit, Chretien and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji discussed possible ways to bolster their nations' respective economies, especially in high-tech sectors.

Canada also signed an agreement to help China with environmental and governmental reform. The agreement included improvements in farming, forestry, training for state prosecutors (legal education), and municipal development. Another agreement addressed anti-drug efforts.

While in China, Chretien also inaugurated a fast-food venture at a Beijing bus station, met with President Jiang Zemin and People's Congress Chairman Li Peng, and visited Lanzhou, one of the towns that Canada was planning to supply with clean drinking water.
 
 
 

TIMELINE

November 29, 1997 The Canadian prime minister, Jean Chretien, asks China to sign an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. China does not sign.
November 16, 1998 Sophia Leung, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway, Raymond Chan, Secretary of State for Asia Pacific, and International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi arrive in China.
November 19, 1998 Prime Minister Chretien leaves Malaysia, where he had been attending an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. He arrives in Beijing, meeting up with the Canadian delegation that got there on the 16th.
November 20, 1998 Premier Zhu Rongji announces that China's currency, the yuan, will not be devalued through 1999.
November 20, 1998 Coinciding with Chretien's visit to China, Nortel Networks signs a series of contracts with Chinese customers, valued at over US$120 million.
November 22, 1998 Chretien visits an impoverished town in Gansu, one of the six provinces to which Canada will be providing clean drinking water.
November 23, 1998 Chretien and his Canadian delegation return home.
April 15-16, 1999 Zhu Rongji visits Canada. Demonstrators fly the Tibetan flag outside Ottawa City Hall during the visit.
April 17, 1999 Zhu compares China's situation with Tibet to Canada's Quebec situation. He asks, ``If, during Prime Minister (Jean) Chretien's visit to China, we were also to fly Quebec's flag in Beijing, what would that mean?''

 
 
 

PEOPLE, PLACES, ORGANIZATIONS


Canadian Folks:
Prime Minister Jean Joseph-Jacques Chretien.  Also, "Jean Chrétien."
  (Occasionally, perhaps mistakenly, he is referred to as "Jacques Chretien;" sometimes his name is misspelled as Cretien)
Sophia Leung, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway
International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi
Raymond Chan, Secretary of State for Asia Pacific
Howard Balloch, Ambassador to China
 

Chinese Folks:
Premier Zhu Rongji
President Jiang Zemin
Li Peng, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
 
 

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), comprised of Canada, the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong.
 

Qinghua University, in Beijing. Also, "Tsinghua University"
Lanzhou, in the Gansu Province