中评社香港11月1日电／加拿大《环球邮报》10月31日载文《加拿大应该按下加中关系的重启键》，摘要如下：
在加拿大与中国关系问题上，民间社会与哈珀政府之间的差距前所未有的大。
哈珀政府似乎不明白中国的重要性。总理哈珀没有去过那里，中国也没有派过很高级的官员到加拿大。但是，一群省长组成的联邦理事会（Council of the Federation）本周已经前往中国。
在与中国关系方面，省长还走在联邦政府之前，真是令人难过。哈珀政府缺乏外交人才是一回事，但政府让省长去设计与另一个国家的关系（尤其是一个像中国这样重要的国家）则是另一回事。
10月27日，加拿大国际理事会授予中国著名官员成思危“年度全球主义者”奖。该理事会是Research in Motion公司合作创始人贝尔斯利（Jim Balsillie）创立的。贝尔斯利明白加深加拿大对世界的理解的重要性。贝尔斯利在财政部长费海提（Jim Flaherty）出席的筹款宴会上表示：“我们需要按下加中关系的重启键。”听众鼓掌表示同意。
哈珀在竞选中表示他可能会访问中国。他的一些部长已经到过那里，但是那位似乎明白中国重要性的外交事务部长爱默生（David Emerson）没有寻求连任。
哈珀没有出席北京奥运开幕式。当时加拿大的外交事务部副部长去了北京，但中国的政要是不会看到他的。
在商界和学术界，人人都明白你不必喜欢中国的政权，但你必须和这个新兴的经济超级大国打交道。11月15日，包括中国在内的20国领导人将聚首华盛顿讨论全球经济危机。保尔?马丁（Paul Martin）当政时的加拿大曾努力推动G20，但遭到欧美的嘲笑。
如今欧美接受了这个想法，因为要讨论重大问题显然不能把中国和其他有着重要经济影响力的大玩家排除在外。
哈珀政府刚开始时完全没有外交政策经验，不知道怎样接触中国。在筹款宴会上再次听到白求恩在中国的故事真是令人感动。但如果加拿大最多只能通过回忆白求恩来联系当今中国，那就可以推断出我们当今的疏忽。
贝尔斯利说得好：按下“重启键”。
Ottawa should hit the restart button on relations with China
JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
E-mail Jeffrey Simpson
October 29, 2008 at 3:25 AM EDT
TORONTO — The gap between civil society and the Harper government over Canada’s relations with China yawns wider than ever.
The Harper government can’t seem to understand China’s importance. The Prime Minister hasn’t been there, nor have the Chinese sent a very high official to Canada. Instead, a group of premiers who form part of the Council of the Federation are heading to China this week to join Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is already there.
It’s a sad commentary when normally parochial premiers are in front of the federal government in working on relations with China. It’s one thing for the Harper government to be so bereft of talent in foreign affairs that no obvious candidate for that portfolio exists; it’s another thing for the government to let premiers frame relations with another country, especially one as important as China. If this is the Harper government’s idea of “open federalism,” kill it now before it spreads.
Monday night, a sampling of civic society in the form of about 500 people gathered in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum for a fundraising dinner organized by the Canadian International Council (CIC). The dinner followed a two-day conference about China and was capped by the award of Globalist of the Year to a distinguished Chinese official, Cheng Siwei. The council is the brainchild of Research in Motion’s brilliant co-founder Jim Balsillie, who understands the importance of deepening Canada’s understanding of the world. Mr. Balsillie has helped finance the new council and the excellent Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont.
Mr. Balsillie laid it on the line, with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty seated at the head table: “We need to hit the restart button on Canada-Chinese relations.” The audience agreed, applauding Mr. Balsillie’s observation.
Mr. Harper said late in the election campaign that, yes, maybe he would like to visit China. A few of his ministers have been there, but the one who seemed to understand China’s importance, foreign affairs minister David Emerson, did not seek re-election. (In fairness, the government has opened new trade-promotion offices in China.)
During the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics in Beijing, Mr. Harper’s absence was noted on Chinese television. When Canada’s deputy minister of foreign affairs went to Beijing, nobody of importance in the Chinese hierarchy would see him.
It seems obvious to just about everybody in the business and academic worlds that you don’t have to like China’s regime, or admire its human rights record, but you do have to deal seriously with the emerging economic superpower. A Canadian-inspired idea will make this evident Nov. 15 in Washington when leaders of 20 countries, including China, gather to discuss the global economic crisis. Canada, under prime minister Paul Martin, pushed hard for a G20, but the idea was predictably pooh-poohed by the big European countries and the U.S.
They have now accepted the idea, because it’s obvious that China and other major players cannot be excluded from debating major questions, given their economic clout. In China’s case, it is the principal foreign banker to the over-
consuming, indebted and underproducing Americans.
The Harper government, completely inexperienced in foreign policy upon arriving in office, had no idea how to engage China, except by focusing on a few high-profile human-rights cases. The government seemed to believe that Canada mattered a lot to China whereas, in fact, Canada does not.
It was all very touching at the Toronto dinner to hear yet again about Norman Bethune and his medical work in China during the Maoist revolution. But if the memory of Dr. Bethune is the best Canada can do by way of linking itself to today’s China, that fading link inferentially tells a story of today’s neglect.
The Harper government made one of those partisan assumptions that because the previous Liberal government had “done” China, it would “do” India, a classic case of refusing to give a preceding government credit for doing something right.
Alas, the Harper government hasn’t done India very well. What’s happened, therefore, is that relations with India have not gone far, while those with China have gone backward.
Mr. Balsillie said it best: Push the “restart button.”
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