Editing Jean Chrétien (section)

==== China ====

Chrétien was known to be a [[Sinophile]] and an admirer of the [[China|People's Republic of China]]. In November 1994, he led the first of four [[Team Canada Mission|"Team Canada"]] trade missions comprising himself and nine premiers to China (Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau having declined to go), which had as their stated objective increasing Sino-Canadian trade. The Team Canada mission was meant to be the beginning of the export offensive that would stimulate the economy out of the recession, and also to achieve Chrétien's goal going back to the 1970s of a Canadian economy less dependent on trade with the United States.<ref>Jeffrey, Brooke ''Divided Loyalties'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010 pp. 246 & 251.</ref><ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 93.</ref> Under his leadership, China and Canada signed several bilateral relations agreements. The Team Canada missions attracted criticism that Chrétien seemed concerned only with economic issues, that he rarely raised the subject of China's poor human rights record, and that on the few occasions that he did mention [[human rights in China]] he went out of his way to avoid offending his hosts.<ref name="Evertt-p9-48">Evertt, Robert "The Federal Government, Politics and National Institutions" pp. 9–48 from ''Canadian Annual Review of Politics And Public Affairs, 2001'' edited by David Mutimer, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007 p. 37.</ref> Moreover, Chrétien attracted criticism for presenting the case for improved human rights in purely economic terms, arguing that a better human rights record would allow China to join the WTO and thus sell more goods to the West. Chrétien argued that there was no point in criticizing China's human rights record because the Chinese never listened to such criticism, and instead were greatly annoyed about being lectured by Western leaders about their poor human rights record.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 310">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 310.</ref> Given that Canada could not really do anything to change the views of China's leaders about human rights, Chrétien contended that the best that could be done was to improve Sino-Canadian economic relations while ignoring the subject of human rights.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 310"/>