Carney: ‘Value-based realism’ approach to international relations
Carney asked about human rights after announcing preliminary deal with China
Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking in Beijing on Friday after reaching an initial deal with China across several sectors, said Canada stands up for human rights and democracy but added that Canada engages in what he called ‘value-based realism’ and takes the ‘world as it is, not as we wish it to be.’
A major question that keeps coming up as Carney pursues a closer relationship with Xi: what about human rights?
Leading up to Carney’s meeting in China, Cheuk Kwan from the Toronto Association for Democracy in China appeared on CBC’s Power & Politics and urged the Canadian government to take a stronger stance against human rights violations in China.
“You can be private with them, but you have to be really strong,” he said. Kwan reiterated his concern for Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon with ties to the U.K. and Canada. Lai is currently being held in prison in China under solitary confinement.
Lai, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, was convicted in December of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security — a conviction many rights groups have condemned.
And while Carney and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand have called for Lai’s release, it’s cases like Lai’s that are receiving more attention as Canada gets closer to China.
On Friday, Carney confirmed human rights did come up in talks with China, but he offered few details. Instead, he outlined what he referred to as a “value-based realism” approach to his relationships with other governments.
“We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be,” Carney said, after reaffirming Canada’s commitment to human rights and democracy.
“We do engage with countries, we calibrate that engagement depending on our values and our interests, so that engagement is more narrow when there are those issues,” Carney said.