In These New Times

People’s Daily

13th October, 2010

Wednesday, October 13, is the 40th forging anniversary of Sino-Canadian diplomatic ties, which is worthy of much celebration and expectation. Bilateral relations have gone through a splendid journey with eminent successes made over the past 40 years. In fact, the history of Sino-Canadian relations has already traversed over a century.

Large numbers of Chinese immigrants to Canada first worked as laborers in the late 19th century…many on five-year contracts, to build a portion of the gigantic railroad, Canada’s first-ever transcontinental railway; it extended along the whole West Coast of the United States from Canada to Mexico. Canada opened the first investment firm in China back in 1896 and set up the first trading office a full century ago, in 1910.

On Sino-Canadian ties, people in China would never forget the heroic deeds of a Canadian-U.S. medical team led by Dr. Norman Bethune to the aid of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance to Japan (1937-45) and bushels of Canadian wheat sold to China at its three temporary, “hard years” (1959-62) to the defiance of opposition from some “Cold War warriors” from the U.S. and Europe. This is a vivid case of “win-win” outcome, noted Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon. It alleviated to some extent China’s famine then on the one hand and, on the other hand, it also helped Chinese farmers maintain their livelihoods.

What particularly worth mentioning is that Canada forged its diplomatic ties with China in 1970 on the eve of Dr. Henry Kissinger’s first trip to the nation as US presidential security adviser, and Canada unequivocally supported the restoration to its legitimate seat at the United Nations in 1971.

The relations between China and Canada not only have deep historic roots to trace but the vital, strong economic, cultural cooperative ties to be linked. The bilateral trade value had grown to 35 billion US dollars in 2008 from merely some 100 million dollars at the time of forging diplomatic ties four decades ago. To date, China is Canada’s second largest trade partner after the U.S. When the American market was sluggish in recent years, Canada’s China trade had a significant weight. So, China has become a major focus of the Canadian government’s “Asia-Pacific Gateway Program” aimed to explore into the Asian market.

Personnel exchange between the two giant nations has played a “bridging” role in the growth of bilateral ties. China has become Canada’s major source of immigration and overseas students. More than 1.3 million overseas Chinese in Canada have made an indelible contribution in all realms of Canadian society; more than 60,000 Chinese students are now at various Canadian colleges and universities to learn knowledge and new, high-techs or work on varied research projects. Last year, personnel exchanges between the two nations evolved 700,000 trips, with a per-day flow of up to 2,000 people shuttling to and fro.

Moreover, more and more tourists from China have reached Canada like “flocks of wild geese in flight” today, which adds a new thrust to Canada’s economic recovery. Full evidences have proven that any idea for blocking the growth of bilateral ties violates or goes against the fundamental interests of both nations as well as a prevailing historical trend in the contemporary world.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper came to visit China in late 2009, and President Hu Jintao made an official trip to Canada in June this year. The exchange of top-level visits has deepened bilateral strategic partnership and spurred bilateral friendly cooperation to a new phase of development. The two leaders promoted bilateral economic and trade cooperation to the higher level in a still wider realm as part of a major goal to reach 60 billion US dollars in bilateral trade in 2015. To this end, the two nations have inked a dozen cooperative documents covering trade, tourism and energy resources, which would inject a new vital impetus into the growth of bilateral relations.

As a matter of course, there is no fundamental conflict of interests or major differences between the two nations. On the contrary, the two economies are highly complementary with a broad scope for cooperation. As Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said plainly during his recent China visit: Canada is the world’s largest timber, potash and uranium producer, its oil reserves rank second next to Saudi Arabia, and its natural gas reserves are the third largest, while China is the world’s largest emerging economy with the biggest potential market and most abundant human resources.

What is equally crucial is the solid foundation of friendly sentiments among the people of both nations. To date, 44 pairs of friendly or goodwill provinces or cities have been formed. With Beijing’s firm support, a grand, two-column archway with nine floors in the Chinatown Ottawa has completed with flying colors. This gorgeous, arch-style structure is of the top specifications; it has become a new symbol of Sino-Canadian amity, and people have full reasons to expect Sino-Canadian ties to upgrade further.

By People’s Daily Online and its author is PD chief reporter residing in Canada Li Xuejiang.