What can Stephen Harper do to curb human rights abuses in China?

Stephen Harper, Barack Obama and the leaders of all the Asian Pacific countries, are being urged to make China’s human rights record a focus at next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Beijing.

Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International deride the state-party’s censoring of media, alleged unlawful imprisonment of democracy activists and religious leaders and the crackdown against China’s so-called ethnic minorities, including Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongolians.

For the west, engagement with the Communist Party of China has always been a delicate balancing act — western politicians have had to weigh the access to a market of 1.4 billion people versus speaking out against human rights abuses that they and their domestic populations clearly deplore.

In recent years, however, the west has seemingly tilted towards the pursuit of economic and commercial interests.

At least that’s the way it’s been Canada.

In 2006, Harper was lauded by many progressives when he openly criticized the Chinese administration ahead of that year’s APEC summit.

“I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that, but I don’t think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values,” Harper said.

They don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar.”

Whether or not he’s now selling out to the almighty dollar now, Harper has certainly been more muted with his public criticism of China.

[ Related: Canada businesses impatient for China growth as Harper promotes trade ties ]

There are many, however, who want to see Harper revert to his 2006-self — they want Canada to be more vocal.

Former Liberal MP David Kilgour is one of those people who falls into that category.

In 2006, Kilgour co-wrote a report entitled “Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China” where he alleges that thousands of practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline have been viciously persecuted across China for the past 15 years.

"The persecution includes brainwashing, forced labour camps, prison, torture, and organ pillaging/trafficking," Kilgour said in a recent speech.

In an email exchange with Yahoo Canada News on Thursday, he said that he’d like the Falun Gong to be a discussion point in the meeting between Harper and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday.

"He should do it in private with Xi, stressing that no knowledgeable person with a conscience anywhere can have respect for a government that kills its own people for their vital organs. It must stop immediately," said Kilgour.

"It should be made clear that it would be inconsistent with Canadian values to have deeper economic relations with China until organ pillaging/trafficking ends."

China has denied the “organ pillaging” allegations.

[ Related: Canada’s Harper, in China, under pressure from all sides ]

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch suggests a similar “conditional” approach.

Sophie Richardson, the group’s China director, says that they’re not discouraging countries to trade with China but suggest that countries like Canada engage in more “holistic” way.

"We are at a point in time, where not engaging is not realistic. It’s a question of…whether governments like Canada are really leveraging the things available to them," she told Yahoo Canada News adding that there have been times in the recent past where Canada has “pulled its punches.”

"I think it is fair to suggest, for example, it’s an effective strategy to say, yes we can deepen our discussion about economic cooperation but first you need to release the activists who were campaigning this year against corruption."

Richardson adds that the Canadian public ought to push this issue to the forefront because, as trade with China increases, Canadians are impacted by the quality and safety of products manufactured in China.

"Public health problems or product safety problems in China are, in part, a function of a free press to report on these types of problems. And this can affect people in Canada," she said.

"The greater integration there is with the China the more global the concern should be about human rights abuses in that country. Because the [impacts] don’t stay within China’s borders."

York University professor Dr. Les Jacobs agrees that Canada should be doing more but suggests another tactic instead of tying human rights to trade.

In 2011, he was part of a Canadian delegation which led a “human rights dialogue” with Chinese officials. He’d like to reconvene those.

"The dialogue was the first since 2006 but the federal government has not convened any human rights dialogues between Canada and China since then," he told Yahoo Canada News.

In contrast, Australia and China have continued their ‘dialogues’ on an annual basis.

"The Dialogue allows both governments to engage in a frank and constructive exchange of views at a senior level on human rights issues, including progress on human rights technical cooperation," an Australian government press release announcing the 2014 discussions noted.

"As per previous practice, the Australian delegation raised a range of ongoing human rights concerns in China, including freedom of expression, assembly and religion; the treatment of political activists; press freedoms; use of the death penalty; as well as Tibet and Xinjiang."

As for the Harper government, an official at the prime minister’s office told Yahoo that, as in the past, Harper will engage in ”open and frank” discussions with Chinese officials about human rights.

But is that enough?

What do you think? Should Canada be doing more to combat human rights abuses in China?

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.