[canada and china] the humiliation worsens

Brian Laghy reports, in Thursday's Globe and Mail:

The Dalai Lama arrived on Canadian soil yesterday to the protests of Chinese diplomats upset that the religious leader will meet with a Conservative MP while they continue to wait for a formal one-on-one meeting with Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister. Officials with the Chinese embassy confirmed yesterday that Chinese ambassador to Canada Lu Shumin has yet to formally meet with Peter MacKay, a get-together that would typically happen almost as a matter of course, according to diplomatic experts.

The lack of a meeting, along with Jason Kenney's scheduled discussion with the Dalai Lama in Vancouver tomorrow, led experts, politicians and business people to express concern about what they believe is a changing government view of the new economic colossus. "An accumulation of slights is going to be damaging to the long-term relationship," said Fen Hampson, head of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. Prof. Hampson said not meeting with the ambassador may be perceived by the Chinese as a snub.

Many members of the government caucus, including Mr. Kenney, have also been critical of China's human rights policy. It has led to some experts expressing concern of trade retaliation on the part of the Chinese. Mr. Hampson said it's not in Canada's interest to ignore China or to take the Taiwanese side. "China and India are the two most dynamic and important economies in the developing world and it is in Canada's interest to be an investment player in China.

Meanwhile in Vancouver yesterday the Dalai Lama laughed off complaints from Chinese diplomats in Canada over his plans to meet elected officials here. "It seems whenever I travel somewhere, it always creates some inconvenience," he told a news conference. So, I am very sorry. But hopefully, it is not my mistake."

I say to hell with the Chinese. Canada is just as much a sovereign nation as China and it was treated shamefully earlier in Beijing, as some sort of errant schoolboy. Canada must not cravenly kowtow to Beijing in the manner in which the west is cravenly kowtowing to the Arabs.